Hercules in the Haunted World (1961)

Original title: Ercole al Centro della Terra

Peplum. Italy. Starring Reg Park, Christopher Lee, Leonora Ruffo, George Ardisson, Ida Galli, Rosalba Neri & Raf Baldassarre. Directed by Mario Bava & Franco Prosperi.

EVC (Holland). English dubbed. Letterboxed (slightly). By adjusting your TV settings you could get a pretty good widescreen.

Wonderful, trippy gothic-peplum! Bava demonstrates again his ability to create gold from nothing - this low budget film looks like a mega-budget epic and is hands down THE most visually imaginative peplas around. According to me and many others this is about as good as the genre gets! 5/5

Hercules in the Haunted World (1961)

Original title: Ercole al Centro della Terra

Peplum. Italy. Starring Reg Park, Christopher Lee, Leonora Ruffo, George Ardisson, Ida Galli, Rosalba Neri & Raf Baldassarre. Directed by Mario Bava & Franco Prosperi.

DVD: Fantoma (USA). English dubbed. Widescreen. Excellent quality!

Wonderful, trippy gothic-peplum! Bava demonstrates again his ability to create gold from nothing - this low budget film looks like a mega-budget epic and is hands down THE most visually imaginative peplas around. According to me and many others this is about as good as the genre gets! 5/5

Hercules the Avenger (1965)

Original title: La Sfida dei Giganti

Peplum. Italy. Starring Reg Park, Gia Sandri & Giovanni Cianfriglia. Directed by Maurizio Lucidi.

DVD: Retromedia (USA). English dubbed. Widescreen. Pretty good quality.

Veeery bad stuff here! The best scenes from Hercules in the Haunted World and Hercules Conquers Atlantis (all starring Park) are edited together with some newly and very cheaply shot scenes. As you might have figured it makes little sense. I guess Park decided to squeeze out the last bucks from his italian visit before returning to the states to pursue his professional bodybuilder career... good timing too, as the Cinecittà peplum boom was pretty much over by 1965 and the producers quickly moved on to westerns and spy films. 2/5

Hercules Conquers Atlantis (1961)

Original title: Ercole alla Conquista di Atlantide

Peplum. Italy/France. Starring Reg Park, Fay Spain, Ettore Manni, Luciano Marin & Mario Petri. Directed by Vittorio Cottafavi.

Videoform (UK). English dubbed. Widescreen. Excellent print - I haven't seen the Retromedia DVD but considering their track record I would guess that this video snuffs it!

Considered by me and many others as one of the most accomplished, visually imaginative and entertaining peplas out there. Reg Park is the perfect Hercules, it's a shame he only starred in a handful of films. 4/5