Sunday, October 11, 2009

Duccio Tessari on the creation of HERCULES

Duccio Tessari : "The seam of the Hercules and Maciste movies was invented by Ennio De Concini. He had the idea for the first HERCULES, and the genre was born. It was given life by (Pietro) Francisci. Francisci had made many of the films of this type in the '50's, like LA REGINA DI SABA (THE QUEEN OF SHEBA), that already had many of these fantastic elements. They came on the shoulders of LA CORONA DI FERRO (THE IRON CROWN), ULISSE (ULYSSES). I believe that the boom of these films is due also to how it was in Italy during those years, with all these changes, and these urban peasants, disorientated people...
"They were films that went very well also in the Third World. Francisci had been thinking about using Mister Muscle (Steve Reeves), but as a Hercules with realistic limitations of strength. De Concini instead had the stroke of genius to make a Hercules beyond all the limits, a Hercules that, if he launched a disc, this disc truly became a flying disc that never stopped."

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