Movie: (1961) Hercules goes to Atlantis to save his son, but evil Queen Antinea stands in his way.
First shown: 9/12/92
Opening: Gypsy wants to join Joel, Tom and Crow in the theater and Joel agrees, though Tom and Crow are dubious
Invention exchange: Frank demonstrates The lawn baby, J&tB show off the womb-mate
Host segment 1: Joel wonders: is there such a thing as “good-natured” brawling
Host segment 2: Crow presents his rather dubious “history” of Hercules
Host segment 3: The bots’ have created a Hercules action figure, and it’s pretty lame
End: Laying the Hercules movies to rest, Joel reads letter, Frank is being chased by mower
Stinger: “Hercules! Help me!”
(170 votes, average: 4.21 out of 5)
Loading...
• This is one of the lesser sword-and-sandal outings. Confusing movie, hit and miss riffing, pretty good segments. Of course, this one includes the classic line: “Today is dedicated to Uranus,” and is the landmark episode in which Gypsy watches a short portion of the movie along with Joel, Tom and Crow. All in all, fun, but a lesser effort.
• This episode was included in Shout! Factory’s “Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: Vol XXIX.”
• Joel’s confidence in Gypsy is admirable, but let’s note for the record that, sadly, Crow and Tom’s instincts were correct. Gypsy is not down with the street.
• Joel says “Zatharatu.” I’ve always heard it was “Zarathustra.” Did he mean it or is Joel using some obscure alternate name?
• Despite all the hoopla to the contrary, this is NOT the last Hercules movie.
• As Tom sagely notes: “This would really be exciting if I knew what was goin’ on.” All the excitement about Gypsy in the theater takes place when the movie is setting up the plot, with the result that I never did really figure out what the heck is going on in this movie.
• I suspect a hunk of the movie was cut right around the first commercial. Before the commercial, there are portents of danger and Herc is tossin’ thrones around. After the break, Herc wakes up on a ship and everybody is smirking silently at him. The heck?
• Does this story resemble any actual ancient tale? Was there ever a King Androcles (with or without a lion)?
• All these movies have men in miniskirts, but this one has to have the miniest minis I’ve seen yet (shudder).
• Gypsy’s riff: “They’re steam-cleaning the horses!” delights Joel, Tom and Crow. Eh, not bad. But of her few riffs, I actually like “Oh, they’ve got a fun friend!” better.
• By my count, Gypsy lasts 5 and a half minutes. Sheesh, Gypsy, these sword-and-sandal things are among the more watchable movies MST did! What a lightweight!
• Gypsy exits left. A few other characters have exited or entered this way. Where does that exit lead? And how do they eat and breathe?
• Firesign Theatre reference: “…The Golden Hind.”
• I never noticed before that, a couple of times, they do a needle drop on that musical sting that I think was originally composed for “This Island Earth” and that I’ve heard in a lot of Universal movies.
• Crow goes a bit overboard with the “I have my rights! It was Callahan!” bit. (For those who don’t know, it’s a reference to the movie “Dirty Harry.”) He does it five times by my count, practically every time the little guy in the movie has a line.
• Callback: ”Hurry, Diana!” (Undersea Kingdom), Frank sings “I sing whenever I sing…” (Giant Gila Monster), “Rock Candy Baby” (Daddy-O), “…I’ve heard them talk about so much lately…” (Gamera).
• That’s Frank as the voice of the action figure when he says “I’m so sleepy…” but the final comment is by Mike. Wonder why they didn’t just have one of them do all the comments? By the way, the action figure’s arm falls off in the middle of the sketch. Joel conceals pretty well and they keep going.
• CreditsWatch: Nathan Devery finished up his internship with this episode. “Ammendment” is still misspelled.
• Cast and crew roundup: The editor of the American version was Hugo Grimaldi, who also worked on “The Phantom Planet,” “First Spaceship on Venus” and “The Human Duplicators.” Gordon Zahler composed the score on the American version, as he did with “The Phantom Planet,” “First Spaceship on Venus,” “The Human Duplicators” and “Women of the Prehistoric Planet.” In front of the camera, Ivo Garrani also appeared in “Hercules” and Mimmo Palmara also appeared in “Hercules Unchained” and “Hercules.” Narrator Leon Selznick can also be heard in “The Phantom Planet.”
• Fave riff: “Dear lord, the canary exploded!” Honorable mention: Tom: “You guys are supposed to be nice to me! Today is dedicated to my…” Joel: “We know!” Also: “Well, whatever tugs at your bobber, little fella.”
) to help our users cope with "trolls" and other commenters whom they find annoying. Go to our
I’ve never been a fan of the Hercules/Colossus movies. Other than being colorful, they are some of the deadliest episodes. To me they seem to be the same plot over and over. I don’t think I laughed once during “Colossus against the Headhunters”(although the Nummy-Muffin-Coocoo Butter thing was pretty good). Not among my favorites at all. :cry:
Interesting this movie uncut is longer than MST3K. In between the host segments where Herc is sleeping & suddenly is on a raft there is a good 5-10 minutes of story. This movie runs about 96 minutes or so. Its not all that bad, in fact its pretty entertaining in a low budget sense. Psychotronic movie guide writer Michael Weldon seems to like it. It has a cult status.
I did like the good natured brawling. This movie has the Creature from the Black Lagoon stock music (obviously not in the Italian cut of the movie) which can also be found in King Kong vs Godzilla (& you thought Godzilla was the only movies being butchered LOL) :mrgreen:
I would agree that the sword and sandal experiments weren’t my favorite, though they did have their moments. I recall enjoying watching Herc’s inch-thick layer of greasepaint/self-tanner rub off at inopportune moments. In ‘Herc Against the Moon Men,’ the close up of the spear tip as it practically starts writing on his skin is classic, though the laughs aren’t actually the consequence of any MST treatment.
A similar but FAR more successful genre for me would have o me the medieval flicks, if only for the ample opportunities they provide for “Huzzah!”s and references to leather mugs. Tee hee.
Another solid sword-and-sandal entry, these are fun movies with and without the MST3K treatment. I really liked the gag with Gypsy trying to watch the movie, then bailing out in 5 minutes. Hilarious stuff. “Steam cleaning the horses” was a funny riff, especially using the Gypsy voice to deliver it.
This movie had monsters, pretty girls and lots of action, plus the “this day is dedicated to Uranus” line. It’s full of Italian psychotronic fun and MST3K goodness.
By the way, shamefully, both Michael Weldon’s Pschotronic Film Guide and his Psychotronic Video Guide are out of print. I’m very happy I grabbed a copy of each the first time I saw them. Terrific books for fans of odd, cult, and other unusual movies.
Not untill “Outlaw” would MST see a film so rife with buffalo shots…some of my favorite stuff from J&TB in this movie was when Herc was escaping with useless son in tow…”You wanna help? Go set the table for your mother.”
My best memories of this episode: when Gypsy is in the theater (if only briefly), and the “good-natured brawling” skit. (Yes, there really is such a thing as good-natured brawling.)
He wasn’t a king, but the story of Androcles and the lion crops up in high school Latin exams all the time: escaped slave Androcles helps the lion by removing a thorn from its paw, and years later in the Circus Maximus it reciprocates by not eating him. Other than that, none of these movies bear much resemblance to any actual myths, so far as I recall.
Classics degree = useful?? :shock:
This story doesn’t have much to do with “actual” mythology, though. One of Herc’s sons (he had a few hundred, I believe) was named Hyllus. Several heroes had to wrestle Proteus the shapechanger, but not Hercules.
I loved how when the city of Atlantis appears on the horizon from behind the clouds, Joel and the bots sing “The Simpsons” before humming the first few bars of said TV show’s theme song lol. I bet Matt Groening loved all the Simpsons jokes.
Hercules and the Captive Women one of my least favorite sword-and-sandal episodes (probably because it makes no sense) but still quite watchable.
It’s also one of the most mistitled. Where are all the captive women? They’ve got scrawny, diseased captive men all over the place, but all we’ve got in the female department is the only occasionally captive sacrificial princess.
Also, with so many possible shapes to choose from, why would Proteus choose to wrestle Herc in the form of a wild turkey?
This movie is supposedly based on a famous Italian novel of some repute. The book was not based on myth – it was historical fiction. The movie allegedly follows the book quite well.
Personally, this is my favorite Hercules film, and one of my favorite episodes overall. I’m just that kind of person.
I remember loving this episode, nut haven’t seen it since it was on cable. I must get a copy one day!
This episode was tremendous fun when I first saw it (Reg Parks massive thighs not withstanding), and remains an all-time favorite to this day.
I think going into these films with the right mindset helps. Knowing right away that they have an almost stream of consciousness flow to them is the best way to ride the wave of oddity.
The ongoing riff about Uranus, the exploding canary, sudden jumps in logic and the time/space continuum. All golden, as far as I’m concerned.
This is a rare season 4 clunker for me, the least fav of the sand-and-sword movies they did. I think it’s the combination of Reg Park’s uninspiried turn of playing Herc, and the confusing storyline, it doesn’t give the same fodder for J&TB to riff on. I will say that Gypsy’s short time in the theater is entertaining, and the “Today is dedicated to Uranus” line is one of the best lines pulled from a movie ever. Like Paul Chaplin mentioned in the ACEG, it is so innocent.
Again, the host segments are great, especially the “Good-natured brawlin'” bit. At this point in the show’s history, they usually had great host segments anyway, regardless of how unwatchable the movie itself was. I always thought it went from being the weakness in the beginning of the show (KTMA & seasons 1 & 2) to a major strength by season 3.
Is it me, or does Reg park’s Hercules sleep even MORE than the others portrayed by Steve Reeves and Alan Steel? Why was this such a popular subplot detail in these movies?
I also found interesting, in the interest of show continuity, that they had a “funeral” for the end of all Hercules movies shown, only to do the original “Hercules” in season 5. I know it’s a small, meaningless point, but that always confused me whenever I watch this episode over again.
All of the Hercules films are in my favorites list. They all just seem to turn into romps through the joke book since their plots have a slight problem actually being coherent. The “Good Natured Brawling” segment is one of my favorites too. I love at the end when Crow starts vamping on Muhammad Ali with his “I want Joe Frazier!” line.
Hey, remember when the action figure from segment 3 mentioned “We’ll be right back after this word from Jolly Rancher.”? Well, in the original run of this ep, there really was an ad for Jolly Rancher after the segment. Also, Jolly Rancher was mentioned in “Teenagers from Outer Space.” Do you think there is some sort of connection?
This part of season four was starting to get a season three feel. Here we were alternating an Italian Hercules/Colossus/Samson/etc… film (instead of a Japanese film) with a domestic film. I wish this pattern had lasted a bit longer. I liked it in season three.
I can’t tell you how excited I was the first time I saw this episode. I was just salivating at the thought of Gypsy in the theater. I was expecting some pretty big things. It was a disappointment. Later on Crow’s dark specter Timmy would give me what I was fleetingly hoping this episode would give.
Frank’s invention seemed like a winner to me. I find I just can’t multitask enough and his invention has that potential. So what if it has a couple kinks to work out? But I do have one question. Just how much lawn is there to mow when you are hiding in Deep 13? Oh it’s just a show? I should really just relax? Okay.
Tom has good taste in music. Nothing wrong with a little Hair of the Dog.
No doubt about it in my mind. Reg Park is easily the most pathetic Hercules/Colossus/Samson/etc…
The good nature brawling host segment was fun. Crow’s out of joint lower jaw is great. In fact all the battle damage is fun. But the best part is the reaction of the Mads. I just love their stare and then celebration that they have finally broken Joel.
Crow’s factually challenged lecture on Hercules reminds me a lot of the kind of report that was very common of Bill Corbet’s Crow from the Sci Fi years.
How come Gamera didn’t get a final episode party the way Herc did?
Favorite Riffs:
Joel “In fact apparel is half off this week.”
Midget sitting. Crow “I’m almost done, hey bring me a magazine.”
Tom “Wake me up when you get to the plot point okay?”
The midget wakes someone up. Crow “I went home with you?”
Crow “the lepers are revolting.” Tom “I’ll say”
During the chariot chase: Joel “This looks like a Lower Wacker Drive chase scene doesn’t it?” [I’m a big Blues Brothers fan so I loved this one!]
Joel “Hey stop making Uranus cracks okay?”
i don’t know that hearing the intro of the movie would have helped. in fact i don’t think seeing the whole unedited version would have helped to understand this one. there’s just too many questions.. why a midget? why did Herc get his son out of art school for this adventure? was he hoping he’d finally get interested in girls by riding around in a ship full of Greek men? who were all those guys at the beginning when Herc was throwing around the throne? what was the danger, Leon Russell as a shapechanger or the magic rock that explodes if you expose it to light? and while i’m sure it’s nice why did the Greeks dedicate a day to your anu…well you know.
The blood of… Uhg!
Looks like I’ve got some raking to do
Just finished watching this one. Probably the 30th time I’ve seen it, and I still couldn’t tell you what it’s about. I do like it though. Gypsy in the theater is the best part. After that, I always blank out. It’s one of those episodes that keeps giving for me, since every time I watch it I notice different things.
Dan in WI #17: How come Gamera didn’t get a final episode party the way Herc did?
I would think that the root beer kegger at the beginning of Gamera Vs. Zigra would count as such.
I’ve tried to watch this one twice in in the last week but I get so sleepy I can hardly keep awake.
A good episode but the movie has no real plot it’s just a bunch of scenes glued together, it loses me 20 minutes in.
I kind of pride myself on the fact that I can usually tease the plot out of even the most incomprehensible MST3K outing. “Mighty Jack”? Got it. “Castle of Fu Manchu”? No problem. THIS thing? I have no idea. For the first time ever when Servo comments that he wishes he knew what was going on I was right there with him.
I actually kind of get the beginning — there are rumors of new enemeies out there which might threaten Greece. All the various kingdoms get together and King Androcles is chosen (or volunteers, I’m not sure) to take a group of men to go investigate. Got it.
From there though we end up on an island — and what was with those guys slitting the water skins? Why? What purpose did it serve? And who are those guys who kidnap Androcles on the island? And where do they take him? And we last see Herc lounging on the beach working on his tan then, suddenly, he’s lying on a bit of ship debris floating in the ocean. How did he get on a ship? What happened to the ship? What was with that vision he had?
And once we get to Atlantis things get even more confusing. What was with that “magic stone”? Were the queen’s super-strong legion supposed to be the children the stone changed? How? Why? Why do they all look alike? What was with Herc seeing Androcles but then it not turning out to be Androcles and then… it really was Androcles?!?!
Ack!!!!
The riffing was okay but since I’m one of the people who needs a plot thread from the movie to follow I found myself too distracted to get into the riffing. I kept trying to figure out what was going on in the movie.
Out of the Sword and Sandal movies we’ve seen so far this one was the most incomprehensible. And weird.
Sitting Duck #20> I guess that root beer kegger would count. So my memory is bad and obviously I didn’t check the episode guide when making my rambling musing notes.
Great memory: my sister visiting and bringing tapes of a cable show she thought I would like. I literally fell on the floor laughing at “Lord, the canary exploded!” I still don’t know why that I find that line so funny, but it made a life time fan out of me. Second best line ever to “sit back and relax.”
Reg Park beats all the others in the muscle mass department; pretty impressive. That said, it’s fascinating how little acting is going on, even when he’s on a close-up. He just kind of looks at things, no reaction. The stinger is wonderful; Reg as Herc is emoting some horror, or bemused resignation, or he’s just opening his eyes slightly wider than normal. And thank you, Stressfactor (22), I thought I understood this movie until you brought up those points. Something to do with Atlantis and freeing some slave/sacrifices.
in the “annoying dubbed voice” dept, Herc’s little friend is a match for Roxa or any of those Japanese kids from Godzilla/Gamera. I guess that’s why Crow feels the need to yell his Andy Robinson impersonation EVRY TIME the character speaks (“I have my rights! It was Callahan!”) Although it does provide some satisfaction picturing the character being shot in the leg and tortured by Dirty Harry like in the movie.
I like this episode a lot. The intro maybe/maybe not have helped but a huge chunk of the movie was edited out where Hercules is sleeping , and then floating on a raft. The film time runs 96 minutes while the show runs about 94 minus commercials.
Retromedia did release this on DVD and if youre curious enough to give it a try go for it. It is uncut and widescreen. Does it make the film better ? You decide. I like it :)
Reg Park was Hercules again in Hercules Prisoner of Evil as well.
This wasnt the last of the Hercules movies, not only did MST3K do Hercules in episode 502 , but the Italian Hercules series continued onward and had tons of spinoffs *Colossus & The Headhunters* the Sons of Hercules films, Sinster Cinema has a whole Sword and Sorcery section in their catalog ..most of them are all about the same quality
After this episode (the halfway point) the show changed the direction/the feel of the show altered a bit with 5 black and white films in a row and some of the worst films they really ever did as we are on the pathway to Manos, the Hands of Fate
Joels Hair
Joels Knees
Too many cracks about Uranus
Oh Zeus please hand me some God Like Therapy
Yeah, the plot’s confusing, but I kind of like this one. One of my favorite riffs is when the guards are hammering on the door to get to Herc, and Tom shouts out, “WILMA!!!”
You know, has Herc ever thought of, say, getting the innocent bystanders out of harm’s way before destroying a villain’s stronghold?
I remembered absolutely nothing about this episode from watching it 20 years ago so I thought I’d take the week off. Sounds like this was one of the few weak entries from season 4, see you all next week for Rocky Jones, I remember liking those.
my family actually has this movie in uncut fome, and BELIEVE ME The mst guys did cut out a bunch of stuff at the begining. The first time we watched it, I was the only one who had seen the mst version, and I kept saying “Whoa, this explains a lot! Now everything makes sense.” All the Hercules films in mst do have plots, you just need to see the films unriffed first and they will make a lot more sense then.
I love this episode. And I drive my wife crazy replaying the “dedicated to Uranus” lines. I also enjoy the fact that the guy who plays Herc in this movie bears a striking resemblance to hockey player Joe Thornton, and Fay Spain, who plays the Queen, also played Hyman Roth’s wife in Godfather 2. She served a mean Tuna sandwich!
This is actually my favorite of the Season 4 Hercules movies. Weird, I know. Maybe it was the cumulative effect of watching them in order. Maybe it’s the fact that Hercules actually does something in this movie.
I used to not like the sword and sandals ficks a first, but now I love em’. Today is dedicated to …we all know how it goes…..:silly:
Gypsy in the theater was pretty mind-blowingly epic at the time, if I remember correctly. I always liked those kind of “what if?” type scenarios. Other than that, I don’t remember too much from this episode besides “good natured brawling”.
I’ve always like the Hercules movies, and this one is my favourite. Goofy riffs, the Herc action figure, and of course, URANUS!!
I love Crow’s erronious history reports and the transition to video ones in the Sci-Fi era (Women, the War Civil) seem to hold the same spirit as Trace’s.
I’ve always wondered why not just have one less host segment as opposed to cutting big chunks of the movie? Seems like an easy solution to me.
A host segment was only like 3 minutes so I don’t think it would make that much of a difference. Besides, I think that last segment before the final half hour of the experiment was necessary especially during the really, really bad movies. And, most importantly, that’s the way it was always done so you can’t change it.
Yay, Rocky Jones is next week!
I suppose “Gypsy in the theatre” is one of the things that makes this episode stand out to me, but seeing her looming above the seats does sort of suggest why that particular puppet wound up with a character counterpointing the two wisecracking ones. As was pointed out, though, her “guest appearance” just might add to the sense of “incomprehensibility” pervading the movie by overshadowing the attempts at setup. As things push on, the episode does seem to get funnier to me.
Seems we’re in a Season 4 slump, this is another good-but-not-great episode, the movie is the worst of the Herc bunch, the Host Segments are ho-hum, and the riffing doesn’t quite cut it, except of course for the whole “Uranus” section of the film.
Really, this one is only notable for Gypsy’s appearance in the theater, which really wasn’t that inspired. I prefer Gyps during Host Segments and the like.
HERC AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN is easily my least favorite episode of the first half of Season 4; it unseats my previous least fave, CITY LIMITS. There’s a stretch of episodes coming up that I’m not terribly familiar with/don’t remember that well, looking forward to (re)evaluating those.
RIFFS AND THINGS:
Joel: “Oh they’re bathing together, that’s weird.”
Joel: “We weren’t supposed to take the brown acid!”
Gypsy: “I don’t get it.”
Servo: “Neither do we, Gypsy.”
Crow: “Now, it’s garbage.”
Joel: “Man Dance, ’92.”
Joel: “Leon Russell!”
Crow: “Kitty!”
Servo: “Jim Henson’s Ghandi Babies.”
-There are multiple Plant of the Apes references throughout this one.-
Joel: “You smell great, Karl.”
Movie: “I was the last high priest dedicated to Uranus.”
Servo: “You’re gonna wear longer skirts from now on.”
Joel: “Uranus was a good cop!”
This time out, HERC gets a shiny, sweaty, sleepy 3/5.
I also love this episode. It helps that I actually really liked the original movie (and, yes, I’m old enough to have seen it in the theaters, and then many times on the local television stations long before MST3K ever existed). Since the movie itself was a favorite (albeit, remembered far more fondly than it deserved) seeing them take it on was a very special treat.
To me the Herc movies were always among the very best movies they could do (they are just so very silly and seem to take themselves so very seriously). I never get tired of watching this one.
3 stars from Droppo.
The main draw here for me is Gypsy in the theater which was a treat. I always thought the Joel/Gypsy dynamic was hilarious in general. Without Gypsy, it would be a 2 star episode. Not the Brains fault…just not that into the movie.
I love Hercules Unchained and Herc Against The Moonmen. Blah on the others.
Okay, with the Season 4 blur of Hercules episodes, I have to ask, rather than go back through my collection:
Which was the Hercules with this week’s “wah-wahh” bad-girl queen hoping to encase Herc in wax?–And then dying for love as she throws herself in the wax instead?
(Servo singing: “I’ll just diiie, and, bbllbllbll…” )
Let’s see, Herc:Classic had the Amazons, Moon Men had the Sand-stooorm, Unchained had the Nice Lady’s Water of Forgetfulness…that’s as far as I have them kept track.
I haven’t watched this one in awhile. But when I first saw it, it was my first time seeing Gypsy in the theaters, and it really surprised me to see how long she’d last. xD
EricJ: That was “Hercules Unchained”. Just watched it last night.
This is one of my favorite Hercules episodes, and for a couple of years, it was a mainstay in my annual Turkey Day marathon. The movie’s got that goofy tone that was lacking from “Moon Men” – all the throne-tossing and good-natured brawling and the endless praise of Uranus make this one stand out. The scene with Proteus is particularly hilarious. “Watch out for the string, Herc, it’ll cut ya!”
I kinda wonder what it would have been like if Gypsy had stayed for the whole movie. I guess she’d have to be better at riffing for that to work, though. I actually like Gypsy as a character (unlike most MSTies, it seems) but I don’t think I could take 90 minutes of “Look at that dumb name!”
I remember falling on the floor laughing in response to one specific riff the first time I watched this episode. After Herc kills Proteus, there’s a shot of the clouds parting as a heavenly chorus sings “Ahhhh…” And Joel, Servo, and Crow jump right on it and sing “The Simpsonnnns…” It’s one of those perfect riffs, and me being a huge Simpsons geek, it hit me right between the eyes.
Ah, Uranus is beautiful this time of year….
Been years since I’ve seen this one, maybe I’ll try to catch in online.
I remember Gypsy in the theater.
I also remember a line, thank its from this one, not sure though
“There’s a pack of Trojans in the road”
I still think of this quote and it still makes me laugh, even if I’m not positive which movie it came from.
This episode is only “meh” for me.
3 stars.
“Only sunlight can dissolve the Rock of Uranus. Eat more fiber.”
“Crap,I didn’t know it’d be that bad.”
One of my favorite episodes.
Can’t get this to embed in this comment format.
But if you go to youtube and type “youtube the
mighty sons of Hercules” you can play the theme song
which was played in the 1980s or 1990s on American
tv with Herc movies.
@jjb3k
Most msties don’t like Gypsy? I thought she was beloved. But, yeah, she’s not down with the street.