410-Hercules Against the Moon Men

Film Year:  1964
Genre:  Fantasy, Adventure
Director:  Giacomo Gentilomo
Starring:  Alan Steel, Jany Clair, Anna Maria Polani
MST Season:  4

The Movie

Ah yes, the age old tale of when aliens came down from the stars and Hercules was forced to battle them.  That was always my personal favorite Greek/Roman myth.

The elephant in the room with Hercules Against the Moon Men is that despite being accepted into MST canon as the second Hercules movie the show ever did, it’s actually not a Hercules movie at all.  This movie is actually a Maceste film, who was a popular Italian sword and sandal film character of the period, which had Maceste’s name changed to Hercules for marquee value in the US.  Technically this kind of makes this movie a prequel to Colossus and the Headhunters, which is the only other Maceste movie MST ever riffed.

This particular film tells the story of a reigning queen controlled by space men from the moon, who desire human sacrifices in order to resurrect their own moon goddess.  Heroic hero Hercu...er, uh Macest...um...Macestules is recruited by the terrorized villagers to put a stop to these foul deeds.

All things considered, despite the science fiction element introduced, it’s not all that different than a typical Herc movie.  Bad guys rule, Herc comes in, lifts Styrofoam rocks, seduces royal hotties, and beats people up.  In the end it doesn’t really matter whether this is a Herc movie or a Maceste movie, because there really isn’t much of a difference.  Hercules Against the Moon Men offers moderate entertainment with a daffy premise no matter what series you identify it with.

The Episode

The one piece of notoriety that this particular film has that the other Hercules films didn’t is the the lengthy sandstorm sequence in the third act, which the Mads dub “DEEP HURTING!”  The segment is drawn out, but not quite as bad as the episode makes it out to be (and not nearly as lengthy as the rock climbing scenes from Lost Continent).  I don’t really feel it’s worth commenting on when I talk about the movie but it’s impossible to not acknowledge when you talk about this episode, because it makes such a big deal about it.  It becomes clear when watching the episode that they’re giving this sequence such a push because it feels as if it was a sequence they couldn’t riff as normal, so they decided to introduce the “DEEP HURTING!” concept to give Joel and the Bots something to mention and discuss during a patchy length of cloudy film in which there’s barely anything to comment on.  The result is mixed, as it’s hard to really laugh at intentionally botched jokes where the punchline is ruined by the performer’s forced sobbing.  There’s some saving graces at work however, especially as Hercules leans against a stone wall and Crow screams in horror “AND NOW THERE’S ROCK CLIMBING!” which is probably the biggest laugh of the episode.

Taking into account the entirety of the effort, this episode leans toward the column of “pretty good.”  The movie is silly and entertaining on its own, and while the riffs hold a workmanlike pace, they just stay in stride with it.  While maybe they could have done more with the film, particularly with the sandstorm scene, this is certainly a belly laugh episode for those gloomy afternoons.

On the note of host segments, I have to mention that they feel like they’ve been accidentally jumbled.  An early segment sees Joel recreating a scene from the movie where Herc is trapped in between two spiked panels, despite that scene not happening until much later in the movie.  That said, it’s a joke about telling an obvious joke, which isn’t very funny.  Other host segments fare a little better, with a quality song as the SOL Crew sings their praises of “Pants!” while Crow and Tom flex new muscles.  Invention Exchange hardly registers with Super Freakout, though it ends by giving Frank the hilarious line of “I AM the button!”

The “DEEP HURTING!” in this episode is overplayed, but for the most part the experience of “DEEP HURTING!” is slightly ticklish.  I find Hercules Against the Moon Men a delight.

Good

The DVD

Hercules Against the Moon Men was released on DVD by Rhino as a part of their Volume 7 collection.  Video looks a tad fuzzy to me but audio is fine.  There are no special features.