SON OF HERCULES IN THE LAND OF DARKNESS (1964)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, sociological*

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

In Italy this film was released as HERCULES THE INVINCIBLE. This seems a bit odd, given that there's not really any Hercules-mythology in the film, aside from the fact that the actor playing the hero (Dan Vadis) wears a beard that resembles that of the archaic model. Vadis's Hercules doesn't seem to have the marvelous strength seen in other iterations, given that he strains to perform measly feats like bending iron bars or tossing boulders. But there's plenty of marvelous content in the film retitled (for the American market) as SON OF HERCULES IN THE LAND OF DARKNESS, and, for a change, a plot-twist that departs from the usual peplum template.

Almost all of the film's action takes place in the titular "Land of Darkness," which is an underground city inside a volcanic mountain. (Guess what effect that location's going to have on the movie's climax.) The establishing action, though, takes place in some small kingdom neighboring that of the underground city, whose name (as pronounced in the English dub) sounds the Greek cognomen "Deimos." In that neighboring kingdom, protagonist Argoilis (Vadis), who remains a blank slate from start to finish, happens to come to the rescue of a princess, one Telca (Spela Rozin), Telca and Argolis fall for each other, but Telca's father says that although usually it's enough for a man to rescue a woman to lay claim to her in marriage, a special challenge is necessary to win a princess. There just happens to be a marauding dragon nearby, so off goes Argolis to slay it.

Before finding his way to the monster, Argolis stumbles across a weird old woman, (billed on IMDB as "the prophetess.") The old broad generously tells the warrior where to find a spear to kill the beast, and she asks only that Argolis should bring her one of the dragon's teeth. The hero thanks the oracle but confesses that he's already promised the teeth to Telca. The prophetess isn't upset by this development, but cautions Argolis that a dragon's tooth can protect one from harm (like the dragon's blood in the Seigfried saga), but only once. This foreshadowing sounds important but in the dubbed version the subject doesn't come up again until movie's end.

Argolis returns to the nice little kingdom but finds that many of its people, including Telca and her father, were carried away for human sacrifice by the people of Deimos. While Argolis makes his way to Deimos, the story briefly shifts to Telca's POV in the court of Deimos' evil queen Etel (Carla Calo). Imperious Etel doesn't know Telca's princess identity, but she automatically does what most evil queens do: she makes the nice girl into her servant. Slightly later, Telca gets the lowdown on Etel from her stepdaughter Melissa (Maria Fiore). Melissa holds Etel responsible for all the evils of the underground city. One of these was ascending to the queenship after marrying Melissa's father King Kabal (Ken Clark). This information seems dubious because throughout the film Kabal is always seen standing near the throne but never sitting on one, so the original character may have been a simple counselor whom the dub chose to upgrade. Melissa also claims that Etel initiated the Deimosian's sacrificial rituals, which appear to vary between cannibalistic consumption of flesh or the drinking of victims' blood. This too is a little dubious, as one doesn't expect healthy habits of people living underground in a slumbering volcano. But at any rate, Telca seems to have made one valuable ally in Melissa.

Argolis, accompanied by a comical sidekick, attacks the city. The hero is captured, while the clownish fellow escapes. Etel sentences the strongman to be torn apart by two elephants in the local arena. To the surprise of all Deimos, Argolis, though apparently just a really powerful mortal, resists the opposing pull of the two beasts. A rope breaks and a mad elephant charges the queen's seat in the stands. However, chivalrous Argolis grabs the elephant's leg and prevents the creature from trampling Etel.

Etel decides to cultivate Argolis as her lover, little realizing that her own serving-girl has a claim on him. Argolis plays a waiting game by flattering the glamorous monarch and watching for his chance to rebel. I'm not sure what happens to his dragon tooth during this time-frame, but since it's referenced later, maybe he gives it to Etel as a keepsake. Later he finds Telca's father imprisoned in Etel's dungeon but can't free him just yet.

Then the twist comes in. Up to this point, the viewer would have tended to assume that Melissa was going to be an ally to poor persecuted Telca. But while Etel is waiting for an assignation with Argolis, Melissa sneaks up behind the queen and stabs her to death. (She may also take the dragon's tooth; not sure.) With Etel dead, Melissa goes to Kabal-- again, supposedly both the king and her father-- and tells him to make her the new queen. One might assume this involved the "king" marrying his "daughter," but since Kabal doesn't bat an eye at Melissa's claim to the throne, this would seem to prove he's not her relative in any way. So Melissa is the new boss, same as the old boss, and one of her first acts is to have Telca hooked up to some device that drains her blood for future consumption. Argolis is too busy fighting soldiers to help the heroine, but to Telca's good fortune, the blood transfusion wasn't intended to be fatal, for she's still alive, albeit a captive, when she's next seen. 

There's some comic business in which the sidekick enters the story again and poses as one of the Deimos soldiers to help Telca's father and his men escape. The good king escapes but dies trying to save his daughter. With the help of a local, Argolis learns that there's a method of unsealing the furies of the volcano to destroy the city, so the hero journeys to the belly of the beast and does the deed. Then while the ground shakes and the populace flees, the hero goes looking for Telca. He finds Melissa alone in her throne room and offers to help her escape the volcano's lava if the queen helps him find Telca. The hero also mentions that the dragon's tooth in Melissa's possession won't help now-- did it help her avert death in some deleted scene?-- and then he goes off and finds Telca on his own. If you have who escapes the volcano and who doesn't, you've never seen any kind of adventure-movie before. Oh, and Argolis also kills off Kabal in battle, thus leaving no loose ends.

There's not enough development of Deimos as an "anti-civilization," where the people drink blood and eat flesh to absorb the qualities of proper living people, but even the undeveloped idea is better than just the average old corrupted kingdom. The action seems to set up Etel as an "evil stepmother" type of villain, out to poach on the guy committed to an age-appropriate lady. But then Melissa gets rid of her stepmother to become the new queen, and the new villain has no interest either in Argolis or in The Character Who's Probably Not Originally Her Father. That means the Electra-theme doesn't apply here, while any potential "Phaedra-theme" goes off the rails. It's a shame that visually director Alvaro Mancori-- usually a cinematographer-- relies most of the time on long-shots and middle-range shots, which blunts a lot of the action scenes. Flaws aside, though, I would have to consider LAND OF DARKNESS for my list of top 20 Italian peplum-movies of the period.