Maciste All'Inferno (1962)

REVIEW:
By 1962, the peplum genre, with its sandal-wearing musclemen, had already run out of steam in Italy. Italians are not troubled by such matters. They mix the stale with another genre as quickly as you can say 'casserole.' Whence came Maciste All'Inferno, a horror peplum.
This film is more accurately titled in English as The Witch's Curse. In fact, you won't meet Maciste until thirty minutes into the film. You won't learn his name for another fifteen minutes. It is only when he shows up, however, that things become interesting.
The film begins in 18th century Scotland with the burning of a witch, who insinuates that the clergyman doing the burning is a spurned lover. She curses the village, the clergyman, and goes up in smoke.
A century later, a descendant with the exact same name as the witch shows up in the same village and moves into the witch's old castle with her new husband. Well, who can blame the superstitious villagers for becoming a little hysterical? In fact, they launch a torch-and-pitchfork attack on the castle, imprisoning the couple in preparation for a centenary barbecue of witches. Oh dear.
Enter Maciste, who, despite wearing nothing but a loincloth in 19th century Scotland, is greeted with little to no surprise. Maciste saves the couple with his physical might alone and agrees to journey into hell itself--which is conveniently located beneath a local tree--to find the witch and end the curse.
The prime joys of this film occur from this point on. The imagery of hell, however crude, is quite unforgettable and at times startlingly beautiful.
Maciste himself is also startlingly beautiful. Kirk Morris' impressive physique is shamelessly flaunted here as his Maciste solves all difficulties, be it a stampede of bulls, Goliath, or a tree that needs uprooting, by gripping, straining, straining, and straining. The homoeroticism is difficult to miss.
For unintentional laughs, some fascinating visions of hell, and a certainly unique cinematic experience, The Witch's Curse is a worthy excursion into weird.


FACTS:
Director - Riccardo Freda
Starring - Kirk Morris
1962
76 minutes

WHERE TO GET IT:
It's cheaply available on DVD from Alpha Video as The Witch's Curse.

TIDBIT:
Richard Dyer placed the film 7th on the Sight & Sound Top Ten Poll of 2002 for greatest films of all time. I emailed him about this. He told me the movie is entertaining and Kirk Morris is nice to look at.