Maciste All'Inferno (1925)

REVIEW
Cinema's first action hero, the Italian Maciste, makes his first descent into the underworld in Brignone's Maciste All'Inferno, a thoroughly entertaining and inventive silent.

Maciste is a gentle giant, strong and virtuous. Some emissaries, dressed in capes, tophats, and goatees, are sent up from Pluto, the King of Hades, to lure Maciste into Hell.

Though the trickery succeeds, Maciste is free to leave Hell within three days--unless, of course, he's kissed by a female devil. The females in Hell are all too willing, never having seen a man as big and strong as Maciste before.

When Maciste succumbs to the allures of the sexy demonesses, not only does it seem he is trapped in hell as a devil himself, but, as it so happens that Hell is in the midst of a civil war, he must also lead an army of devils to defend his new lord Pluto from the usurper. Will Maciste ever get out of hell?

If you're trying to imagine this plot carried out in a silent film, you no doubt have a slight notion of how weird this picture is. You don't know the half of it. Devils who get their heads knocked off by an angry Maciste play football with them, an enormous Satan plucks human souls from the hellish landscape to munch on, and a fire-breathing dragon offers Maciste a ride--these are just a few of the spectacles one has to look forward to in this film.

This is one of those rare cases where an impressive, expensive production (for its time) results in a truly fine, inventive film, not unlike Fritz Lang's Nibelungen a year earlier and Murnau's Faust a year later. Yet, there is no denying this is an early special-effects picture, invested primarily in exciting visuals. The scenes of the underworld are exceptional visions of hell. Stalactites hang down sharply over damned souls labouring in chains. Dozens of extras in unusually good devil-imp costumes roam, usually attacking Maciste in droves.

While Maciste All'Inferno is as much fantasy-adventure as it is horror, it has a lot to offer horror fans. If you like sexy devil girls, a hero who knows how to kick ass, fiendish monsters, hellish imagery, as well as a few laughs along the way, try get your hands on this one.

FACTS
Director - Guido Brignone
Writer - Riccardo Artufo, w/ credit to Dante Alighieri.
Starring - Bartolomeo Pagano, Elena Sangro
1925
95 min.

WHERE TO GET IT
Unfortunately, it is not available on a proper DVD in North America--I don't even know if it's available in Italy. Don't let that stop you, however. It is quite available on eMule in a quite good, quality avi.
UPDATE: Capkronos has informed me that the Nightmare Worlds 50 Movie Collection contains this film. This box set is easy to find.

TIDBITS
Maciste All'Inferno is the film that made Fellini decide to be a director.
Was an influence on Mario Bava, such that he paid tribute with Hercules in the Haunted World.
Riccardo Freda remade it in 1962, which I reviewed earlier in this series.