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 watch the movie and Joel agrees
Invention exchange: The lawn baby, the womb-mate
Host segment 1: “Good-natured” brawling
Host segment 2: Crow’s “history” of Hercules
Host segment 3: The bots’ lame Hercules action figure
End: Laying the Hercules movies to rest, letter, Frank being chased by mower
Stinger: “Hercules! Help me!”
(65 votes, average: 3.97 out of 5)
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• This is a sneaky episode. I remember not liking it and thinking it’s the least funny of the sword-and-sandal outings, but on this viewing I warmed to it quite a bit. And I’d forgotten that it includes the classic line: “Today is dedicated to Uranus.”
• And I’d also forgotten that this is the landmark episode in which Gypsy watches a portion of the movie along with J&tB. 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.
• As we tune into Deep 13, Frank is noisily singing the “I sing whenever I sing whenever I sing” song from “Giant Gila Monster.”
• Joel says “Zatharatu” when he means to say Zarathustra. They keep going.
• Despite all the hoopla to the contrary, this is NOT the last of the Hercules movies.
• 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 tries to set up the plot, with the result that I never did really figure out what the heck is going on in this movie. Part of it has to do with the strange plot break that takes place after 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? Then there’s something about Atlantis and girls inn rocks and I don’t know what all.
• Does this story resemble any actual ancient tale? Was there ever a King Androcles (with or without a lion)?
• Gypsy’s riff: “They’re steam-cleaning the horses!” delights J&tB. Eh, not bad. 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 chracters have exited or entered this way. Where does that exit lead? And how do they eat and breathe? 
• Firesign Theatre reference: “…The Golden Hind”
• Crow falls apart almost immediately during the good-natured brawling. Trace rolls with it brilliantly.
• 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)
• My copy, from 1995, included the little “facts” about the movie as the commercial breaks ended. Two of them are only tangentally related to this movie–they discuss other actors who also played Hercules. Thin gruel.
• 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?
• Fave riff: Dear lord, the canary exploded!
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.
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)
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.)
Weird coincidence. This is the episode I just finished burning to DVD today.
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??
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?