In 1957, Italian director Pietro Francisci hired champion American bodybuilder and actor Reeves to play the lead role in his film "Hercules." The film was a huge worldwide hit, and with its success the genre was born.

"Some people have theorized that these films were in a way Italy looking back at its Past (Rome), and looking forward to the Future (The USA-[Use of American actors representing America, the Future] )..."

By the mid-1960s, the sword and sandals films had run their course. Italian filmmakers turned their attentions to spaghetti westerns and spy films. "The audience got burned out a little bit as the '60s progressed," Pendleton said.

"Spaghetti westerns tend to have more of a cynical view of the world than the sword and sandals films do. In the spaghetti westerns, it is much more unclear who is good or bad. In the sword and sandals films, there is wrong and there is right, and good always wins."
===========================================================
MOVIES
MUSCLEMEN HEROES OF ITALIAN CINEMA

The quirky fantasy-adventures of the '50s and '60s didn't always make sense,
but a showcase puts their value in perspective.

Los Angeles Times
By Susan King
Times Staff Writer
June 27 2003

LONG before Russell Crowe slipped on a toga for "Gladiator" or Brad Pitt unsheathed his sword for the upcoming "Troy," there were the Italian "sword and sandals" epics of the 1950s and '60s — those poorly dubbed, often cheesy, delightfully quirky fantasy-adventures nominally set in the ancient world, featuring beefcake musclemen and buxom, shapely sex kittens that usually aired Saturday afternoons on U.S. television.

The titles were as kitschy as the films themselves: "Hercules in the Haunted World," "Hercules Against the Mongols," "The Giant of Metropolis" and "The Mighty Ursus," "The Witch's Curse," among others...

"Some people have theorized that these films are in a way Italy looking back at its past and looking forward to the future," said David Pendleton, programmer at the UCLA Film and Television Archive, which is sponsoring the "Swords & Sandals" festival that begins tonight.

"In the Italian popular imagination of the 1950s, America was sort of a futuristic place and there was this whole physical cultural going on in America and especially in Southern California. So some have argued that the casting of these American musclemen in these Italian films is sort of a futuristic element.

"On a practical level, a lot of it was just producers copying the original success. 'Hercules' was a huge success in Italy before it was in the United States, and that's why all of these Italian filmmakers rushed to duplicate it. So there was this demand for more and more bodybuilders."

Several of these guilty pleasures will be showcased during UCLA's two-weekend festival that kicks off tonight with a double bill of "The Loves of Hercules" with Mickey Hargitay and Jayne Mansfield and "Duel of the Titans" with Steve Reeves and Gordon Scott. Italian director Sergio Leone was one of the screenwriters on the latter film.

"There is more to them than people often give them credit for, and no one has had a chance to see them on the big screen for decades," Pendleton said.

Epics have been popular in Italian cinema since the early silent era with the success of "Quo Vadis" and "Cabiria." But the sword and sandals epic took on a new dimension in 1957 when Italian director Pietro Francisci hired champion American bodybuilder and actor Reeves to play the lead role in his film "Hercules." The film was a huge worldwide hit, and with its success the genre was born.

During the next several years, audiences couldn't get enough of these fantasy-adventures....

Each of the musclemen heroes had a distinct personality. "Hargitay is sweet and earnest," Pendleton said. "Gordon Mitchell has a craggier face, which gives him a sterner appearance, but there is something very forthright about him. Reg Parker is much more jovial, almost humorous, and Ed Fury has been compared to the likes of Robert Mitchum."

Hargitay, Fury and Mitchell will appear at the festival, which concludes July 8. The UCLA screening of "The Loves of Hercules" marks the U.S. theatrical premiere of the 1960 film....

Hargitay, who is the father of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" star Mariska Hargitay, said doing "The Loves of Hercules" was one of the greatest experiences of his life. It was a chance to work with his then-wife, sex symbol Mansfield...

Mitchell, 79, who still makes films in Italy, appears in one of the strangest films in the festival, 1961's "The Giant of Metropolis." He plays a loincloth-clad muscleman from the past who arrives in a weird sci-fi world of the future.... I had no idea what was going on in the films. I couldn't read Italian."...

By the mid-1960s, the sword and sandals films had run their course. Italian filmmakers turned their attentions to spaghetti westerns and spy films. "The audience got burned out a little bit as the '60s progressed," Pendleton said. "Spaghetti westerns tend to have more of a cynical view of the world than the sword and sandals films do. In the spaghetti westerns, it is much more unclear who is good or bad. In the sword and sandals films, there is wrong and there is right, and good always wins."
*
'Swords & Sandals'

Where: James Bridges Theater, Melnitz Hall, UCLA
When: Tonight-Saturday, July 5, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, July 6, 7 p.m.
Price: $7, general; $5, students, seniors and UCLA Alumni Assn. members
Contact: (310) 206-FILM or www.cinema.ucla.edu

Schedule

Tonight: "The Loves of Hercules," "Duel of the Titans"
Saturday: "The Sons of Hercules," "Hercules in the Haunted World"
Sunday: "Son of Samson," "Hercules Against the Mongols"
July 5: "The Mighty Ursus," "The Slave" a.k.a. "Son of Spartacus"
July 6: "The Giant of Metropolis," "The Witch's Curse"

Los Angeles Times: Musclemen heroes of Italian cinema
http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/
cl-et-king27jun27,0,7793917.story?coll=cl-movies