Atlas (1961)

Don't listen to the negative reviews

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The worst Italian sword & sandal saga surpasses low-budget producer & director Roger Corman's period knock-off "Atlas" with a towering Michael Forest as the eponymous muscle-man in a colorful red short skirt. So many things are so horribly wrong about this lackluster epic that it makes you wonder what possessed Corman to shoot it in the first place. Okay, the scenic Grecian splendor is a big plus, but little else is as comparable. The high and tight 1960s' haircuts along with those pencil-thin mustaches do little to evoke authenticity. Forrest just doesn't cut it as the titular strongman. Mind you, he is tall, but he doesn't look like a weightlifter. The only bright spot in this dreadful mess is Frank Wolff, who went on to make a name for himself in Spaghetti westerns. Wolff chews the scenery with relish, and he is fun to watch. Nobody else matches his gusto. Nothing else about this abysmal outing is remotely memorable. Although I cannot tolerate this cardboard peplum, I love those English-dubbed spectacles with Steve Reeves, Mark Forrest, Gordon Scott, Gordon Mitchell, and Alan Steel. Altogether, "Atlas" qualifies as dreary from fade-in to fadeout. Everything about it has potboiler written all over it. For the record, ruthless city-state tyrant Praximedes (Frank Wolff of "Once Upon a Time in the West") has laid siege to King Telektos' city for months without success. The two leaders decide to select champions to represent them in the arena, and the victor will win the day. Predictably, Atlas tops his opponent in a fight that has little grit. When the villainous insists that Atlas kill King Telektos' champion, our noble hero relents and allows him to live. Eventually, Atlas figures out that he fought for the wrong guy. Clocking in at 79 minutes, "Atlas" must be one of Corman's worst that he'd love to forget. Perhaps a widescreen version instead of this severely cropped full-frame rendition would at least yielded more panoramic views of Greece.

As much as I am a fan of Michael Forest from Star Trek, The Outer Limits,to name a few - this movie is an absolute farce. Frank Wolf who up to this point is really a 3rd rate actor, is the lead bad guy in this movie that plays out like a high school play with just a handful of extras. 1st blunder is when they announce that the wrestling match will begin when the trumpets blow. The trouble is that the horns are never heard. The Wardrobe Designer must have been on break with Barbara Morris wearing shorts that look like she should be on the set of Beach Blanket Bingo and not a Greek sword and sandal movie. The story line is very poor and really makes no sense. Soupy Sales could have played the lead baddie with the same results.

1960's "Atlas" was Roger Corman's impoverished attempt at a Hercules-type epic (shot on location in Greece), without the budget. Charles B. Griffith could always be relied upon to deliver a script very quickly, and the haste is quite evident here, as the dialogue sounds risibly modernistic, and American actor Frank Wolff hilariously dubbed. Judging from his previous work on "A Bucket of Blood" and "The Little Shop of Horrors," one can easily conclude that this was written as a satire, and it does deliver a few chuckles. Star Michael Forest, like Wolff a veteran of Corman's "Ski Troop Attack" and "Beast from Haunted Cave," looked more impressive years later bare chested on both GILLIGAN'S ISLAND and STAR TREK. As the battle scenes come off as anemic, the only visually arresting image remains the comely Barboura Morris, who spent her entire career in Corman's service, until her untimely death at age 43 in 1975. "Atlas" made its only appearance on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater during its first season, alternating Saturday afternoons and Sunday nights, airing Sat March 14 1964, while the Sunday night co-feature (which likewise never repeated) was 1958's "Spy in the Sky!"

B-movie king Corman dabbled in most commercial genres: this was his attempt at a historical epic – the result is one of his worst films! Even if I watched a public-domain pan-and-scan version, the film never promised to be much – it's basically at the level of a third-rate effort from the contemporaneous peplums emanating from Europe! Lead Michael Forest is as bland and wooden as they come; Barboura Morris makes for a fetching heroine, but her attitude and looks are too modern to convince as a woman of Ancient Greece; Frank Wolff, however, is highly entertaining relentlessly hamming it up as the chief villain. The narrative is fairly typical (and inane): the titular muscle-man hero is appointed by self-proclaimed tyrant Wolff to oust power from a rival country; eventually, he sees the error of his ways and determines to turn the tables – with the help of Morris, Wolff's femme fatale-ish companion who, naturally, also has a change of heart because after she has fallen for our man Atlas! I don't know if it was the nature of the print involved or simply the fact that Corman had no money to accommodate sound effects but, hilariously, at a couple of points we're presented with scenes which obviously demand this but nothing transpires: two men are supposed to blow their trumpets prior to a combat and, later, a bevy of dancing girls prance around sans any musical accompaniment at an 'orgy'. The action sequences are equally lame: ubiquitous Corman presence Dick Miller turns up in so many shots at the climactic struggle that one is almost inclined to believe that he won the battle single-handedly! We love Corman for his unfailing knack to spot and promote burgeoning talent but, other than his classic (and classy, for their miniscule budget) Poe adaptations, his own directorial output is invincibly erratic...