The Slave Merchants (1964)

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

A lively peplum adventure, directed by Antonio Margheriti and thankfully a lot more appealing than his HERCULES, PRISONER OF EVIL made in the same year. The print under review is the edited US TV print, complete with incredibly catchy "Sons of Hercules" theme tune, which eliminates plenty of plot exposition to concentrate solely on the action, which is fine by me. The various plot elements involve beautiful princesses, a fair bit of exotic dancing, a really annoying "comic relief" mute sidekick who grunts his way through the movie and our hero, Anthar, dressed in what alarmingly appears to be a giant nappy! Genre veteran Kirk Morris sails through the role and enjoys himself beating up extras, causing mass destruction and generally taking on men ten-to-one. The English dubbing turns him into a rather more sadistic character than we usually see, saying the likes of "I'll rip your eyes out!" to an injured enemy soldier! The entertaining finale involves an amazing wall-climbing episode in which aforementioned mute boy uses a row of spears to swing acrobatically up to the top of the battlements. This is quickly forgotten as we're witness to a really bizarre arena fight sequence in which Anthar finds himself up against a rhinoceros, of all things! Although the fight is short it still sticks in the mind. The final battle involves plenty of cool deaths for villains (spearing, crushing by rhinoceros and impalement by portcullis to name but three) and a (literally) smashing hall-of-mirrors showdown which seems to have inspired the climax of a certain ENTER THE DRAGON starring Bruce Lee! Quick snippet of info: watch out for the identity of the assistant director - it's none other than Ruggero Deodato, he of later cannibal-nasty infamy!

More an Arabian Nights adventure than a "Hercules" movie, this minor entry in the Sword-and-Sandal cycle lacks the verve, polish, and tongue-in-cheek humor needed to lift it above the level of the "forgettable." While the casting of Kirk Morris might lead one to expect generous servings of "beefcake," his initial appearance is the only scene in which he appears completely bare-chested. After that he's usually seen in a bolero jacket which shows off his arms and stomach but which, unfortunately, makes him look more like a comic side-kick than a two-fisted hero. Also, despite expectations to the contrary, Morris is not subjected to one of those torturous tests-of-strength which showcases his musculature in a bondage situation replete with homoerotic imagery. Instead, he's simply thrown into a pit with an irritated rhino -- a sequence which must have seemed better on paper than it proves to be on film. While not a bad movie -- it's passably entertaining in a Saturday matinée sort of way -- fans of this genre in general and of Kirk Morris in particular are advised to look for their satisfaction elsewhere.

The old Italian genre movies have the advantage of the fantasy set free, unleashed, unrestrained; on the other hand—there was not much to unleash, to set free. That fantasy itself was rather meager. Formally, those movies were free, daring; on the other hand, their freedom did not have much of a content. The conditions existed; the writers were lacking. Like the surrealism itself, they too sometimes bordered on stupidity. Freedom is a luxury; it advantages only the fittest. But then again ,those were wonderful times, a wonderful epoch, when so many things were filmed …. Some of the old Italian outings seem sensationally fancy, and in its best days the Italian genre cinema (which is quite a vague notion) achieved the best.

I don't know about you, but the first appearance of Anthar (Kirk Morris) and his mute friend seemed a bit disturbing, adding fuel to the argument that the genre has a special appeal for gay audiences. Their attire, if it can be called that, looks like over-sized diapers, and speaking from a non prurient perspective, they look embarrassing as all get out. Fortunately, the rest of the adventure calls for Greek warrior wardrobe, but it's not enough to save the flick from desert boredom.The print I viewed didn't help matters any, it was almost entirely washed out with shades of red as the predominant Technicolor hue, with an annoying bar that ran up and down the picture for most of it's run. Incessant desert sequences seemed to dominate the first half, but I'll give more than a fair share of credit for impressive costume design for all the slave traders, warriors and harem girls on hand. If the movie had been more than a beefcake film, it might have been a contender for Best Costune Design, won that year by "My Fair Lady".Hey, how about Gainor's glass cage chamber of death? I'm a little confused about how Anthar could have gotten so close to observe it's inner workings when Gainor dispatched Akrim the slave trader. Obviously it came in handy when it was his turn, giving new meaning to the phrase - "If it ain't fixed, break it".For his part, Kirk Morris provides one of the more agile characterizations of a Herculean namesake; a lot of his moves look like they came off of an off screen trampoline. I wouldn't be surprised to learn if that was the case. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it also seemed like whenever Anthar appeared ready for battle, he always wound up starting a fire. Perhaps with 'Devil' in the title, a fiery presence was deemed necessary to heat up the action.