Matho
The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.
Rainey Dawn
Gordon Mitchell is back as Atlas / Maciste. This time he's out to battle a Cyclops - a rarely seen creature in the film. It's mainly about him, Queen Capys, and all the other people he's dealing with in Sadok, the Land of the Cyclops.The film is awful, boring and below average. The ending battle with the one-eyed creature is fine but short.My copy of the film is severely faded - it looks almost solid brown (similar to some of the old films of the 1920s), barely any color at all which didn't help matters. But that is fine because I doubt if I ever try watching this one again... I'd be surprised to find myself trying to.1/10
dbdumonteil
Since the cyclops only appears in the last six or seven minutes (!) ,the title is a misnomer;this giant gives the most successful performance of a poor cast ;the actors ,from muscle man to wicked queen are so dismal you can have a good laugh!Vaguely based on Greek mythology :Circea's revenge on Ulysses' descendants;the queen will not be allowed to live in peace till the last heir is exterminated ;so she's got some excuses even though she shows some sadism .Macist fights against her to put back the true king on the throne and to save the true queen whose husband was slaughtered by the evil sovereign's soldiers.There are ten-year-old pupils who write better essays than this screenplay.
bkoganbing
Atlas Against The Cyclops finds Gordon Mitchell as Maciste battling the evil one eyed creature who together with the daughter of Circe is taking vengeance against the descendants of Ulysses. If you'll remember your classical Greek tales, Ulysses freed himself from Circe and blinded the Cyclops. Now their descendants are wreaking what they consider just desserts to the Ulysses family.It might have gone all right for them except that Circe's evil granddaughter queen of Circe falls big time for Maciste and all those muscles. She forgets her mission with one look at the big guy.There was a black body builder named Paul Wynter who was appearing in these peplums at the time and truth be told he was far better built than Gordon Mitchell. Why she was bothering with Maciste when she had Wynter's character Mumba in the palace is beyond me.Still Maciste performs all the deeds required of him and even rides a horse into the sunset like a good cowboy hero would.Nothing special here though.
398
"Atlas in the Land of the Cyclops" has two magnificent assets and her name is Chelo Alonso. She also has gorgeous eyes. Born in Cuba, Miss Alonso was a hit at the Paris Folies Bergeres before plunging into Italian peplum movies in the late fifties. Here she plays the evil, evil, Queen Capys, who starts the movie by sending out her army to slaughter a peaceful village, and then ruthlessly searches for a cute, gurgling, tyke so she can feed him to her pet cyclops. The purpose, we are told, is to remove an ancient curse. In a stab at depth, the movie reveals that Queen Capys frets about being so evil and when not understandably admiring herself in the mirror which she carries with her at all times, muses about how much better things will be after the cyclops devours the toddler and she can relax into being just another bloodthirsty tyrant.Enter our muscular hero, Maciste, the staunch enemy of injustice and evil queens everywhere. Once Capys lays her doe eyes on his pecs, its lust at first drool, always dangerous for a wicked queen. Even an oversexed queen can not shuck her evil ways easily, and there is tension galore as she gets the hots for our hero and hits on him with a distinct lack of subtlety, all the while assuring her worried underlings that she is in fact planning to make him into a cyclopsburger.Now for the fly in the ointment. Maciste is so pure, innocent, and naive, he makes Roy Rogers look decadent. He seems oblivious to Capys' abundant charms. Oh, my, is this frustrating. In the meantime, an underling captures the toddler and heads to the island abode of the hungry cyclops. Finding a very, very, very deeply buried streak of decency, and also perhaps hoping that turning good might arouse the big fellow's slumbering libido, Capys leads Maciste to the island.As veteran viewers of these type of movies can probably predict, nothing works out for her. Capys follows Maciste into the Cyclops' cave, only to see her newly found goodness go for naught when she has to jump in front of the big lug to block a dagger thrust by her own henchman. Life can be cruel for a cruel queen.The movie dies when Capys dies in the indifferent Maciste's strong arms, although Maciste does finish off the cyclops and saves the toddler and his mother. The ending has the tyke on the throne and everyone happy a child will be governing the land. Why not? All in all, worth it if you don't expect too much, have a sense of humour, and can get off on an absurdly beautiful, evil, evil, queen.
