My friend Wintle bought me a 50 pack of Sword And Sandal films before I left for Hollywood. He then bought a pack for himself, and we began discussion about going through the series together. Soon after we decided to share our journey with all of you; and thus the Macho Movie Review was born.
Over the next 50 weeks, every Saturday we plan to have a short podcast for you discussing the Sword and Sandal movie of the week. We will be going through the Warriors Movie Pack made available through Mill Creek Entertainment. You can find the set for about 20-30 USD. We encourage all interested to buy the pack, and/or download the films that are public domain. Many of these films are 40-50 years old and we find it a delight to mull over the Macho Movies of yesteryear, and would like nothing more than for you to join in on the discussion.
We are both fond of old warrior movies and are happy to be digging through the series for some glorious gems and wretched mistakes. Many of the films are Italian in origin and were made with shoestring budgets, often you will see rubber swords and the use of stock battle footage. None the less, a great story is a great story, and the Sword and Sandal film is always a celebration of the classic manly, macho hero.
The Rating System: To go with the theme we will be rating the films out of 9. The hydra has 9 heads, so we will be giving each film a rating out of that number – and will post a picture. For those of you that wish to skip the podcast and are not that keen on buying the set – keep an eye on the hydra. If you you see a film with 7-9 Hydra heads – you may want to track that particular film down.
For the Inaugural Macho Movie review we will be discussing Hercules And The Masked Rider (1963).
The film is about an evil Duke Of Medina that guarantees peace to the neighboring kingdom if that Duke will give his daughter up, to be his wife. The young woman is in love with her cousin (!!!!) Don Juan, who returns from battle to learn that she is engaged to be wed. When guards spot them together Don Juan is expelled from the kingdom, and becomes the Masked Rider. This rider then stumbles upon a band of gypsies,(that happen to be hanging out with Hercules) and after a knife fight to prove his worth, they join forces to overthrow the Duke, and recapture his stolen cousin-love!
Ladies and Gentlemen It is my great pleasure to present to you, The Macho Movie Review for Hercules And The Masked Rider:
To Listen To The Podcast Click Here
Nagy and Wintle both deem this film to be worth 2 Hydra Heads out of 9.
