Il terrore dei barbari

Hercules was good, Hercules Unchained better still, and Morgan the Pirate was nothing to scoff at. Still, this remains the best Steve Reeves mini-epic of all, if also the hardest to get ahold of on VHS and DVD. He's typecast as a gentle giant who becomes a masked avenger when a horde of barbarians invades his terrain, leading the good people on a guerilla campaign against the marauding mob. Until, that is, he gets a good look at the barbarian princess (Chelo Alonso) and falls apart at the seams. Don't blame him - you will too. This former dancer at Paris nightspots is an exotic beauty, dark and dangerous looking, and she has not one but two extremely erotic dance numbers. They may seem relatively mild today, but this was real hot stuff for those of us who were adolescent boys when the movie was first released in America. The fight scenes are well staged, considering the tight budget, and this rates as the kind of exciting fun that used to make up the top half of a double bill at Saturday matinees during the late fifties and early sixties.