Musclemen heroes of Italian cinema

LONG before Russell Crowe slipped on a toga for “Gladiator” or Brad Pitt unsheathed his sword for the upcoming “Troy,” there were the Italian “sword and sandals” epics of the 1950s and ‘60s -- those poorly dubbed, often cheesy, delightfully quirky fantasy-adventures nominally set in the ancient world, featuring beefcake musclemen and buxom, shapely sex kittens that usually aired Saturday afternoons on U.S. television.

The titles were as kitschy as the films themselves: “Hercules in the Haunted World,” “Hercules Against the Mongols,” “The Giant of Metropolis” and “The Mighty Ursus,” among others. The plots often defied description. In “The Witch’s Curse,” for example, no one blinks an eye when a loincloth-clad muscleman from ancient Rome arrives in a small town in 17th century Scotland to help a woman accused of being a witch.

“Some people have theorized that these films are in a way Italy looking back at its past and looking forward to the future,” said David Pendleton, programmer at the UCLA Film and Television Archive, which is sponsoring the “Swords & Sandals” festival that begins tonight.

“In the Italian popular imagination of the 1950s, America was sort of a futuristic place and there was this whole physical cultural going on in America and especially in Southern California. So some have argued that the casting of these American musclemen in these Italian films is sort of a futuristic element.

“On a practical level, a lot of it was just producers copying the original success. ‘Hercules’ was a huge success in Italy before it was in the United States, and that’s why all of these Italian filmmakers rushed to duplicate it. So there was this demand for more and more bodybuilders.”

Several of these guilty pleasures will be showcased during UCLA’s two-weekend festival that kicks off tonight with a double bill of “The Loves of Hercules” with Mickey Hargitay and Jayne Mansfield and “Duel of the Titans” with Steve Reeves and Gordon Scott. Italian director Sergio Leone was one of the screenwriters on the latter film.

“There is more to them than people often give them credit for, and no one has had a chance to see them on the big screen for decades,” Pendleton said.

Epics have been popular in Italian cinema since the early silent era with the success of “Quo Vadis” and “Cabiria.” But the sword and sandals epic took on a new dimension in 1957 when Italian director Pietro Francisci hired champion American bodybuilder and actor Reeves to play the lead role in his film “Hercules.” The film was a huge worldwide hit, and with its success the genre was born.

During the next several years, audiences couldn’t get enough of these fantasy-adventures. The films always have been particularly popular in the gay community. On Saturday, MGM film archivist John Kirk will discuss their gay perspective in a program called “The Sons of Hercules.”

Back in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, Pendleton said, “there weren’t a lot of images of the male body on display. There was no beefcake available the way there was cheesecake available in the late ‘50s. These films were important to a lot of gay men of a certain age, who were adolescent at the time and for whom these films could be sort of the bridge between adolescent hero worship [and] discovering sexual identity. They have remained popular with gay audiences, and now besides the beefcake, there is also a certain camp aesthetic to the film that appeals to gay audiences.”

Each of the musclemen heroes had a distinct personality. “Hargitay is sweet and earnest,” Pendleton said. “Gordon Mitchell has a craggier face, which gives him a sterner appearance, but there is something very forthright about him. Reg Parker is much more jovial, almost humorous, and Ed Fury has been compared to the likes of Robert Mitchum.”

Hargitay, Fury and Mitchell will appear at the festival, which concludes July 8. The UCLA screening of “The Loves of Hercules” marks the U.S. theatrical premiere of the 1960 film.

“You know, somebody would really have to be in my shoes to really understand what it means to me. And what it means to me to go to this particular opening,” said Hargitay, the former Mr. Universe and a performer in Mae West’s stage show in the 1950s.

Hargitay, who is the father of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” star Mariska Hargitay, said doing “The Loves of Hercules” was one of the greatest experiences of his life. It was a chance to work with his then-wife, sex symbol Mansfield. “I wanted in the worst way to do the film with Jayne,” said Hargitay, now 77. “At that time, we didn’t tell anybody, but Jayne was pregnant. I noticed it myself she was getting a little bit heavier [making the movie] than she normally was.”

He fondly recalls that time. “Back in those days I was working out all the time and I had no double. I did all my stunts in my films. But it was a lot of fun. I created something. [My character] liberated a people and a queen. It was just like a fantasy to me.”

Mitchell, 79, who still makes films in Italy, appears in one of the strangest films in the festival, 1961’s “The Giant of Metropolis.” He plays a loincloth-clad muscleman from the past who arrives in a weird sci-fi world of the future. He is put through numerous tortures -- included being chewed by cannibalistic pygmies -- so the evil leader can learn the secret of his strength.

A veteran of World War II and the Korean War, Mitchell became part of the physical culture of Muscle Beach in Venice. While working as a schoolteacher in Los Angeles, he got bit movie roles and was also part of West’s stage act.

When Italian producers were looking for musclemen for their films, Mitchell submitted photos of himself. It wasn’t long before he was in front of the cameras in Rome making his first film, “Atlas Against the Cyclops.”

“I did my own stunts,” Mitchell recalled. “I tried to make everything real. I had no idea what was going on in the films. I couldn’t read Italian.”

At one point, he was so in demand he was making three films at once. “I was training all the time. In between set-ups I was training. I had to get some weights made up.” While on location in Naples, Italy, he recalled, he picked up heavy rocks to keep in shape.

By the mid-1960s, the sword and sandals films had run their course. Italian filmmakers turned their attentions to spaghetti westerns and spy films. “The audience got burned out a little bit as the ‘60s progressed,” Pendleton said. “Spaghetti westerns tend to have more of a cynical view of the world than the sword and sandals films do. In the spaghetti westerns, it is much more unclear who is good or bad. In the sword and sandals films, there is wrong and there is right, and good always wins.”

*

‘Swords & Sandals’

Where: James Bridges Theater, Melnitz Hall, UCLA

When: Tonight-Saturday, July 5, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, July 6, 7 p.m.

Price: $7, general; $5, students, seniors and UCLA Alumni Assn. members

Contact: (310) 206-FILM or www.cinema.ucla.edu

Schedule

Tonight: “The Loves of Hercules,” “Duel of the Titans”

Saturday: “The Sons of Hercules,” “Hercules in the Haunted World”

Sunday: “Son of Samson,” “Hercules Against the Mongols”

July 5: “The Mighty Ursus,” “The Slave” a.k.a. “Son of Spartacus”

July 6: “The Giant of Metropolis,” “The Witch’s Curse”