Atlas (1961)

Wonderfully offbeat film!

Let's be realistic.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

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

The worst Italian sword & sandal saga surpasses low-budget producer & director Roger Corman's period knock-off "Atlas" with a towering Michael Forest as the eponymous muscle-man in a colorful red short skirt. So many things are so horribly wrong about this lackluster epic that it makes you wonder what possessed Corman to shoot it in the first place. Okay, the scenic Grecian splendor is a big plus, but little else is as comparable. The high and tight 1960s' haircuts along with those pencil-thin mustaches do little to evoke authenticity. Forrest just doesn't cut it as the titular strongman. Mind you, he is tall, but he doesn't look like a weightlifter. The only bright spot in this dreadful mess is Frank Wolff, who went on to make a name for himself in Spaghetti westerns. Wolff chews the scenery with relish, and he is fun to watch. Nobody else matches his gusto. Nothing else about this abysmal outing is remotely memorable. Although I cannot tolerate this cardboard peplum, I love those English-dubbed spectacles with Steve Reeves, Mark Forrest, Gordon Scott, Gordon Mitchell, and Alan Steel. Altogether, "Atlas" qualifies as dreary from fade-in to fadeout. Everything about it has potboiler written all over it. For the record, ruthless city-state tyrant Praximedes (Frank Wolff of "Once Upon a Time in the West") has laid siege to King Telektos' city for months without success. The two leaders decide to select champions to represent them in the arena, and the victor will win the day. Predictably, Atlas tops his opponent in a fight that has little grit. When the villainous insists that Atlas kill King Telektos' champion, our noble hero relents and allows him to live. Eventually, Atlas figures out that he fought for the wrong guy. Clocking in at 79 minutes, "Atlas" must be one of Corman's worst that he'd love to forget. Perhaps a widescreen version instead of this severely cropped full-frame rendition would at least yielded more panoramic views of Greece.

Playing the title role of Atlas and certainly having the physique for it is Michael Forest best known for playing the God Apollo on Star Trek prime. He gets himself involved in a civil war where one army is besieging a city state.When a single combat winner take all duel is arranged the besieger goes out to look for a champion and just by coincidence the Olympic Games are being held. Frank Wolff finds Michael Forest and he will face Christos Exarchos the prince of the city. When Forest beats Exarchos but doesn't kill him, Wolff should have thought right then and there that this will mean trouble for him.Roger Corman produced Atlas. It was his attempt to make a Peplum, sand and scandal less than an epic. The European players stroll rather listlessly through the film. But Frank Wolff, God Bless him is having a whale of time playing Proximades the tyrant who shows pieces of what Peter Ustinov did with Nero in Quo Vadis and later on Christopher Plummer in the Fall Of The Roman Empire. Wolff is so infectiously evil, he makes a mediocre film worth watching.

In the early to mid-1960s, there was, believe it or not, a major craze for films set in the classical period starring such heroes as Hercules and Maciste. They were churned out by the dozen by the Italians and they made a butt-load of money throughout the world. So much that American director Roger Corman decided to try to get in on the act, though he never made much of an impact on the genre--and after seeing this film, I could see why.Here, Michael Forest stars as 'Atlas'--a guy who is pretty much like the other muscled heroes of the era (such as Steve Reeves and Peter Lupus). And, like many of the films, he was an American playing lead and the rest of the cast were mostly Italians--especially the extras. In this case, however, more of the supporting cast is non-Italian. Much of the dialog, then, was often dubbed.By the way, although he was not an especially well-known actor, you may just recognize Forest as the man who guest starred on the original "Star Trek" series as the god Apollo. My assumption is that he was probably picked to play this "Star Trek" character because of his prior film experience as Atlas.Oddly, despite the American director who was known for action and horror films, this film is amazingly low-key and a bit dull. You'd think he might have breathed some life into the films, but for the most part, the film is just another tepid action flick--with hardly any action. The costumes aren't especially good and the cast seems tiny--even for a sword and sandal epic. If you note the trivia for this film, you'll see that Corman's original army of 500 extras ended up being, at most 50 through no fault of his own and as filming continued the numbers dwindled. Yet, believe it or not, this tiny cast isn't unusual, as I've seen several films not made by Corman in the genre that had equally tiny "armies". A great example is the rather silly film "Maciste vs. the Moon Men".By the way, I am one of those who has marveled at Corman's ability to do wonderful things with tiny budgets (such as "Little Shop of Horrors" and "Bucket of Blood"). He is a brilliant director, though like most, he has made his share of disappointing films. This one, clearly, is among his worst. This isn't just because it's silly, as I LOVE his silly 1950s horror films, but because the script is so lifeless. It practically puts you to sleep because you keep expecting action and excitement but it just never delivers. Frankly, I wish it HAD been cheesy and silly--that at least would have made watching it fun! As far as fun or funny goes, I had to take what I could find due to bad dubbing. A funny aspect of the film you should look for are the dubbing mistakes. First, there were the trumpeters. When they blow on them, you hear NOTHING--as they apparently forgot to dub this! I especially loved when the boss-man ordered a fight to the death to begin with the blowing of the trumpets. You see the guys blowing away...and absolutely no sound at all!! Yet, miraculously, the guys begin fighting! Another scene consists of dancing girls flitting about...and absolutely NO music!!!! Now that's funny!

Sometimes you see a movie and wonder if it was made just so the crew could enjoy a six-week vacation in a nice place. Unspoiled Greece in 1961 was probably a very pleasant locale indeed for Roger Corman and friends to take such a vacation.The story is a familiar one: Buff, good-hearted but naive hero is tricked by a more worldly man into using his great strength for his benefit until the hero wises up. This is a plot used in the great sagas of Hercules, Sigfred, and Tom Cruise. Here the trusting hero, Atlas, is invited by a city-state tyrant, Praximedes, to be his champion in a fight to the death so that Praximedes can annex some defiant holdout city.The problem with all of this is: the movie is boring. Very boring. The fight scenes lack drama; the battle scenes look like extras throwing sticks that are supposed to be spears at each other. Michael Forest as Atlas can't act - period. Barboura Morris is the sex interest of changeable loyalties; she isn't bad looking, but she doesn't take off near enough clothes. --Oh, don't tell me it was 1961. "Spartacus" was made a year before, and that had a bathing scene. Plus a reference to homosexuality. "Atlas" was never meant to be a big-budget epic. So no excuses, Roger. This kind of movie, you have to sex up if you don't do anything else.Frank Wolff's Praximedes seems to be having a good time; but rather than coming across as a figurative tyrant (he makes no secret that he is a -literal- tyrant), he seems more like a glad-handing jerk, and a distinctly American one at that.I hope the crew enjoyed their vacation. The rest of us, if we want a Greek vacation, should catch "Summer Lovers" or "Venus on Fire".