HERCULES DOES HIS THING

HERCULES series c.1958-1970
dirs: various


MAD VISITS JOE LEVENAL, HOLLYWOOD'S LATEST PRODUCING GENIUS
Mad #66, October 1961
w: Larry Siegel
a: Mort Drucker

Joseph E. LeVine was the owner of Avco Embassy Pictures. They released plenty of well-known films but were best known for repackaging the Godzilla and Hercules franchises. Hercules Unchained was the most recent of the latter when this was written.

The Hercules movies were financed in Italy and starred Steve Reeves.

There's Marlon Brando in line at the movie.

This was in Movie Land Magazine in issue #54, April 1960, written by Larry Siegel, art by Joe Orlando. The joke here, of course, is a nerd like Arnold Stang playing a he-man like Hercules, though in Hercules in New York, considered by most to be even worse than the Avco series, Stang plays Hercules' sidekick.

Most people know of the series from Mystery Science Theater 3000.

As much as these movies are looked down on, there were imitations with even smaller budgets and production values.