Uriah43 This movie begins with "Hercules" (Mark Forest) coming upon a young Oriental mother with her children somewhere in Central Europe or Russia who want to get across a river. So Hercules pulls up a big tree by the roots to use as a make-shift bridge for them to cross. As a token of appreciation the young mother proceeds to read Hercules fortune and describes an oncoming Mongol army led by 3 brothers who will cause him some trouble along the way. As it turns out Genghis Khan has just died and his 3 sons named "Karikan" (Renato Terra), "Sayan" (Ken Clark) and "Susdal" (Renato Rossini) decide to violate their father's last request and lead their armies westward to ravage and plunder those kingdoms who are at peace with them. One of the first cities they attack is called "Tudela" which they capture with ease. Although they kill the king his young son "Alexander" (Loris Loddi) manages to escape. However, the king's daughter named "Bianca" (Jose Greci) is taken prisoner and thrown into the dungeon awaiting their pleasure. But Hercules has plans to the contrary. Now rather than reveal any more of the film I will just say that this particular movie seemed to lack cohesion and solidity. As a matter of fact other than Maria Gracia Spina (as the Mongol wife of Karikan named "Lee-Wan"), who lent her beauty to the screen, there wasn't anything that remarkable about this movie at all. The English dubbing was ludicrous, the fabricated historical plot was silly and the action was rather boring. In short, I rate this movie as below average.

Oslo Jargo (Bartok Kinski) Maciste contro i Mongoli (1963) or Hercules Against the Mongols (USA) uses the same two sons of Genghis Khan that were in Hercules Against the Barbarians (1964).Mark Forest as Hercules/Maciste is again a stiff bore.Hercules/Maciste fights against the three sons of Genghis Khan. Not much happens. Scenes are recycled from this and put into Hercules Against the Barbarians (1964).Sub-standard peplum/Sword-and-sandal flick that has nothing to do with the Sword-and-sandal genre. I think it's just a re-titled Maciste (a Hercules-like figure) flick. Hercules aides the Russians against a Mongol invasion in the 13th century.Mark Forest plays Hercules and he's a complete bore. Most scenes are dull and boring. There's a bit of interest in the Mongol bad guys played by a few hefty European or American weight lifters, other than that, it's sub-standard stuff.

Maciste_Brother As far as Sword & Sandal films go, HERCULES AGAINST THE MONGOLS is a pretty good effort. The film moves at a really fast clip. Technically, the film is well directed, with a little more thought put into it than most cardboard actioners from Italy. The cast is uniformly good looking: Mark Forest is in top shape and is basically shirtless throughout the movie and he has a couple of stand-out scenes which showcases his muscular physique (he even gets hurt by an arrow!). José Greci, a regular in these kind of films, is truly gorgeous and makes an impressive "royalty". The actors playing Mongols don't look like Mongols but then I believe there were few Mongol actors back then (or even now).Like so many of these movies, there's a kid (or a little people). His name is Alex and the kid is not really that annoying but the female actor who supplies his voice is just awful. Every time I heard her voice, I wanted to smash the TV.The sets (interior and exterior) are excellent and believable. Most of the film was shot outside, which gives some credence to the whole film. No studio-bound exterior sets like the ones in HERCULES AGAINST THE BARBARIANS, which also stars the exact same cast but with a completely different story. The costumes and the music are also above average. Nothing earth-shattering but I really had a good time.

dinky-4 Though the original "Hercules" movies stayed within the classical world of Greco-Roman myths, later entries in this genre began to wander to other places, other eras. Some of these later movies put Hercules (or Maciste, Samson, Goliath, Ursus, etc.) into Central Asia and this is one of the better examples of that sub-genre. It stars Michael Forest, one of Steve Reeves' more successful wanna-be's, and it boasts decent production values including several outdoor battle scenes complete with charging horsemen. The plot, of course, is the usual hodgepodge of familiar elements, and while Forest possesses the required "beefcake," his bondage sequences lack style and originality. First, Mongols force the chained Hercules to carry and put into place a heavy stone beam. Later they chain him inside a cave in a wooden yoke and leave him to starve. Both sequences seem little more than routine.Ken Clark, who always deserved better, is largely wasted as the nastiest of Genghis Khan's three sons. He doesn't even get to take his shirt off.