History Film / TheLovesOfHercules

A 1960 Italian SwordAndSandal film, one of four films to star Hollywood power couple Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay.

* TheDogBitesBack: The Amazon Queen takes on male lovers, then when she grows bored with them, {{Baleful Polymorph}}s them into trees. Eventually, one of her former victims captures her in his branch-arms, and crushes her.

* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: Licos is set up as the main villain throughout most of the movie: he personally kills Hercules' wife, and afterwards schemes to take over the kingdom from Deianera. But rather than face off against the protagonist, he gets killed by a random sasquatch while hiding in a cave from Hercules. The sasquatch--who was only foreshadowed in an easy-to-miss bit of dialogue about a "savage man"--winds up as Herc's final opponent.

* AllAmazonsWantHercules: Hippolyta wants a piece of Hercules so badly she was willing to change her appearance to look like Deianera, despite that she apparently believes the loss of features to be the greatest price any woman can pay. But apparently "Hercules is worth it."

** While the script wasn't great about its female characters, a major contributor to Deianera's lack of being able to physically defend herself likely stemmed from the fact Jayne Mansfield was pregnant during filming.

* DamselInDistress: Deianera is pretty much incapable of taking care of herself, constantly needing rescue and at least once relying on blind luck in Hercules not killing her during her TrialByOrdeal. By the end of the film, Licos is dragging her off just because he can, and even a ''sasquatch'' wants her.

** Licos ''may'' have been [[GenreSavvy sharp enough]] to foresee the whole DystopiaIsHard thing ahead of time, and sought to use Hercules as a sort of HateSink (since he was already involved, via his wife's murder) to make himself appear more appealing to the citizenry. Of course, Herc refused to play along, and once Licos's plan was [[WhatAnIdiot blathered out]] in front of a servant who promptly informed Deianera, a military coup was probably his only viable option.

** Depending on which version of the Hercules myth you go with, his wife Megara should have either been killed by Hercules himself during a bout of a Hera caused madness (leading to the famous twelve labors to atone for her death and the death of their children) or given to Lolaus after he left Thebes. Megara being killed as part of a mortal political plot is wholly an invention of the film.

* AllAmazonsWantHercules: Hippolyta wants a piece of Hercules so badly so was willing to change her appearance to look like Deianera, despite that she apparently believes the loss of features to be the greatest price any woman can pay. But apparently "Hercules is worth it."

While Hercules is away, his people and the woman he loves are killed by the king of Ecalia. Hercules goes to Ecalia to revenge his dead. When he arrives in Ecalia he finds that the king is dead and Queen Deianera reigns. He saves her and falls for her, but Deianera has been promised to Acheloo. His efforts then get entangled with a conspiracy led by Licos, the head of Deianera's armies, along with encounters with the Amazons, the Hydra and other monsters...

* AllAmazonsWantHercules: Hippolyta wants a piece of Hercules so badly so was willing to change her appearance to look like Deianera, despite that she apparently believes the loss of features to be the greatest price any woman can pay. But apparently "Hercules is worth it".

-- '''Jonah Heston:''' I must have fallen asleep in Greek Mythology the day they talked about Sasquatch.

* SadlyMythtaken: The crew seems to have gotten their multi-headed monsters from Greek mythology mixed up. Here, the Hydra guards the Underworld, even though that's supposed to be Cerberus's job.

* AmazonsLoveHercules: Hippolyta wants a piece of Hercules so badly so was willing to change her appearance to look like Deianera, despite that she apparently believes the loss of features to be the greatest price any woman can pay. But apparently "Hercules is worth it".

While Hercules is away, his people and the woman he loves are killed by the king of Ecalia. Hercules goes to Ecalia to revenge his dead. When he arrives in Ecalia he finds that the king is dead and queen Dianira reigns. He saves her and falls for her, but Dianira has been promised to Acheloo. His deed became more and more hard among Licos's conspiracy, the Amazons, the Hydra and other monsters...

** Licos ''may'' have been [[GenreSavvy sharp enough]] to foresee the whole DystopiaIsHard thing ahead of time, and sought to use Hercules as a sort of HateSink (since he was already involved, via his wife's murder) to make himself appear more appealing to the citizenry. Of course, Herc refused to play along, and once Licos's plan was [[WhatAnIdiot blathered out]] in front of a servant who promptly informed Dainira, a military coup was probably his only viable option.

* EveryoneCanSeeIt: The budding relationship between Hercules and Dainira is common knowledge within days. Hippolyta's scheme to bag Hercules is even dependent on it, despite the fact that given the time period the movie takes place over, she probably should have only just learned that Hercules was a widower.

* KnifeThrowingAct: Dianira's trial by ordeal consists of tying her to a wall and seeing if Hercules can cut her free using some throwing axes without injuring her.

** The hydra here dies after Herc cuts off just one of its heads. In spite of the fact that the mythological hydra [[HyrdaProblem entire shtick]] was that you ''couldn't'' kill it by cutting off its head.

!!ProvidesExamplesOf:

* AdaptationalWimp: Despite being played by a Mr. Universe winner, Hercules really is not that impressive here, often struggling heavily in his various feats of strength.

* SadlyMythtaken: The crew seems to have gotten their multi-headed monsters from Greek mythology mixed up, as the Hydra rather than Cerberus guards the Underworld.

A 1960 Italian sword 'n sandal film, one of four films to star Hollywood power couple Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay.

* SadlyMythtaken: The crew seems to have gotten their multi-headed monsters from Greek mythology mixed up, as the Hydra rather than Cerberus guards the Underworld.

* GambitPileup: Several villains who have nothing to do with each other all have the misfortune of running afoul of the world's strongest man.

* XanatosPileup: Several villains who have nothing to do with each other all have the misfortune of running afoul of the world's strongest man.