Hercules in the Haunted World
Hercules in the Haunted World is a 1961 Italian sword-and-sandal film directed by Mario Bava. British bodybuilder Reg Park plays Hercules while British actor Christopher Lee appears as Hercules' nemesis Lico. Shooting at Cinecittà , director Mario Bava used some of the same sets from the earlier Hercules and the Conquest of Atlantis which also stars Park.
Italian film poster for Hercules in the Haunted World
Sword-and-sandal, also known as peplum, is a subgenre of largely Italian-made historical, mythological, or biblical epics mostly set in the Greco-Roman antiquity or the Middle Ages. These films attempted to emulate the big-budget Hollywood historical epics of the time, such as Samson and Delilah (1949), Quo Vadis (1951), The Robe (1953), The Ten Commandments (1956), Ben-Hur (1959), Spartacus (1960), and Cleopatra (1963). These films dominated the Italian film industry from 1958 to 1965, eventually being replaced in 1965 by spaghetti Western and Eurospy films.
This poster for Goliath and the Barbarians (1959) by Carlo Campogalliani illustrates many people's expectations from films of this genre.
Kirk Douglas and Silvana Mangano in a pause during the shootings of Ulysses (1954) by Mario Camerini
Duel of the Titans (1961) by Sergio Corbucci
My Son, the Hero (1962) by Duccio Tessari