Hercules A BAVA’S cinematography at its most iconic:
Steve Reeves as Hercules, preparing to topple the columns at Jolco in LE FATICHE DI ERCOLE.
LL OF THE HOPES held by Riccardo Freda and Mario Bava for I vampiri—that it would mine infinite new territory for Italian filmmaking, and
perhaps make them a nice little nest egg in the pro- cess—would be realized instead by Pietro Francisci’s next production, a colorful, Hollywood-style spectacle based on the Greek myths of the labors of Herakles. When one refers back to the original myths of Her- cules (the Roman form of his name), those who know the character only from his filmed exploits may be startled by the dark anguish of his story—it’s not un- like comparing Disney’s Snow White to the grisly folk tale recorded for posterity by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.