IKE STEVE REEVES, Mario Bava was rewarded for his work on Le fatiche di Ercole with a simple paycheck. There
would be no future dividends from its suc- cess, only the possibility that its popularity would bring him more opportunities to work. At this stage of his career, however, Bava’s range of talents was already so well-known within the industry that he was always work- ing, always in demand—it was the Italian cin- ema itself that continued to inhabit a twilight of uncertainty.
In late 1957 and early 1958, Pietro Francisci’s Hercules film was being shaped in the editing room by Mario Serandrei, still six months away from its world-shaking suc- cess. Likewise, I vampiri’s disappointing per- formance at the Italian boxoffice had not re- sulted in a demand for imitations; the horror genre remained as moribund in Italy as it had always been. It was an in-between time when Italian production companies were scrambling madly about looking for the next escapist trend.
