Review of Hercules in New York (1970) by Stacie — 04 Oct 2007

Hercules gets thrown out of Mount Olympus and down to New York City. Once there, he's chased by bears, promoters, thunderbolts, beautiful women and all the other scary things you've always heard about in Manhattan. Along the way, he wears a toga and drives a chariot through Times Square which -- who would have guessed? -- draws the attention of the professional wrestling crowd. In the end, he has to prove that he's the son of Zeus. But he does and, of course, lives happily ever after. Tears, applause, lights please!

OK, there's a lot to laugh about in this movie, and Arnold would be one of the first to laugh with you. His voice was dubbed (he sounds like a nerd), his name was changed (he's billed as "Arnold Strong"), and his acting was as good as the script (he admits he was clueless).

But behind the obvious humor of seeing him take his first step in front of a camera, there's a more interesting story. At this point in Arnold's life, the opportunity to play Hercules on the silver screen was a dream come true. "I'd read about those situations where people come to Hollywood and get discovered but it was definately something that I never expected would happen. But nine months after coming to America I got a call that they wanted to see me to play in a Hercules movie and I was so shocked that what I'd thought was fantasy was actually happening to me. Here's a guy just coming off the boat and they're saying 'You have this Mr. Universe body and we want you in a Hercules movie', and that's exactly what my dream was as a kid -- to be a bodybuilder like Reg Park or Steve Reeves (who'd both played the mythical hero) and use that to go into the movies... and it happened like that! Too fast as a matter of fact... because I wasn't ready for it. My career as a bodybuilder wasn't even finished yet... but this was one of those fantasy things where you think, 'I must still be in the middle of a dream,' and I took on the challenge anyway.".

And given the fact that this started his acting career -- aren't we glad he did?