Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Hercules in New York (1970)

12/25/2021

Hercules in New York (1970) - Arnie's big, bulging debut

♥♥

This bright poster for Arthur Allan Seidelman's Hercules in New York, - which bills Arnold Schwarzegger using a made-up last name that would soon be retired, - certainly doesn't sell itself short

Hercules rises as a young rebel from Olympus and winds up in New York City, where his extraordinary strength soon arouses attention.

Hercules in New York is written by Aubrey Wisberg (The Big Fix (1947)) and directed by debuting Arthur Allan Seidelman (Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks (2014)).

In the following escapades of Hercules, he meets a woman and beats a bear to death, among other things. Naturally this acting debut for Arnold Strong, - better known as Arnold Schwarzenegger (Conan the Destroyer (1984)), - holds quite a bit of curio value. For unknown reasons it wasn't until well into the 1980s that Schwarzenegger would be taken seriously as a starring power in his breakthrough Conan the Barbarian (1982).

The effects are crazy (bad), and the story is loony, - but you can't argue with Schwarzenegger's Mr. Universe shape. It is impressive!

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 300k $

Box office: Unknown

= Uncertain - but presumably a flop

[Hercules in New York premiered 25 February (North Carolina) and runs 92 minutes. Schwarzenegger, 22 years old at the time, was encouraged to audition by his bodybuilding friend Reg Park, who had appeared in a number of Hercules movies. He was paid 12k $ for his performance. Shooting took place in October 1969 - ? in New York. Several scenes, including the Times Square chariot race scene, were shot without permits. Schwarzenegger's voice was deemed unusable due to his thick Austrian accent and he was dubbed over by an uncredited voice actor; but Trimark's 'original English dialog' DVD release has Schwarzenegger's voice, only not in the final scene, in which he was not present at the time of shooting. The film seems to have been a flop, but the numbers aren't available to back up the claim. RAF Industries, the only production company behind it, folded up after its release, which seems to have been solely in North America. Rights holder Premiere Pictures attempted to auction off the rights in 2006 for 550k $, but it is unclear (and doubtful) whether they were successful. Seidelman returned with NET Playhouse (1970, TV-series) and theatrically with Children of Rage (1975). Schwarzenegger returned with an uncredited appearance in The Long Goodbye (1973); Arnold Stang (Flying Saucer (1976, short)) with a voice performance in Marco Polo Jr. (1972). 18k+ IMDb users have given Hercules in New York a 3.3/10 average rating.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

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Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

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Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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12/25/2021

Hercules in New York (1970) - Arnie's big, bulging debut

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