♥♥
 |
| 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.]
What do you think of Hercules in New York?
No comments:
Post a Comment