Hercules – Pietro Francisci, 1958

On the way to her homeland, Iole tells the sturdy hero the unhappy story of her family: While she was still a child, her uncle King Aeson, her father’s brother, was murdered one night in the palace when he was visiting Jolco. After the crime, the wise Chiron and Jason, son of the murdered man, disappeared without being heard from again, as well as the Golden Fleece. Iole suspects that Chiron was the author of his uncle’s death, and that he took his cousin Jason and the precious treasure with him. But Hercules senses that old Chiron, his tutor, is innocent, and suggests that King Pelias himself is responsible (which Iole refuses to accept).

To Pelias the sibyl has prophesied that his kingdom is in danger, and that he must beware of a man who will come before him with only one sandal…. Hercules appears before the sovereign, accompanied by his daughter the princess (Pelias observes his feet with concern, but sees that he wears two sandals on his feet). The demigod’s job is to teach Ifitos, the monarch’s firstborn and Iole’s brother, the arts of war and combat. Ifitos is an arrogant and impertinent young man, who reacts haughtily to his appointed teacher. The insolent prince Hercules is soon taken down a peg, as he proves to him that he is not as skilled in discus throwing as he thought he was.

In Jolco, a bloodthirsty beast begins to wreak havoc: it is the Lion of Nemea, which has devoured several local children. Hercules sets out to neutralize it, and the insolent Iphitos insists on accompanying him, probably because he wants to see the vigorous scion of Zeus defeated. The lion attacks the prince and fatally wounds him. Hercules succeeds in defeating the lion with his prodigious strength, but his protégé Iphitos, for whose life he was responsible, expires. Hercules takes the corpse of the young man to his desolate father, the king. The latter holds him responsible for what happened and charges him with a mission that no one has ever succeeded in accomplishing: to kill the bull of Crete.

Hercules departs to carry out Pelias’ order. After great vicissitudes and a fierce fight, the colossus kills the beast, saving the old man Chiron and Jason, who were being held by the Bull of Crete. Chiron, who had been badly wounded by the monstrous bull, dies soon after without revealing the name of the murderer of Aeson, brother of the king of Jolko and father of Jason. The Golden Fleece is no longer in their possession.

Hercules and Jason return to Jolco after the mission accomplished. Now Pelias has an heir to the throne, his nephew. On the way Hercules and Jason help a woman and her young daughters cross a stream, and on that occasion Pelias’ nephew loses one of his sandals swept away by the current…. When both arrive at the court of Jolco, Jason wears only one sandal, and the king remembers the prophecy of the sibyl.

Jason proposes to go in search of the Golden Fleece, and several members of the court offer to accompany him, among them Argus, Castor and Pollux, and Hercules himself. The decrepit and despondent Pelias has no choice but to authorize the expedition. Pelias has an enigmatic and sinister advisor, who speculates on the possibility of becoming his successor in place of Jason. That advisor departs with the Argonauts as a member of the crew for the purpose of sabotaging the mission.

New adventures await Hercules and his companions, who, in search of the Golden Fleece, will stop at the island of the Amazons; the as attractive as viperine warrior women…