Friday, March 10, 2023

The mystery of HERCULES (1953)


Major Cinematic Confusion.

I accidentally came across a listing of a Filipino movie called HERCULES at IMDB. It apparently was released in 1953. I never heard of this. Its IMDB listing is sparse. I was highly skeptical of this but then I found a comic book based on it. 

 

I'm like "Ok, what is this?"

I found the comic book at a blog and one comment said that there's no such thing as HERCULES released in 1953 but another movie called PALASIG released in 1952. 



If there's a Filipino version of Hercules (not the SAMSON AND DELILAH from the 1980s) then I would think it would have ben released in the 1960s, after the success of the HERCULES (1958), the Steve Reeves version. The look of the poster at the top is more 1960s than early 1950s. As for the comic book, again, it might just be a knock-off. The whole thing is shrouded in mystery.

If anyone has a clip or some genuine info on this please leave a comment.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gloria Romero's extensive filmography [ https://alchetron.com/Gloria-Romero-(actress) ] makes no mention of any film called Hercules.
From what I can see, HERCULES was the title of a 1952 comic also by Clodualdo del Mundo (Pilipino Komiks #122, see http://unanglabas.blogspot.com/2013/02/hercules.html?m=1 ). The origin, authenticity, purpose or use of the top image which lists the two actors and makes mention of the comic remains a mystery.

In the case of PALASIG, the comic of the same name first came out in 1950 and so presumably the 1952 film was based on it (http://unanglabas.blogspot.com/2012/04/palasig.html?m=1).

Anonymous said...

A clearer view of the image in question (https://video48.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-fifties-575-cesar-ramirez-and.html) shows white blanked out areas top left and right, plus bleeding through of printed text into the white background. It looks like it might have been a printed promotion for the comic. Another link uses that image but has the title pasted under the names of the actors without the reference line to the comic (https://www.moviefone.com/movie/hercules/kWT2JzdHyFOm9H8qwBsp63/main/). Again there are no other credits as one would expect to find on a poster of an actual film.

PEPLUM TV said...

That's the blog where I got the comic book panel. The 'poster' has a watermark on it that's why I didn't use it.

Anonymous said...


(The blog's watermark is visible on the comic book panel you are using under the title Hercules.)