Musings!

Alan Steel, as Ursus, and his two Annoying Sidekicks, Arnaldo Dell'Acqua and Enzo Maggio, in THE THREE AVENGERS (1964)

I've already written about this movie in the past. I like it. Except for those two industrial-strength 'Annoying Sidekicks' of Ursus. They almost ruin the movie. Almost. But the location, great cast and, well, just Alan himself is enough to overlook those two liabilities. The story is not super compelling and there's a bizarre 'blind' interlude that doesn't go anywhere but for the most part is an eye-pleasing, fun movie. So today I want to write about Alan. 

Mind you, Alan is my second favourite PEPLUM star, right after Steve Reeves. I think he just adds so much to the movies he's in. With that being said, and if I'm being honest, Alan had some issue with body weight. In some movies he's super fit. In other, he obviously gained some weight, like in HERCULES AND THE BLACK PIRATE (1964). He still looked great but...plump. Sorta what they call Fit Fat. In this movie he's in between the two stages. The costume he wears here, well, mostly the pants, don't help him. I don't know if it's because of the heat of the Tunisian location, but his hair looks terrible as well. It's an odd situation in which his appearance fluctuated so much between productions. Sometimes even during the entire movie itself (movies can, in some cases, take months to shoot). It's the same thing with Steve Reeves but not weight issues but how his physique changed so much in between movies. In THE GIANT OF MARATHON (1959), Steve looked fashion model slim but in HERCULES UNCHAINED (1959), he looked massive. It's one of those particular things which is part of dealing with and that's very specific to the PEPLUM genre.