Ercole l’invincibile came to American audiences as Son of Hercules in the Land of Darkness. Of these thirteen movies in the Embassy Pictures package offered to TV channels, two had Hercules, none had his children Alexiares, Anicetus, Telephus, Hyllus and Tlepolemus, and four were Maciste movies.

Ercole, or Hercules, is played by Dan Vadis, a former U.S. Navy sailor and bodybuilder who was a member of the Mae West “Muscleman Revue.” He had already played Hercules in The Triumphs of Hercules and after these movies, moved into Westerns, the films of Clint Eastwood and finished his career in Seven Magnificent Gladiators.

After saving Telca (Spela Rozin, Strange Girls) from a lion, her father Kabol (Ken Clark) offers her hand in marriage if he gets a dragon’s tooth for him. That tooth is impossible to pull out unless the dragon is dead, but a witch (Olga Solbelli) claims she can help make a spear. But that tooth has magic that only works once and the witch also wants the tooth. There is also a tribe of cannibals who eat hearts called the Demulus, led by Ella (Carla Calo).

Director Alvaro Mancori was also the cinematographer of the peplum horror crossover Goliath and the Vampires. He used the name Al World here and in the only other movie he made, the anthology The Double Bed, he was Al Wood.

Don’t have the box set? You can watch this on Tubi.