In Italy, this was called Anthar l’invincibile but it was also released as Devil of the Desert Against the Son of Hercules in the U.S. when Embassy Pictures released it to American TV stations as part of their Sons of Hercules package. It also has the AKA titles Anthar the Invincible and Soraya, Queen of the Desert.

It’s directed by Antonio Margheriti and written by Guido Malatesta (Maciste Contro i Cacciatori di Teste), Arturo Rígel and André Tabet. It starts with the evil Ganor, Devil of the Desert (Mario Feliciani) murdering the sultan, nearly doing the same to his son Daikor (Manuel Gallardo) and forcing Princess Soraya (Michèle Girardon) into marriage.

She’s so upset that she jumps out a window, only to be saved by Anthar (Kirk Morris), who just as soon nearly loses her to slavery. Anthar is the level of another shirtless hero in a Margheriti movie, Yor Hunter from the Future, as he gets captured or screws up more often than any other peplum good guy.

The end is amazing, because Margheriti rips off — pays tribute to? — The Lady from Shanghai, which is pretty wild when you think about this movie’s budget and that it was a film that was following the peplum trend and it still has the energy to pull something from Orson Welles.

There’s also a battle between Anthar and a rhino. I mean, where else are you getting that?

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