EDITOR’S NOTE: Atlas was on Chiller Theater on Sunday, February 2 at 11:10 p.m. and Saturday, March 14, 1964 at 4:00 p.m.

A movie that caused writer Charles B. Griffith to say, “Atlas was a mess. It was a doomed project.”

Corman was on his way to England to make a film about Gary Powers’ U2 crash called I Flew a Spy Plane Over Russia, based on a script by Robert Towne. Towne got writer’s block after twenty pages. Corman felt like an idiot and left; meanwhile, Griffith was stranded for two years in Israel: “I was involved in an Israeli war picture about helicopters, which never got finished, when Roger decided to make Atlas. This was after Little Shop, and I wanted to make it as Atlas, the Guided Muscle, but Roger wanted to make a Hercules, Italian-type thing. Roger had a deal to shoot it in Puerto Rico, so it was going to be a jungle picture about Atlas and Zeus. Ancient Greece could have jungles, so why not? But I was on my way to Israel because of the helicopter picture that collapsed in the desert. So Roger and I flew to New York together, and we worked on the details of Atlas. Then I boarded a ship going to Israel… I was stranded in Israel for two years, and Roger wouldn’t send me the fare to get out. I wound up doing some pictures in Israel.”

Corman wanted to make this an epic and cash in on the success of Hercules. He did not have the budget to do that.

The shoot was even less fun.

Griffith recalled that the actors “…were very rebellious. Roger was in a towering rage throughout. There was a Greek cameraman and a Greek crew. Nobody knew left from right. The army couldn’t march. They tore the noseguards off their papier-mache helmets so their relatives could recognize them in the picture, with paper hanging down from their helmets. The tips of their spears were hanging down because they were made out of rubber, which I had to have done at a tire shop around the corner of the set. It was a lot of fun…. Roger broke his sunglasses in half and had a temper tantrum. He went a little mad during that picture. We went off afterward and got shipwrecked.”

King Proximates (Frank Wolff, who on Corman’s advice remained in Europe as a character actor in over fifty, mostly Italian-made, films; he cut his own throat in his early 40s, depressed over his divorce; his voice in Milan Caliber 9, his last movie, was dubbed by his co-star in this film, Michael Forrest) and King Talektos (Andreas Filippides) have been at war for a long time. Perhaps they could each choose a champion, and that champion could decide the outcome?

He uses his priestess, Candia (Barboura Morris), and philosopher Garnis (Walter Maslow) to recruit Atlas (Forrest) to be his champion. While Atlas easily wins, Proximates sets up Telekthos, who is put to death, and he takes over the city. Atlas quickly battles back and takes Candia with him, leaving all of this behind for Egypt.

The Greeks also didn’t send enough soldiers, so reshoots had Dick Miller and Corman dressed up. As for the modern ruins in the background, they highlight that the country has been at war for a long time.

Proximates is excellent, though, a bitchy ruler who says things like this:

You can watch this on Tubi.