Ursus, wearing only a pair of shorts, spots a girl, who he recognises as Diana with his 20:20 vision fall into a lake which happens to be the border between two lands, so he dives in and swims across to the other side to rescue her. He's the leader of the peaceful Shepherd farming community and their sharp vicissitudes of misfortune is what this movie is all about.
After only 16 minutes Ursus is fighting 5 "giants", throwing rocks at them until a landside stops his fun. By now he's put some clothes on and looks more like Tony Curtis from "The Vikings" with his white sheepskin sleeveless jacket and woolly boots than a son of Hercules.
The movie then moves into the usual Peplum Studios storyline:
1. Evil queen or general murders king or emperor. 2. Beautiful princess gets persecuted. 3. Princess gets the help of the local muscle man. 4. Men in skirts fight other men in skirts. 5. Problem solved and they all live happy ever after. Who needs an army to fight another army when you've got somebody like the mighty, with a capital "M", Ursus.
Ursus has plenty of opportunities to show off his muscular prowness as he faces all the challenges thrown at him, each one harder than the other. In one particular scene Ursus attends a tournament to find the strongest man where the winner will be granted one wish. In order to compete Ursus must first pass a test of strength. You see him clad in a leopard skin and black plastic outfit with a seriously ridiculous helmet on, pitting his strength against two chariot drivers. You can clearly see the blocks underneath the wheels to stop them from moving.
Torture plays a big part in the story and these cunning bad guys don't play by the rules. In another scene Ursus is challenged to a duel offering 5 different weapons that can be used at any time. His opponent chooses 5 men as his weapons.
Ed Fury doesn't have the stage presence of Steve Reeves or Reg Park for example, but he does put his muscles to good use. The fight scenes are well staged, (as well as you would expect from Peplum), with Ursus killing his enemies by tapping them with his plastic sword and knocking them out with one blow. He doesn't look as tall as he actually is. (6ft. or 1.83m.) There are two scenes in particular where he seems to have difficulty lifting up two women who look bigger than him.
All in all, this is one of the better movies from Peplum's library that deserves the widescreen letterbox treatment that you see in the newly released DVD versions rather than the middle-cut versions they were originally released in.
Finally, I myself ,love these English recordings of "the sons of Hercules" that begin with such a heartwarming song you feel you want to sing along to, that really belongs in a western. You can nearly hear those horses hooves clacking along as the song plays. The movie's worth watching just to listen to the song that is a gentle reminder of those days in the front row at Saturday's movie matinee.
Remember: " They are there when the need arises."
bcarruthers-76500
Review of Ursus in the Land of Fire
