The Science!? 05: Hercules Against The Moon Men (1964)

Some time ago (could be decades, could be centuries) a part of the moon fell onto Earth, making a nice new mountain in Greece near the city of Samar. As is customary, the rock is home to a race of aliens who press the Samarians into regular sacrifices of young women and men. Now, an unspecified time later, the townsfolk are finally ready to rise up against their tormentors, especially since they are able to summon the help of unflappable hero Hercules (Alan Steel) (Maciste in the original version of the film).
Unfortunately their queen Samara (Jany Clair) doesn't agree. She can't resist the aliens' promise to become queen of the world when their plans finally come to fruition. To achieve this goal she will even kill her family and sacrifice her sister Bilis (Delia D'Alberti) to the invaders.
One cannot measure a peplum's quality the same way one measures the quality of a common movie. Logic, characterization and acting quality are as dust in the eyes of the Greco-Italian gods. To still be able to ramble on about them, I have invented the Herculean Five Part Formula.
The first part is of course the Herculean People Throwing Scale. Since I sometimes lost count during the course of the movie, I have to go with eleven of ten points.
Part two is the Herculean Manly Bellylaugh Scale, a very weak point of ...against the Moon Men that leaves me no other choice than to award only two points.
Part three is the Herculean SM Kink Scale. I computed a very solid eight here.
Part four is the Herculean Man In Rubber Suit Scale, an aspect that made me at first fear the worst for the poor little movie in question. A very rubber-suity second half lead to six points, though.
The last and absolutely not least part of my formula is the Herculean Strange Colors & Artificial Sets Scale. An eight seems more than justified to me.
After ignoring the lowest scale, I calculate 33 of 40 possible points - a very commendable achievement.
Leaving all scientific objectivity aside - the grand finale of the movie is a gorgeous mixture of color, beautiful artificiality (and rubber suits) that more than makes up for some slower moments in the first and second act. I was not at all surprised when I learned that director Giacomo Gentilomo left the movie business for the painting world soon after finishing ...Against the Moon Men. (What exactly is it with Italian directors and painting anyway? Mario Bava was a painter too and Dario Argento is obviously highly influenced by the art form. Something to keep in mind, I think.)