Hercules Unchained (Italian: Ercole e la regina di Lidia [ˈɛrkole е la reˈdʒiːna di ˈliːdja], “Hercules and the Queen of Lydia“) is a 1959 Italian-French epic fantasy feature film starring Steve Reeves and Sylva Koscina in a story about two warring brothers and Hercules’ tribulations in the court of Queen Omphale. The film is the sequel to the Reeves vehicle Hercules (1958) and marks Reeves’ second – and last – appearance as Hercules. The film’s screenplay, loosely based upon various Greek mythology and plays by Aeschylus and Sophocles, was written by Ennio De Concini and Pietro Francisci with Francisci directing and Bruno Vailati and Ferruccio De Martino producing the film.

The tale of Hercules and Queen Omphale is taken from the ancient Greek myth, of which there are several variations throughout history. Character names are drawn from a mixture of various Greek legends and plays, notably The Seven Against Thebes by Aeschylus and Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles. Hercules’ line “I wove the threads [of my memory] together” is a reference to his task of spinning thread and weaving with Omphale’s attendants. The film is only very loosely based on the source material, randomly mixing events and featuring characterizations varying from those depicted in the sources.

color, mono, widescreen, 89 minutes. DVD-R comes packaged as shown in color DVD case, wrapped in plastic!