''Hercules Returns'' is a 1993 Australian

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by David Parker, starring

David Argue David J. Argue (born 1959) is an Australian actor. He is best known for his role as Snowy in '' Gallipoli'' as well as the lead role in the 1993 film '' Hercules Returns'' and Dicko in the 1983 film ''Razorback''. Filmography Films Televisi ...

Michael Carman Michael Carman (born 11 October 1951) is an Australian film, television, and theatre actor. He trained at St Martins Theatre from 1969 to 1971 and attended Swinburne Film and Television School from 1971 to 1974. Filmography Film Television ...

Bruce Spence Bruce Spence (born 17 September 1945) is a New Zealand–Australian actor. Spence has amassed over 100 film and television credits and has also acted in theatre. Biography Spence won an AFI Award for Best Actor for his role in the 1971 comedy ...

and

Mary Coustas Mary Coustas (born 16 September 1964) is an Australian actress, comedian and television personality and writer. Originally from Melbourne, Coustas often performs as the character " Effie", a stereotypical second-generation Greek Australian pr ...

. The film has a

cult following A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic ...

in Australia and other countries. It has been released in DVD format ( Region 4, format 16:9). It was the first feature directed by David Parker although he had written and produced a number of other films.

Synopsis

Film buff Brad McBain (Argue), a frustrated employee of Australia's largest

cinema Cinema may refer to: Film * Cinematography, the art of motion-picture photography * Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of a moving image ** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking ...

chain, The Kent Corporation, quits his job and decides to set up and re-open the Picture Palace, a palatial disused cinema in St Kilda, Melbourne, to show classic old films in the old-fashioned style. As a

gimmick A gimmick is a novel device or idea designed primarily to attract attention or increase appeal, often with little intrinsic value. When applied to retail marketing, it is a unique or quirky feature designed to make a product or service "stand ou ...

he chooses the last picture that the cinema featured, ''

Samson and His Mighty Challenge ''Samson and His Mighty Challenge'' is a 1964 Italian sword-and-sandal film, released in 1965 at the very tail end of the peplum craze. Its original title was ''Ercole, Sansone, Maciste e Ursus gli invincibili'' (''Hercules, Samson, Maciste, and ...

'' (an Italian film, originally released in 1964 as '' Ercole, Sansone, Maciste e Ursus: gli invincibili''). When the

print Printing is the process for reproducing text and images using a master form or template Print or printing may also refer to: Publishing * Canvas print, the result of an image printed onto canvas which is often stretched, or gallery-wrapped, o ...

arrives at the grand gala opening they discover that it is in unsubtitled Italian, and Brad suspects that his old boss, Sir Michael Kent (Carman), has in some way sabotaged the delivery so that McBain can fail at his achievement and keep Kent's business running successfully. This calls for desperate measures and McBain, his

projectionist A projectionist is a person who operates a movie projector, particularly as an employee of a movie theater. Projectionists are also known as "operators". Historical background N.B. The dates given in the subject headings are approximate. Early ...

Sprocket A sprocket, sprocket-wheel or chainwheel is a profiled wheel with teeth that mesh with a chain, track or other perforated or indented material. The name 'sprocket' applies generally to any wheel upon which radial projections engage a chain pass ...

(Spence) and his

publicist A publicist is a person whose job is to generate and manage publicity for a company, a brand, or public figure – especially a celebrity – or for a work such as a book, film, or album. Publicists are public relations specialists w ...

Lisa (Coustas) are forced to improvise

voice-over Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non-diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations. ...

s for the entire film with hilarious results. Kent (Carman) also attends the screening, hoping to see it fail. As he realises that the crowd is enjoying the film, he storms up to the projection box. He and McBain fight just as the film reaches its climax; McBain breaks the

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cent ...

several times so that the fight in the projection box corresponds with the fight on the screen. Kent is knocked out, and the film is a huge success.

Cast

as Brad McBain *

as Sir Michael Kent *

as Lisa *

as Sprocket * Voice of Des Mangan as

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted th ...

Samson Samson (; , '' he, Šīmšōn, label= none'', "man of the sun") was the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Book of Judges (chapters 13 to 16) and one of the last leaders who "judged" Israel before the institution ...

Machismo Machismo (; ; ; ) is the sense of being " manly" and self-reliant, a concept associated with "a strong sense of masculine pride: an exaggerated masculinity". Machismo is a term originating in the early 1930s and 1940s best defined as hav ...

Ursus Ursus is Latin for bear. It may also refer to: Animals * ''Ursus'' (mammal), a genus of bears People * Ursus of Aosta, 6th-century evangelist * Ursus of Auxerre, 6th-century bishop * Ursus of Solothurn, 3rd-century martyr * Ursus (''praefectus ...

, Testiculi * Voice of Sally Patience as

Labia The labia are part of the female genitalia; they are the major externally visible portions of the vulva. In humans, there are two pairs of labia: the '' labia majora'' (or the outer labia) are larger and thicker, while the '' labia minora'' are ...

, Muriel, Fanny,

Delilah Delilah ( ; , meaning "delicate";Gesenius's ''Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon'' ar, دليلة, Dalīlah; grc, label=Greek, Δαλιδά, Dalidá) is a woman mentioned in the sixteenth chapter of the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible. She is loved b ...

* Voice of Matthew King as Charlie *

Frank Thring Francis William Thring (11 May 1926 – 29 December 1994) was an Australian character actor in radio, stage, television and film; as well as a theatre director. His early career started in London in theatre productions, before he starred in Ho ...

as the voice of

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, ...

Background

''Hercules Returns'' is a screen adaptation of the popular Australian live comedy show ''Double Take'', conceived and performed by Des Mangan with Sally Patience. The ''Double Take'' show, which began in Sydney in 1986, is part of the "dub parody" genre, in which ostensibly serious films are deliberately re-voiced in a satirical or spoof manner. Well-known examples of this genre include the 1960s

Jay Ward Joseph Ward Cohen Jr. (September 20, 1920 – October 12, 1989), also known as Jay Ward, was an American creator and producer of animated TV cartoon shows. He produced animated series based on such characters as Crusader Rabbit, Rocky & Bul ...

TV series ''

Fractured Flickers ''Fractured Flickers'' is a live-action syndicated half-hour television comedy show that was produced by Jay Ward, who is otherwise known for cartoons. The pilot film was produced in 1961 (hence the 1961 copyright notice on the animated main ti ...

'' and

Woody Allen Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...

's ''

What's Up, Tiger Lily? ''What's Up, Tiger Lily?'' is a 1966 American comedy film directed by Woody Allen in his feature-length directorial debut. Allen took a Japanese spy film, '' International Secret Police: Key of Keys'' (1965), and overdubbed it with completely or ...

'' (1966). The ''Double Take'' concept is similar to the Los Angeles-based club show (later transferred to TV) ''

Mad Movies with the L.A. Connection ''Mad Movies with the L.A. Connection'' is a 1985 syndicated television show produced by the comedy troupe the L.A. Connection. Every episode is a spoof of a classic movie where the video is the original (although edited to fit the show's half-hour ...

'', which was popular in the US in the 1970s and 1980s, and the long-running Dynasty Dub series found on YouTube. ''Double Take'' was very similar in style to (and may have been partly inspired by) two sketches that featured under the banner "Europa Productions" in the popular Australian TV comedy series ''

The Aunty Jack Show ''The Aunty Jack Show'' was a Logie Award-winning Australian television comedy series that ran from 1972 to 1973. Produced by and broadcast on ABC-TV, the series attained an instant cult status that persists to the present day. The lead char ...

'' (1972–73). In these pre-recorded sketches the ''Aunty Jack'' team satirically re-voiced an Italian Hercules film (renamed "Herco the Magnificent") and the 1952

Robert Newton Robert Guy Newton (1 June 1905 – 25 March 1956) was an English actor. Along with Errol Flynn, Newton was one of the more popular actors among the male juvenile audience of the 1940s and early 1950s, especially with British boys. Known for h ...

swashbuckler ''

Blackbeard the Pirate ''Blackbeard the Pirate'' is a 1952 Technicolor adventure film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Robert Newton, Linda Darnell, William Bendix, Keith Andes, and Torin Thatcher. The film was made by RKO Radio Pictures and produced by Edmund Gr ...

'' (renamed "Gidget Goes Tasmanian"). Like these TV sketches, ''Double Take'' performances featured distinctly Australian voicings (often with exaggerated "

Ocker The term "ocker" is used both as a noun and adjective for an Australian who speaks and acts in a rough and uncultivated manner, using Strine, a broad Australian accent. Definition Richard Neville defined ockerism as being "about conviviality: c ...

" and ethnic Australian accents) and many local humorous references, but unlike the L.A. Connection shows – which often used heavily edited versions and excerpts of films – the films that the Double Take team sent up were presented in their entirety and the scripts were carefully tailored to follow the original sequencing of the movies. Mangan and Patience gained a strong following around Australia with their ''Double Take'' shows, which were performed live in a cinema. Typically seated at the back of the auditorium, using microphones plugged into the cinema's sound system, the Double Take team performed live comedic voice-overs of movies such as the American B-grade sci-fi film ''

The Astro-Zombies ''The Astro-Zombies'' is a 1968 American science fiction horror film written, directed and produced by Ted V. Mikels and starring John Carradine, Wendell Corey, and Tura Satana. Plot A disgruntled scientist who, having been fired by the s ...

'' and the 1960s Italian low-budget '

Sword-and-sandal Sword-and-sandal, also known as peplum (pepla plural), is a subgenre of largely Italian-made historical, mythological, or Biblical epics mostly set in the Greco-Roman antiquity or the Middle Ages. These films attempted to emulate the big-budget ...

' epic ''

Ercole, Sansone, Maciste e Ursus gli invincibili ''Samson and His Mighty Challenge'' is a 1964 Italian sword-and-sandal film, released in 1965 at the very tail end of the peplum craze. Its original title was ''Ercole, Sansone, Maciste e Ursus gli invincibili'' ('' Hercules, Samson, Maciste, an ...

''. Of necessity much of their voice-over performance was tightly scripted, but working live also allowed the team some scope to occasionally insert topical jokes and references. The film version came about after businessman Phil Jaroslow saw a ''Double Take'' performance of ''Hercules Returns'' in Melbourne. He was so impressed that he purchased the rights to both the original ''Ercole'' film and Mangan's script, hired cinematographer and film maker David Parker to help write a story to wrap around the Double Take routine, and financed the project with his own funds. Although it was his first film as a producer and Parker's first as a director, the project came in on time and on budget at a cost of less than A$1 million, and shooting was completed in just eight days. The lead actors who appeared on screen were well known to local audiences. Bruce Spence has been one of Australia's most prominent stage and screen actors since the early 1970s; Coustas was a member of the popular "

Wogs Out of Work ''Wogs Out of Work'' is an Australian play which was written by Nick Giannopoulos, Simon Palomares, and Maria Portesi. It debuted in 1987 at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and was enormously successful, touring for a number of yea ...

" team, where she created her Greek-Australian character "Effie", and she co-starred in the popular TV sitcom ''

Acropolis Now ''Acropolis Now'' was an Australian television sitcom set in a fictional Greek cafe, called the "Acropolis Cafe" in Melbourne that ran for 63 episodes broadcast from 9 August 1989 to 4 November 1992 on the Seven Network. It was created by Nick ...

''; Argue was well known from his many live comedy, TV and film appearances. Director David Parker has had a long association with writer-director

Nadia Tass Nadia Tass is an Australian theatre director and film director and producer. She is known for the films ''Malcolm'' (1986) and '' The Big Steal'' (1990), as well as an extensive body of work in the theatre, both in Australia and internationa ...

and they have collaborated on many popular films including '' Malcolm''. The film is also notable as the last screen credit for veteran actor

(who performed the voice of

) and there are also cameo appearances by Australian film critics

David Stratton David James Stratton (born 10 September 1939) is an English-Australian award-winning film critic, as both a journalist and interviewer, film historian and lecturer and television personality and producer. Life and career Born in Trowbridge, ...

Margaret Pomeranz Margaret Pomeranz (born 14 July 1944) is an Australian film critic, writer, producer and television personality. Early life Pomeranz was born Margeret Anne Jones-Owen on 14 July 1944 in Waverley, a suburb of Sydney. She was educated at the ...

and

Ivan Hutchinson Ivan Joseph Hutchinson (11 February 1928 – 7 October 1995) was an Australian film critic, television personality and music director. Hutchinson was active in the industry for over 30 years, from the early 1960s until the mid-1990s, first on ...

. Ironically, the 'real' stars of the film, Mangan and Patience, do not appear on screen and their voice-overs are in fact mimed by Argue, Spence and Coustas.

Box office

''Hercules Returns'' grossed $318,788 at the box office in Australia."Australian Films at the Australian Box Office"
,

Film Victoria VicScreen, formerly known as Film Victoria, is the Victorian Government’s creative and economic screen development agency. They function behind the scenes, supporting professionals, infrastructure, projects and events – elevating Victor ...

Reception

While the

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

approval rating is currently N/A, ''Hercules Returns'' received positive reviews from critics and audiences alike at the time of its release.

ARIA Music Awards

The ARIA Music Awards are a set of annual ceremonies presented by

Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a trade association representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replac ...

(ARIA), which recognise excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of the

music of Australia The music of Australia has an extensive history made of music societies. Indigenous Australian music forms a significant part of the unique heritage of a 40,000- to 60,000-year history which produced the iconic didgeridoo. Contemporary fusions of ...

. They commenced in 1987. ! , - , rowspan="2",

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson Ma ...

, , ''Hercules Returns'' , ,

ARIA Award for Best Comedy Release The ARIA Music Award for Best Comedy Release, is an award presented at the annual ARIA Music Awards, which recognises "the many achievements of Aussie artists across all music genres", since 1987. It is handed out by the Australian Recording Indu ...

, , , , , -

References

External links

''Hercules Returns''
at the

National Film and Sound Archive The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national c ...

* {{IMDb title, 0107103, Hercules Returns
''Hercules Returns''
at Oz Movies Australian adventure comedy films 1993 films Films shot in Melbourne Films about Heracles 1990s parody films 1990s adventure comedy films 1993 comedy films 1990s English-language films