bkoganbing Playing the title role of Atlas and certainly having the physique for it is Michael Forest best known for playing the God Apollo on Star Trek prime. He gets himself involved in a civil war where one army is besieging a city state.When a single combat winner take all duel is arranged the besieger goes out to look for a champion and just by coincidence the Olympic Games are being held. Frank Wolff finds Michael Forest and he will face Christos Exarchos the prince of the city. When Forest beats Exarchos but doesn't kill him, Wolff should have thought right then and there that this will mean trouble for him.Roger Corman produced Atlas. It was his attempt to make a Peplum, sand and scandal less than an epic. The European players stroll rather listlessly through the film. But Frank Wolff, God Bless him is having a whale of time playing Proximades the tyrant who shows pieces of what Peter Ustinov did with Nero in Quo Vadis and later on Christopher Plummer in the Fall Of The Roman Empire. Wolff is so infectiously evil, he makes a mediocre film worth watching.

MartinHafer In the early to mid-1960s, there was, believe it or not, a major craze for films set in the classical period starring such heroes as Hercules and Maciste. They were churned out by the dozen by the Italians and they made a butt-load of money throughout the world. So much that American director Roger Corman decided to try to get in on the act, though he never made much of an impact on the genre--and after seeing this film, I could see why.Here, Michael Forest stars as 'Atlas'--a guy who is pretty much like the other muscled heroes of the era (such as Steve Reeves and Peter Lupus). And, like many of the films, he was an American playing lead and the rest of the cast were mostly Italians--especially the extras. In this case, however, more of the supporting cast is non-Italian. Much of the dialog, then, was often dubbed.By the way, although he was not an especially well-known actor, you may just recognize Forest as the man who guest starred on the original "Star Trek" series as the god Apollo. My assumption is that he was probably picked to play this "Star Trek" character because of his prior film experience as Atlas.Oddly, despite the American director who was known for action and horror films, this film is amazingly low-key and a bit dull. You'd think he might have breathed some life into the films, but for the most part, the film is just another tepid action flick--with hardly any action. The costumes aren't especially good and the cast seems tiny--even for a sword and sandal epic. If you note the trivia for this film, you'll see that Corman's original army of 500 extras ended up being, at most 50 through no fault of his own and as filming continued the numbers dwindled. Yet, believe it or not, this tiny cast isn't unusual, as I've seen several films not made by Corman in the genre that had equally tiny "armies". A great example is the rather silly film "Maciste vs. the Moon Men".By the way, I am one of those who has marveled at Corman's ability to do wonderful things with tiny budgets (such as "Little Shop of Horrors" and "Bucket of Blood"). He is a brilliant director, though like most, he has made his share of disappointing films. This one, clearly, is among his worst. This isn't just because it's silly, as I LOVE his silly 1950s horror films, but because the script is so lifeless. It practically puts you to sleep because you keep expecting action and excitement but it just never delivers. Frankly, I wish it HAD been cheesy and silly--that at least would have made watching it fun! As far as fun or funny goes, I had to take what I could find due to bad dubbing. A funny aspect of the film you should look for are the dubbing mistakes. First, there were the trumpeters. When they blow on them, you hear NOTHING--as they apparently forgot to dub this! I especially loved when the boss-man ordered a fight to the death to begin with the blowing of the trumpets. You see the guys blowing away...and absolutely no sound at all!! Yet, miraculously, the guys begin fighting! Another scene consists of dancing girls flitting about...and absolutely NO music!!!! Now that's funny!

heckles Sometimes you see a movie and wonder if it was made just so the crew could enjoy a six-week vacation in a nice place. Unspoiled Greece in 1961 was probably a very pleasant locale indeed for Roger Corman and friends to take such a vacation.The story is a familiar one: Buff, good-hearted but naive hero is tricked by a more worldly man into using his great strength for his benefit until the hero wises up. This is a plot used in the great sagas of Hercules, Sigfred, and Tom Cruise. Here the trusting hero, Atlas, is invited by a city-state tyrant, Praximedes, to be his champion in a fight to the death so that Praximedes can annex some defiant holdout city.The problem with all of this is: the movie is boring. Very boring. The fight scenes lack drama; the battle scenes look like extras throwing sticks that are supposed to be spears at each other. Michael Forest as Atlas can't act - period. Barboura Morris is the sex interest of changeable loyalties; she isn't bad looking, but she doesn't take off near enough clothes. --Oh, don't tell me it was 1961. "Spartacus" was made a year before, and that had a bathing scene. Plus a reference to homosexuality. "Atlas" was never meant to be a big-budget epic. So no excuses, Roger. This kind of movie, you have to sex up if you don't do anything else.Frank Wolff's Praximedes seems to be having a good time; but rather than coming across as a figurative tyrant (he makes no secret that he is a -literal- tyrant), he seems more like a glad-handing jerk, and a distinctly American one at that.I hope the crew enjoyed their vacation. The rest of us, if we want a Greek vacation, should catch "Summer Lovers" or "Venus on Fire".

crazycat007 ... that is, if you dig flicks that involve men wearing really high cut "togas" that look more like skirts. The battle scenes are absolutely laughable, with lots of shots of shields being hit by things (occasionally the wooden swords), and lots of guys who throw spears really poorly at their crew-cut Greek rivals. The charges just sort of slow in front of enemy lines, once even to turn around and change a formation four feet from the "battle line." Some of the editing looks like it may have been done by a deranged chimp, and that's just for the important dialogue scenes. There are a few shots where the camera literally gets knocked out of place. A final word of warning: the director took full advantage of shot width, so if you are unfortunate enough to watch this on tv, several scenes will have half of the speakers cut off at the edge of the screen. If you need something to MST3K, come and get it!