Hercules in New York

CinemaSerf 5/30/2023 5:12:34AM 8.4

Ha! This is hilarious. Arnold Schwarzenegger - going by the name of "Strong" on the titles, is the demigod son of Zeus (Ernest Graves) and he's bored hanging around Olympus keeping out of trouble. Finally his father loses his temper, hurls a thunder bolt at him and he ends up down on earth befriending the weedy "Pretzie" (Arnold Stang doing a vaguely Phil Silvers impersonation) and getting involved with some crooks who see his might as a meal ticket. What now ensues is just harmless, witless, fun with a confused mythology - Roman and Greek names for the gods are interchangeable; an Olympus that looks like the herb garden of an English stately home and luckily Arnie doesn't have to wrestle with ancient Greek, just with 1970s English. There can't have been much budget so don't be looking for visual effects or a tangy script - nope, none of that, just the future Governor of California looking almost cherubic in his spray-on shorts demonstrating the truthful nature of the American dream. Anyone can make it, however humble the beginnings.