''Hercules of the Desert'' ( it, La valle dell'eco tonante/ ''Valley of the Thundering Echo''), aka ''Maciste and the Women of the Valley'', is a 1964 Italian

peplum film 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 H ...

directed by

Tanio Boccia Camillo Tanio Boccia (15 June 1911 – 12 March 1982), was an Italian film director and screenwriter active between the 1950s and the early 1970s. From 1960 onwards, he was regularly credited as Amerigo Anton. Career Born in Potenza, Basilic ...

and starring

Kirk Morris Kirk Morris (born 26 August 1942) is an Italian bodybuilder and actor. He was the winner of "Mr.Italia Bodybuilding contest 1961” Born in Venice as Adriano Bellini, while at university Morris devoted himself to bodybuilding and thanks to his ph ...

.Michele Giordano. ''Giganti buoni''. Gremese Editore, 1998. .

Plot

A fabulous land of green pastures is protected from invasion by the mysterious Valley of the Thundering Echo. Queen Farida draws together the desert tribes to conquer the land, even though a prophecy has promised the land to the Gameli tribe. The Gameli journey to the Silver Temple, where the High Priest summons the legendary Maciste from the mountain rock to defeat their enemies and guide them to their promised land. Maciste materializes magically from a rock wall in a cave in this film, tying in with Maciste's claim in earlier films that his name means ''born of the rock''.

Cast

Maciste Maciste () is one of the oldest recurring characters of cinema, created by Gabriele d'Annunzio and Giovanni Pastrone. He is featured throughout the history of the cinema of Italy from the 1910s to the mid-1960s. He is usually depicted as a Hercu ...

Hélène Chanel Hélène Chanel (born Hélène Stoliaroff; 12 June 1941 in Deauville, Calvados, France) is a French actress of Russian heritage. She was active in the 1960s in a variety of European international co-productions of sword and sandal, Eurospy and ...

as Farida *

Alberto Farnese Alberto Farnese (3 June 1926 – 2 June 1996) was an Italian actor. He appeared in more than 80 films and television shows between 1951 and 1989. He starred in the film ''Whom God Forgives'', which won the Silver Bear Extraordinary Prize of ...

as Masura *

Špela Rozin Špela Rozin (born 31 January 1943) is a Slovenian actress that became famous in the cinema of Yugoslavia. Her breakout role was the lead role in the film '' Strange Girl (film), Strange Girl'' that became a cult classic because of the modern por ...

as Selina *

Furio Meniconi Furio Meniconi (22 February 1924 – 12 December 1981) was an Italian film and television actor. Life and career Meniconi was born in Rome into a family active in the cinema industry in the technical cast, or engaged in the general organizatio ...

as Manatha *

Rosalba Neri Rosalba Neri (born 19 June 1939) is a retired Italian actress. Early life Born in Forlì, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, Neri was regarded for her beauty even in youth, winning a beauty pageant when she was still young. Eventually pursuing an acting ca ...

as Ramhis *

Nando Tamberlani Nando Tamberlani (1896–1967) was an Italian film actor. A character actor in Italian cinema of the postwar era, he was the brother of actor Carlo Tamberlani. Another brother Ermete Tamberlani was also an actor. He appeared in a number of peplum ...

as Manata the Savvy * Dante Posani as Tarash

References

External links

* Italian fantasy films Peplum films 1960s fantasy films Films directed by Tanio Boccia Films scored by Carlo Rustichelli Sword and sandal films 1960s Italian-language films 1960s Italian films {{adventure-film-stub