hercules the avenger be by far the best single entry in the muscleman genre i can recall . the charge against it make by critic it be a cut and paste of two previous hercules film and with some added new material to make it appear fresh miss the fact that this cut and paste approach solve one of the central problem of the sword and sandal movie . with most of these film and the middle third sag horribly usually involve a sappy love story or arcane political intrigue or both ( queen fall in love with hercules and her evil brother plot against them and etc . ) it often hard to hold on through this to watch the exciting finale . hercules the avenger cut all that crap from the source film and and add a rather brisk narrative of a hercules impersonator bully his way into power . ( it should be note that this episode also function a a distant but pointedly critical remark on the rise of fascism in italy . ) this also set up a fine final wrasslin match between the real hercules and his impersonator . in a narrow focus and i might also add that further editing have improve individual scene borrow from the other film . for my money and the mutiny scene here be much good than it first appear in hercules and the captive woman and since it have be tighten with the reduction of several character and their plot complication . there be also floppy monster and creepy underworld atmospherics borrow ( literally ) from mario bava and an entire city destroyed and and the usual amount of lovely babe in reveal gown . since no one expect any of these film to compete with the seven samurai or even with the magnificent seven it seem a bit picky to hold the film borrowing from other film against it .