Maciste in Hell (1925)

Originally posted to Facebook on 11/1/2018

Maciste in Hell is the second of a three film detour that we are taking before picking up the timeline again in 1929. It was made in 1925, our eighth feature from that year, and was part of a series featuring the title character Maciste, who had been a secondary character in 1914's Cabiria. Maciste was played by Bartolomeo Pagano, both in this film and in Cabiria, as well as in 25 other Maciste films in the silent era. (The series was later rebooted in the 1960s as well.) This was one of the last of the original run, and its director, Guido Brignone, directed the final four.

Cabiria was a sprawling, innovative art film, and it seems odd that it would have launched, if this film is at all representative, a series of essentially light-hearted adventure films. It is not entirely clear to me in what time period this film is supposed to take place -- but probably some time prior to the modern era. Maciste lives in a rural village, where he is targeted by demons who appear in human form, and try, a la Faust, to tempt him -- though unsuccessfully. Maciste takes this in stride, and after tending to some not-terribly-related local issues involving his cousin, he eventually winds up trapped in hell, battling to find his way out. The special effects in hell are perhaps not quite state-of-the-art, but they are extensive -- and likely would have been more impressive had we seen it on a better print. They certainly underline that this was the Italian equivalent of a major studio film.

The internal logic of hell seems a bit incoherent though. Pluto appears to effectively be the ruler, but the demons Nimrod and Minos both wear crowns, and Maciste encounters an animalistic Lucifer as well -- who presumably fits into the org chart somewhere. The characterizations in the film are unusually thin, even for what is essentially a comic-book movie. Maciste is inhumanly strong, and good-hearted, and not overly thoughtful; everyone else is good or bad as the plot dictates.

Next week we see 1920's The Toll Gate, our second film starring William S. Hart. Then we return to 1929 and finish out the decade. The list, as always, is here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT