Costume Design by:
- Adriana Spadaro ( notable efforts: 2019: After the Fall of New York (1983); Sinbad of the Seven Seas (1989) )
Costume Design Genre: Fantastical, Period-Influenced
From the late 70s to the early 80s, Italian director Luigi Cozzi had almost devoted himself full-time to lurid science fiction and fantasy productions (the most famous of them being Starcrash), which eventually led to him being noticed by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, the owners of the infamous Cannon Group, who then promptly produced his next project – Hercules, an attempt at a revival of the by-then moribund ‘sword and sandal’ (or ‘peplum’) genre which Italy had been famous for decades before. However, due to Cozzi’s preference towards science-fiction and space opera, his sword-and-sandal films had more of an…anachronistic bent than any previous efforts, or even most of the ‘sword and sorcery’ films of the time, filled with starfields, stop-motion robots and of course, lurid costume designs courtesy of Adriana Spadaro.Being a (very loose) adaptation of Greek myth, naturally the Greek gods Zeus (Claudio Cassinelli), Hera (Rossana Podesta) and Athena (Delia Boccardo) are featured, and are dressed in some of the more anachronistic outfits the film has to offer. Sadly Cozzi opts for mostly closeup shots with the full shots all being blurred thanks to the overlaid footage, which is a shame. I am especially a fan of Zeus’ piped white and cyan robes.
The main villain of both Hercules and its sequel The Adventures of Hercules was Minos (William Berger), who in this adaptation had been rewritten into a despot who wanted to use ‘science’ to defeat the gods and rule the world. In both this and the sequel, Minos is in orange robes with golden armor shoulder pads and a circle armor plate on his front.
His daughter Ariadne (Sybil Danning) is dressed in one of the many luridly revealing dresses that many of Cozzi’s scifi & fantasy films contained (and only one of Danning’s many roles that involved her wearing such outfits, such as Howling 2: Your Sister is a Werewolf and Battle Beyond the Stars).
At the end of the film, Ariadne is in a dress that whilst being only just a bit less revealing than her main one, is actually seemingly more accurate to the actual fashion that was present in the ancient Minoan society that was present on what is now Crete, which is fitting given her father is the King Minos whose name was given to it.
Hercules journeys to the city of Tyre where he comes across Cassiopea (Ingrid Anderson), with her father, the King Augias (Brad Harris) and his duplicitous adviser Dorcon (Yehuda Efroni). For most of the scenes in Tyre, Cassiopea has to wear a veil over her face thanks to a prophecy that said she would have to marry the first men who got to see her face.
Towards the climax, Cassiopea is in a much more skimpy outfit as part of her role as the sacrifice, a dress consisting of nothing but ribbons over seashell-shaped nipple covers(!), and completed with an ornate head-dress, wrist bracelets and sphinx pendant.
Hercules is aided by the witch Circe (Mirella D’Angelo) who first appears as a wizened crone in a tattered two-tone robe of torn strips, threads and animal bones, completed with a blocky patterned headdress.
When she regains her youth and joins Hercules on his quest, she ends up in a much less ornate outfit of gold armor plate and boots, all lined with loose blue ribbons. Not one of the most complicated designs in the film, it still adds to the campy aesthetic of the film.
Two years after the release of Hercules, Cozzi decided to return to his extremely loose take on Greek mythology with The Adventures of Hercules, which once again had Lou Ferrigno reprising his role as Hercules. Compared to its predecessor, the sequel had a much more paltry budget, resulting in a good deal of reuse of the sets and some of the costumes.
Claudio Cassinelli reprised his role as Zeus, but this time sported a much less memorable dress and crown, the piped billowing white and cyan robe making way for a white and gold version cut in a much more formal style…and sadly once again, not shown in full proper except in an effects shot.
This film features other gods, Hera (this time played by Mario Rosaria Omaggio) having the most ornate outfit of them so far, with the little dainty crown really sealing it. The other gods include Poseidon (Nando Poggi) in a muted brown robe (surprisingly bereft of any maritime design theme except maybe that there’s a net pattern only visibly on the close-up shots), Flora (Laura Lenzi) in a relatively simple pink gown and Aphrodite (Margie Newton) in white dress and blue gown. Compared to the outfits worn by the gods in the first film, these are slightly a letdown.
Daedelus (Eva Robins) had actually appeared in the previous film, but as most of the good shots came from the sequel, I’m opting to talk about it here. Her character (rewritten into a woman for no real reason, it seemed) sports one of the most outlandish in the the two films barring the gods, in a spandex bodysuit and plastic cape, all finished off with the golden helmet modeled with a wing motif (a design nod to the story of Deadelus and Icarus’s doomed escape from Crete?), proudly exposing the pulp sensibilities of the film.
Euryale the Gorgon (Serena Grandi) has a human disguise that even then has to have an obvious snake motif, with the stiched snake pattern on her dress being the most endearingly blatant, the gold crown and finger talons only adding to it.
