The Filmography of Steve Reeves

One of the greatest misconceptions about Steve Reeves is his association with Hercules, since Steve Reeves only did a career grand total of two Hercules films. It reminds me a little of the assumption that Mae West and W.C. Fields did a ton of movies together, when in fact they only did one, MY LITTLE CHICKADEE.

The movie where Steve Reeves was at the height of his sexuality was his version of the arabesque the THIEF OF BAGHDAD. This was one occasion where the 1924 Douglas Fairbanks original was far better than the Reeves version.

BATTLE OF MARATHON has Steve Reeves in yet another non-Hercules movie. What struck me about THE BATTLE OF MARATHON (a version of the Greek battle against the Persians of the same name) is that it was a Western with men in skirts. The hero is a straightforward, strong rural man with an uncomplicated view of life and a love of the land, whereas the villains are conniving schemers that use their hold to force a girl to marry them. The Persians are a pretty good stand in for marauding Indians, and Steve Reeves even leads a cavalry charge to save the day with extra Spartan help. At one point, the captive girl was even tied to the front of a ship; I have a feeling they did this because in Ancient Greece there weren't any train tracks. GIANT OF MARATHON had two women, just as in most Westerns: the "bad" woman (usually a prostitute of some kind) and a "good" woman (the schoolmarm).

Here's one of my favorite Steve Reeves stories: Steve Reeves was a part of the original Broadway cast of KISMET in 1955. During rehearsals, Reeves performed an extremely complicated bodybuilding move, and defied anyone in the audience to do the move even a single time.

Bonnie Evans, a dancer that weighed 5' and 100 pounds, said that not only could she do the move, she could do it more times than Reeves could.

"More than 25 reps? Never!"

"I'll do fifty." She said.

And she did! Afterwards Steve Reeves had to scoop Bonnie up and rush her in a taxi to the hospital, but the very next day she went back to doing the peppy Ababu dance numbers. Steve Reeves stood in the background and watched her every move: after that experience, he was a big Bonnie Evans fan.