When initially released in its native Italy, the 1961 film I’ll soon discuss came with the title Ercole alla conquista di Atlantide. Of course, that wouldn’t work for English-speaking audiences, so it got a change in name.

Or at least three changes in name. In various locations, the film ran as Hercules and the Conquest of Atlantis, Hercules Conquers Atlantis, and – here in the US - Hercules and the Captive Women.

Replete with a cover that offers an artistic vision of a sexy babe – presumably one of those titular captured ladies – this package goes with Captive Women. I might recommend an alternate title: What A Load of Campy Nonsense.

King of Thebes Androcles (Ettore Manni) seeks to find the source of mysterious events that plague ancient Greece, and he attempts to recruit his hunky buddy Hercules (Reg Park) to assist. However, Hercules enjoys the domestic life with wife Deianira (Luciana Angiolillo) and son Hylas (Luciano Marin) so he demurs.

Hylas seeks adventure, so he helps Androcles dope his pop and kidnap him for the journey. This eventually leads all involved to the land of Atlantis, where Hercules contends with Queen Antinea (Fay Spain), a megalomaniac who plans to assemble an army of superhuman warriors.

All that leads to the impression Women might offer a rousing adventure. Unfortunately, little excitement ever materializes, as the end result seems as sleepy as our hero.

Rather than any of the various titles I mentioned earlier, Hercules Likes to Nap seems like the best choice. Comatose Sunny Von Bulow spent more time awake and alert than Hercules, as he embraces any chance to nod off.

When Herc manages to rouse himself, he encounters little that pounds the pulse. The film plods from one attempt at action to another, none of which hit the mark.

Instead, the whole thing seems ineffective and silly. Other than some questionable visual effects, Women does boast better production values than the average flick of its genre.

Sort of, as the material remains so fluffy and goofy that it doesn’t turn into an engaging affair. Women might satisfy fans of campy flicks, but otherwise, it’s a dud.

Footnote: for modern audiences, the English dub’s frequent mentions of “Uranus” offer unintended laughs. I didn’t want to pick on the film for that, as I suspect that term didn’t elicit the same reaction 65 years ago that it gets today. Still, it’s pretty funny now.

Hercules and the Captive Women appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.20:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This transfer seemed good but not great.

Sharpness became the major issue, as delineation could feel a little on the soft side at times. These instances didn’t seem terribly off, but the image tended to lack great precision.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I saw no edge haloes. Grain seemed light and the movie lacked source flaws, although some bits and bobs went missing at times so the action would skip slightly on occasion and some wobble also occurred.

Colors leaned toward an amber/yellow impression, with a few other colors at times. These tones felt somewhat lackluster and tended not to show much range.

Blacks were reasonably dark, while shadows showed appropriate delineation. Although the softness became a moderate distraction, the image still looked fairly good.

I felt less positive about the iffy DTS-HD MA monaural. The dubbed dialogue tended to seem canned and brittle, with lines that lacked natural impressions.

Music worked best but still came across as shrill, and effects seemed somewhat rough and distorted. Crackling appeared at times and the two-channel monaural presentation leaned awkwardly toward the right side of the spectrum. Even by 1961 standards, this seemed like a flawed soundtrack.

How did this remastered 2026 disc compare to the original Blu-ray from 2021? I don’t know if both literally sported identical audio, but I couldn’t find anything about the 2026 disc’s sound that seemed obviously superior to that prior disc’s mix.

As for the visuals, they looked a lot alike except the 2026 version lost some minor source flaws. That made it the stronger image of the two by a small margin but these seemed too modest for me to alter the 2021 disc’s “B-” grade.

Although the 2021 Blu-ray included a nice array of extras, the 2026 reissue provides none of these.

I can handle a campy film, but I can’t stomach a dull campy film. Alas, we get that from Hercules and the Captive Women, a painfully boring stab at action and adventure. The Blu-ray brings mostly good picture along with problematic audio and zero supplements. Even fans of cinematic cheese shouldn’t find too much to like from this snoozer, and the 2026 Blu-ray becomes the weaker release compared to the superior 2021 disc.