Melissia (Maria Fiore) is a villainess from the 1964 Italian Peplum film, "Hercules the Invincible". It was re-titled "The Land of Darkness" for US TV viewing as two parts of "The Sons of Hercules" series. Maria Fiore was known as Jannette Barton at the time of this filming.
Melissia was the daughter of Kabol (Ken Clark), an evil tyrant of Demulus. Kabol had made his Queen Etel (Carla Calo), who was even more devious and evil. As a result, Melissia became very jealous.
Melissia eventually devised a plan for her to take over her fathers kingdom. She killed the evil Etel by stabbing her in the back while she was alone in her apartment. She then blamed Telca (Spela Rozin), who was the daughter of King Tadaeo (Ugo Sasso). Argolese (Dan Vadis), who was the son of Hercules, had been promised the hand in marriage of Telca prior to her being taken as a servant of Etel.
After killing Etel, she had her father Kabol make her Queen of the underground city of Demulus. However, during the ceremony, Argolese freed the followers of King Tadaeo and then released a lava flow into the city. Both King Tadaeo and the usurper Queen Melissia died in the turmoil but Argolese, Telca, and the others escape. Melissia did not head the warning of Argolese, and allowed the lava to flow into her chamber and the walls came crumbling down upon her.
Trivia[]
- Maria Fiore appeared as Yamad in the 1963 film, "Thor and the Amazon Women".
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