Image of the week!

Aeneas (Steve Reeves) and Turno (Gianni Garlo) fight for their lives in THE AVENGER (1962)

At the movies...

 THE CONQUEROR (1956) playing in Time Square, NYC.

Musings!

Wandisa Guida and Mario Petri in REVENGE OF THE CONQUERED (1960) 

This is often overlooked and misunderstood movie which deserves much more attention. The production is excellent, certainly the locations. Probably the most beautiful in any PEPLUM movie. I'm not joking. The location are so dreamy you sorta wonder if it's real and it is. The cast is excellent, including the opera singer turned actor Petri, who towers over almost everyone. He has a fascinating career. In this, he plays the villain and Wandisa's character is forced into a marriage with him. It's  a cliched in these movies. As for Wandisa, she's at the height of her beauty here. She's literary shines in every scene she's in. You sorta wonder why her career didn't become bigger. She's an excellent actress, very natural and unassuming. People like Wandisa make watching PEPLUM movies so much fun to discover. So with so much going for it, why is it so forgotten? The generic English doesn't help but the original Italian title, DRAKUT THE AVENGER, is not very interesting. Who knows. The one thing that's sorta questionable is the storyline. I'm not joking when I say the good guys are as bad if not worse than the bad guys/villains. There's a plot twist in it which still to this day makes my head scratch. Anyway, regardless of this bizarre aspect to the story, I highly recommend this movie. 

Behind-the-Scenes

Patrick Wayne and Jane Seymour have a chat on the set of SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER (1977)

Clip of the week: SEVEN REBEL GLADIATORS (1965)

General mayhem! With Pietro Torrisi, Roger Browne, too many to mention. 

HD Alert!

Mark Forest in HERCULES AGAINST THE MONGOLS (1963)

German Blu-ray released late last year. Nice print. It doesn't have English audio. The German audio is lagging. These images are from that print. No retouching was made to them. It's very nice. There was a HD TV broadcast in France a few years and it resembles that print. I did a Fan Dub of that French one and it's still uploaded to the PEPLUM TV Youtube channel. A friend made a Fan Dub of this print. It's very good work. This is one of my favourites so it's great to see that it's available. Its Twin Production, HERCULES AGAINST THE BARBARIANS (1964) will be released on May 30 on Blu-ray. Yeah! Kino Lorber should pick up these two titles now!
 

Hercules (Mark Forest) fights with Nadir Moretti. On the left is Howard Ross. And on the right is Ken Clark.

 

Maria Grazia Spina and José Greci.

There's a tiny new batch of titles released in Germany on Blu-ray so more in future posts.

 

There are three different covers to choose from. Here's one. If you want more info, go to BY THE GODS! blog. 

Then & Now: Historical sites

With THEN & NOW, I usually feature actors of the PEPLUM genre who are still alive. For a change, here are some Then & Now images of famous historical sites.

These images came from a TikTok account that doesn't exist anymore.

 

 

 

 

Musings!

Olinka Berova in POPPEA'S HOT NIGHTS (1969)

A 'ground-breaking' PEPLUM movie in that it was one of the first 'Sex & Sandal' movies that were all the rage in the 1970s and 80s. Olinka, straight from THE VENGEANCE OF SHE (1968), is very pretty and plays along nicely with the movies raunchy and sometimes questionable premise. 😁 A lot of people do not like these films but I find them entertaining, for many reasons, one of which is how they are a relic of a time gone. It's fascinating to see the transition of sexy but chaste PEPLUM movies of the Golden Era to morph into these movies which showed what the old movies only hinted at. The big difference is that the movies of the Golden Era were focused on male physiques while these movies were totally focused on the female form. I have so many prints of this movie it's funny.

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Note: my mother is still at the hospital. My schedule to help her changed last week. I don't know what will happen in the upcoming week. So I'm posting this on Sunday because I won't be posting tomorrow. 

PEPLUM Movie Poster

German poster of MACISTE - THE STRONGEST MAN IN THE WORLD (1961; aka Maciste vs Mole Men)

Fun poster with Mark in action. The German title translation: MACISTE AND THE QUEEN OF THE NIGHT.

Image of the week!

Cleopatra (Pascale Petit), on horseback, delivers a message in A QUEEN FOR CAESAR (1962)

Lobby Cards Set: REVOLT OF THE PRAETORIANS (1964)

Original Italian lobby cards of REVOLT OF THE PRAETORIANS (1964) starring Richard Harrison, Giuliano Gemma and Moira Orfei. Nice set. It's from a re-issue as the original Italian title was LA RIVOLTA DWI PRETORIAN. Very colourful and busy. Rereleased when Gemma became a bigger star.

Musings!

Ivica Pajer, as David, and Simonetta Simeoni in DAVID AND GOLIATH (1960) 

I like this film but...there are, hmm, baroque things about it which makes liking the film a bit difficult. The casting of Croatian actor Ivica Pajer wasn't one of them. The producers were trying to capitalize on the success of HERCULES, with the idea of having a muscular hero in the lead but casting a bodybuilder as David would have been silly so they compromised with Pajer, who's fit but not overtly muscular. He's good in it and he went on to star in a handful of other memorable genre titles. As for Simonetta, her career was short-lived. She appeared in a couple of PEPLUM movies, with her unforgettable role as Erika in HERCULES AGAINST ROME (1964) being her best. Sorry about the fuzzy image. There are no good copies out there.

Behind-the-Scenes

A candid photo of Steve Reeves on the set of MORGAN THE PIRATE (1960). This photo was used for a lobby card but there's no scene where Steve smiles as he's about to be executed.  😀

Clip of the week: PERSEUS THE INVINCIBLE (1963)

Perseus (Richard Harrison) discovers Andromeda (Anna Ranalli) is a Princess, prompting Galenore (Leo Anchóriz) into a whipping mood!

SPFX DEPT.

Scenes from FIRE OVER ROME (1965) 

I like this film. The new Blu-ry release is excellent. For a PEPLUM, it's actually pretty solid. But there is one weak point in it and it's the effects of a burning Rome, made even more clear in this HD release. The effects are serviceable but it clearly looks like small model set. This scene is seen twice, when Nero watches Rome burn and nearly at the very end of the movie. Unfortunately, today' audiences would dismiss the entire movie for these brief scene, disregarding the rest of the production, which is very good (sets, costumes, cast, etc).

Then & Now: Malcolm McDowell

 Malcolm in CALIGULA (1979); Malcolm in 2023.

Musings!

Rosalba Neri surrounded by handmaidens in THE THREE AVENGERS (1964) 

This is pretty much a standard scene in most PEPLUM movies. They always go two ways: the woman pampered is pleasant to them and acknowledges them or, in this case, dislikes the pampering and wants them to scoot away. The idea of servants or slaves helping you to do the simplest things would be annoying. The lack of privacy is also a problem. Fun film with a great cast! The shenanigans of the Annoying Sidekicks (yes, there are two!) are too boisterous but if one overlooks this, the movie is cool. 

PEPLUM Movie Poster

Japanese poster of THE SON OF RED CORSAIR (1959)

The usual colourful poster from Japan. I like it.

Image of the week!

Polyphemus the Cyclops (Umberto Silvestri) in ULYSSES (1954)

Behind-the-Scene

Steve Reeves, as Hercules, takes direction from Pietro Francisci on what to do with Primo Carnera on the set of HERCULES UNCHAINED (1959)

Clip of the week: HERO OF BABYLON (1963)

Gordon Scott to the rescue. With Geneviève Grad. 

HD Alert!

Scenes from the new Blu-ray of FIRE OVER ROME (1965) starring Lang Jeffries (above; back to us)

There's a new German Blu-ray of FIRE OVER ROME. These screenshots are from the BD. I took a good look of it but I'll take a better in-depth look in the near future. Overall, it's very good. I like this film even though a lot of people seem to dislike it. I didn't retouch the images. The BD was released last October. It comes in two different covers.
 

Moira Orfei and Vladimir Medar as Nero.

Vintage Article!

Old article on Steve Reeves and his acting career. Images from ATHENA (1954) and HERCULES (1958).

Musings!

The Three Stooges (Larry Fine, Moe Howard, Curly Howard) in MATRI-PHONY (1942) 

When you think of the Three Stooges and Antiquity, THE THREE STOOGES MEET HERCULES (1962) comes to mind but the trio made more stories, albeit short ones, set in the past. I don't know why but it somehow always works, more so than the regular shorts set in modern times. They also have another short set in prehistoric period, called STONE AGE ROMEOS. It's amazing the this short and the HERCULES movie have 20 years between them.
 

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Note: my mother is currently in the hospital. In fact, she had to go to the hospital during my break last week. I spend about 10 hours there, to keep her company so this week and the following weeks, I might not post because of this or, like today, post at a later time. Thanks for your understanding.

PEPLUM Movie Poster

German poster of ULYSSES (1954) 

Beautiful poster. This movie has a lot of posters out there.