Image of the week!

Glaucus, aka Hercules, is in a fight for his life against Archepolos (Nello Pazzafini) to prove his worth in HERCULES AGAINST MOLOCH (1963)

BY THE GODS! magazine issue no 4

You can buy the newest issue of BY THE GODS! at the link below:

BY THE GODS! magazine issue no 4

Lobby Cards Set: REVENGE OF THE BARBARIANS (1960)

Original Italian lobby cards set (fotobusta) of REVENGE OF THE BARBARIANS (1960) starring Daniella Rocca, José Greci, and Anthony Steel. Great set. Covers almost everything. Great film!

Musings!

Ettore Manni and Reg Park in HERCULES - PRISONER OF EVIL (1964) 

The movie's synopsis at IMDb: Hercules battles an evil sorceress who turns men into werewolves.

That pretty much covers it. I like the story. The original character wasn't Hercules but Ursus but even that doesn't really work with the story. Maciste would have been better. Both Manni and Park were in HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN (1961) so this was a reunion of sorts. The film utilizes BIG chunks of footage from THE SEVEN REVENGES (1961). The footage doesn't actually add that much to the story. It just pads the runtime. The (male) Bad Guy in this movie also appeared in THE SEVEN REVENGES as the Bad Guy and this is how they were able to tie those scenes with the new stuff. I wish those scenes didn't exist in the final cut since the production is so obviously different. I think the basic story of the evil sorceress turning men into werewolves would have been fine without it. Maybe a new edit is needed? To make things even more confusing, this movie was re-edited into an adult movie called THE EROTIC LIFE OF URSUS (1970), that added even more additional scenes in the already padded production. That movie is still missing in action. Anyway, this is a mix of PEPLUM and horror and since I'm a big fan of both genres, this movie is right up my alley. Maybe a BY THE GODS! magazine article on Horror and PEPLUM?

Behind-the-Scenes

Chelo Alonso posing in a huge display for SIGN OF THE GLADIATOR (1959), presumably during the premiere.

Clip of the week: HERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN (1964)

Hercules (Alan Steel) tries to find the lair of the Moon Men during a massive sandstorm. I wrote about this in the latest issue of BY THE GODS!
 

Portrait

Steve Reeves as Olympic champion Phillipides in THE GIANT OF MARATHON (1959)

HD Alert!

Steve Reeves, as Sandokan, and Leo Anchoriz in SANDOKAN - PIRATE OF MALAYSIA (1964)

Beautiful print taken from Spanish streaming service. The image is nearly perfect. The night scenes, and there are lot of them, are dark but overall it's not bad as other HD upgrades. Not available anywhere on Blu-ray.

Quick comparison between the DVD (first) and HD streaming (second). The reds of his jacket are totally different. The HD transfer is excellent. I've added a photo at the list of PEPLUM movies in HD.

Nydia from THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII

As I wrote in the new issue of BY THE GODS!, THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII was adapted numerous times for the big screen or TV. One of the main characters in the hugely popular novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton is Nydia, the blind flower girl. I intended to include this article in the magazine after the formatting issue but I kept the new format and instead of adding it to the magazine, here it is.

You can buy the magazine at 20% off with the code HOLIDAY2025 until December 11!

BY THE GODS! magazine issue no 4

Musings!

Luciana Paluzzi as a genie in 1001 NIGHTS (1968) 

Luciana became an IT girl of sorts in the 1960s, having appeared in THUNDERBALL (1965) and a host of other projects, in movies or TV, throughout the decade all because of her role in HERCULES (1958) in which she had a small supporting role as Iole's handmaiden. She literally worked non stopped before retiring in the 1970s. It's incredible how many actors got their start from appearing in HERCULES. In this lightweight movie, she plays a genie who turns into a bird and 'lives' in a golden birdcage, not a genie bottle. It's entertaining but sorta repetitive. By the middle of the movie, I usually lose interest. It's not bad by any means but the story is not very compelling even if the cast does its best. A typical late 1960s foreign production with overly brightly lit sets and super-colourful costumes. 

PEPLUM Movie Poster

French poster of THE SWORD OF ALI BABA (1965) 

A simple photo montage. The focus is definitely on Jocelyn.

Image of the week

Hercules (Reg Park), who has been looking for Androcles (Ettore Manni) after arriving in Atlantis, finds him in his room and hit him by surprise. Antinea (Fay Spain), Queen of Atlantis who had said to Hercules that Androcles wasn't on the island, has some explaining to do.

PEPLUM Movie Quotes

From GIANTS OF ROME (1964)

Drood: 'We Druids have mastered the art of torture (audio issues). We are well acquainted with the human body and we know where to apply a white hot iron to produce the maximum amount of pain. Eventually, one of you will speak freely. Wouldn't it be wiser to save me this effort?'

I'm currently currently creating a new permanent page with an article for the blog (not the magazine) that I'll write progressively. It's a companion piece with THE REAL PEPLUM X and WARDROBE MALFUNCTION. This scene will be featured in the article.

Musings!

Alan Steel tries to survive a sandstorm in HERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN (1964)

In the current issue of BY THE GODS! I cover disasters in PEPLUM movies. This includes this movie which has the evil Moon Men try to destroy the earth and our Hero du jour tries to stop them. The disasters includes the infamous sandstorm which, at one point, became a meme. It was a point of ridicule by folks who trash PEPLUM movies in general. There's nothing bad about the sandstorm. It might be a bit long but overall, I like it. Steel stands out, literally, in this scene, which is one of the reasons why these film geeks hate it so much. The big difficulty writing the article for the magazine was decided what to cover and what to leave out. There's so much to write about. Volcanoes alone could have taken the entire length of the article. I included this movie because I like it. Nothing will make me not like it. And Alan Steel is one of the reasons why I give it thumbs up. Legend.

If you bought the magazine, leave a comment here.

You can buy the magazine at 20% off with the code HOLIDAY2025 until December 11!

BY THE GODS! magazine issue no 4

Behind-the-Scenes

Sophia Loren, Christopher Plummer and Stephen Boyd have a laugh on the set of THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1964)

Clip of the week: THE INVINCIBLE BROTHERS MACISTE (1964)

Elder Maciste (Iloosh Khoshabe) is pitted in a fight and becomes the favourite of Queen Thaliade (Claudie Lange). With Ursula Davis.

BY THE GODS! issue no 4

This was the original cover for issue 4. I like it but the image wasn't sharp enough and I couldn't find one better than this. It's 79 AD: THE DESTRUCTION OF HERCULANEUM (1962) starring Brad Harris and Mara Lane.

You can buy a copy of the newest issue, no 4, about disasters in PEPLUM movies with the link below.

New Issue no 4 

You can buy the magazine at 20% off with the code HOLIDAY2025 until December 11!

https://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/3205057 

Funnies!

 Miles O'Keeffe and Sabrina Siani in ATOR (1982)

SPFX DEPT.

Scenes from KING OF KINGS (1961)

Roman soldiers arriving in Jerusalem at the very beginning of the movie. Excellent matte paintings. The scene above is actually from BEN-HUR (1959; below) also seen at the beginning of that movie but darker, as the Roman army arrives in Nazareth. They flipped the image and added much better painting than the one in BEN-HUR. Like Italian productions, Hollywood movies also recycled stuff. There are other matte works throughout the movie.

Then & Now: Tia Carrere

Tia in KULL THE CONQUEROR (1997); a recent photo of the actress.

Musings!

Rosanna Schiaffino, as Ariadne, in THE MINOTAUR (1960) 

I like this movie. I feel like I'm the only one who likes it. The best aspect of this movie is the double role Rosanna plays, as Ariadne, from Greek mythology, and the evil twin sister Phaedra. Without Rosanna's double role, the story would have been less interesting. In this scene, like the Greek myth, Ariadne uses a thread from her clothes to make sure she can find her way out of the Minotaur's lair. In the myth, the Minotaur lived in a labyrinth but in the movie, the setting changes to a cave/cavern, which is disappointing but I don't really mind it. Visually, the labyrinth would have been more interesting though. Overall, the production is solid with a great cast. Olympian Bob Mathias makes a good debut as Theseus but the movie needed a more imposing Hero. The score by Carlo Rustichelli is excellent. A spectacular movie should be made from this story including the labyrinth. There's so much to it.

PEPLUM Movie Poster

Original Italian poster of WITH FIRE AND SWORD (1962) 

Beautiful artwork even if she doesn't really look like Jeanne Crain. And Pierre doesn't look that old in the movie. Great title!

Image of the week!

Nero (Charles Laughton) enjoys the bloody action in the arena as his slave (True Boardman) watches him in THE SIGN OF THE CROSS (1932)

Spotlight: SIGN OF THE GLADIATOR (1959)

For November, a visual spotlight on SIGN OF THE GLADIATOR (1959), directed by Guido Brignone (and Michelangelo Antonioni, Riccardo Freda). Starring Anita Ekberg, Georges Marchal, Lorella De Luca, Jacques Sernas, Gino Cervi, Mimmo Palmara, Chelo Alonso and Folco Lulli.  Original Italian title: Nel segno di Roma.