Musings!

Poppea (Brigitte Bardot), Seneca (Vittorio De Sica) and Agrippina (Gloria Swanson) in NERO'S WEEKEND (1956)

A stellar production that's can be viewed in HD. I've added it to the list of HD titles. Link. You can also view it on Tubi with English subtitles. Tubi   

It's part comedy and musical. The sets, costumes, music, cast, are all excellent. But does it work? Is it funny? It's charming I'll give it that. I love watching it but the movie meanders here and there. Gloria Swanson became popular again after the success of SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950). Brigitte Bardot would soon become a superstar after this. The movie is known under several titles: NERO'S WEEKEND. NERO'S BIG WEEKEND. NERO'S MISTRESS. O.K. NERO (there's another movie with this title). It doesn't help.

PEPLUM Movie Poster

Original Italian poster of TRIUMPH OF MACISTE (1961) 

This poster has nothing to do with the classic Kirk Morris movie. The image of the horses is from SODOM AND GOMORRAH (1962) so I suspect this is from a re-release. Cinematic Confusion!

Image of the week!

During a feast, Emperor Domitian (Piero Lulli) announces to a chained Valerio (Richard Harrison) and Lucilla (Paola Pitti) they'll be executed, with Artamne (Moira Orfei) in attendance in REVOLT OF THE PRAETORIANS (1964)

MUSCLES Inc.

Gordon Scott, during his Tarzan years, on the cover of STRENGTH AND HEALTH (September 1955)

Musings!

Brad Harris, as Simon, Djordje Nenadovic and Mara Lane in THE OLD TESTAMENT (1963)

If you call your movie OLD TESTAMENT, well, you're asking for it. It's impossible to cram everything from the Old Testament into a 90 minutes movies. So it basically invites criticism that the movie doesn't live up to the title. And it clearly doesn't. I like the movie. The production is excellent with some really glitzy sets (below). The cast is very good. There are some spectacular scenes in it but the story is all over the place (like FURY OF HERCULES, starring Brad Harris and made by the same team of people). It's like a Sunday School Production on steroids. They spent some considerable amount of money for this (huge crowds, big sets...) and the result is unsatisfying, if you expect the title. I don't so I'm ok with it, except for the story. A different title and people would see it differently and appreciate it.

 

Behind-the-Scenes

Director King Vidor goes over a scene with Tyrone Power and Gina Lollobrigida on the set of SOLOMON AND SHEBA (1959). Tyrone died on the set and was eventually replaced by Yul Brynner.

Clip of the week: MASSACRE IN THE BLACK FOREST (1967)

Action-packed climax! 

Funnies!

Reg Park and Wandisa Guida in MACISTE IN KING SOLOMON'S MINES (1964)

SPFX DEPT.

Scenes from THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII (1984; TV)

The matte shot is ok but the smoke looks like smoke from a chemistry set. The explosion of Mount Vesuvius is good and bad. The pyrotechnics are great and believable (smoke, fires, etc) but the volcano itself looks like cardboard. The shot at the bottom looks like miniatures. A mix bag. Somehow, the eruptions in previous movies, certainly the 1959 version with Steve Reeves, were more effective. The next issue of BY THE GODS! will cover disasters in PEPLUM movies. 

 

Vintage Article

From Mirabelle magazine: Steve Reeves Will Write Personally to You!

Not the most flattering photo (below).
 

Musings!

Grace Jones as Zula in CONAN THE DESTROYER (1984) 

The second Conan movie had a more comic book feel to it, compared to the 'serious' first movie. Conan wasn't alone in his adventure and a bunch of misfits helped him along the way, including Zula. This plot point, a bunch of people creating a little army against the villain was very popular and common in the 1950s and 1960s PEPLUM  movies. And even though there were a couple of such movies in the 1980s revival of the genre, it was mostly a solo Hero going at it alone. The movie did ok at the box office but it wasn't a smash hit. Grace Jones could have had her own movie back in the day. She was popular and she showed in this movie that she was capable of doing her on stunts but the cast was crowded and she didn't really have much to do, which is a shame. 

PEPLUM Movie Poster

French poster of THOR THE CONQUEROR (1983) 

The movie looks exactly like this. Joking aside, has anyone here seen this? It's been on Youtube forever.

Image of the week!

Hercules (Alan Steel) enters the lair of the Moon Men in HERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN (1964)

Lobby Cards Set: MACISTE IN HELL

Original Italian lobby cards set (fotobusta) of MACISTE IN HELL (1962) starring Kirk Morris and Hélène Chanel. Great set. It has all the best scenes in the movie. The design is a bit confusing but it's still good.

Musings!

Taur (Joe Robinson) is escorted to Queen Akiba (Bella Cortez) at spearpoint in TAUR THE MIGHTY (1963)

As I've written many times here at the blog, the THOR / TAUR movies starring Joe Robinson were supposed to be Tarzan movies but the estate of E. Rice Burroughs threatened to sue and big changes were made to remove any resemblance to Tarzan. Well, it still sort of looks like it. I like these movies even though I suppose most people wouldn't but there's something fun about this one and THOR AND THE AMAZON WOMEN (1962)—they are Twins Productions. They resemble each other literally like twins. They're so over-the-top I can't help but find them entertaining. Joe Robinson makes an eye-pleasing Hero even though he often looked bored. The beautiful Bella is too nice to be an Evil Queen and, IMO, she's miscast here but it doesn't matter. BTW, Bella Cortez is not her real name.

The director loved playing with the race of the characters. A lot of his movies have a muscular white hero paired with a muscular black companion. And the evil ruler is almost always a beautiful Evil Queen. With all the bondage (his friend almost sends a bound Taur to his death), death traps, rituals, army of female warriors, and that big, bizarre pumping machine in this movie, well, his films look like extremely elaborate fetish movies. 😂 Think of GWENDOLINE (1984) before Gwendoline.

I love the original Italian title: TAUR - IL RE DELLA FORZA BRUTA. Or TAUR - THE KING OF BRUTE FORCE.

Behind-the-Scenes

With the new Australian release of THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD (1961), here's a behind the scenes photo of Steve Reeves riding the winged horse on the blue-screen set.

Clip of the week: THE AFFAIRS OF MESSALINA (1951)

Cinzia (Delia Scala) tries to save a bound Timo (Erno Crisa). With a host of other actors including Maria Felix and Georges Marchal. No English dub yet.

Portraits

Rhonda Fleming as Cleopatra in SERPENT OF THE NILE (1953)

HD Alert!

Steve Reeves in THIEF OF BAGHDAD (1961)

This magical movie was released on Blu-ray in Germany a few years ago but it's going to have its first English release, in Australia. It will be part of a boxset. It includes THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (1924), the silent classic starring Douglas Fairbanks. And the 1940 THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (duh!) version starring Sabu. 

For now, the boxset's price is $89 Australian. Maybe this is a sign that the classic will soon make its way to North America. 

Link

List of PEPLUM movies

As I wrote a few weeks ago at BY THE GODS! (link), one great resource of information on the versions of PEPLUM movies available out there is from another collector who has made PDF lists of all the movies releases he has. He was nice enough to give them to me. From VHS to DVD to BD and other sources, these lists are very informative. These lists are not available to the public. It's just something he does to keep tract of what he's got. I'm not disciplined enough to keep tract (I have over a thousand titles...) and even though the movies I have are sorta spread out on multiple hard drives, I do have one with a folder with all the titles in order, etc. It's just not listed as a file with titles, languages, runtimes, countries, etc. It's one of those things behind the scenes which helps the blog.

Musings!

Princess Nausicaa (Rossana Podesta) finds Ulysses (Kirk Douglas) on the beach in ULYSSES (1954)

I watched this movie, again, this weekend. I finally got a clear hold of what I think of it. I don't dislike. I like it (or else I wouldn't be watching it...) but the movie does have some shortcomings, the main one being the length. The production is stellar (set, costumes, etc). Cast is great. But the story is pretty much told in flashbacks. That was a bold way of doing things back then. But this creates a detachment in that we see things happening but since they're flashbacks we know Ulysses will survive all those perils. So the drama is lessened. It still has several amazing scenes in it. 

The other thing that I was surprised to see it in this scene, and wonder how I didn't notice it before, the other ladies on the beach, their dresses are basically sheer. There's nudity. It happens fast but still...how did they get away with it back in 1954 is quite amazing. I will post screenshots at Wardrobe Malfunctions.

PEPLUM Movie Poster

French poster of FURY OF HERCULES (1962) 

Simple poster. I like it but it's wonky. 

Stats week 29 July - 5 Aug 2025

July 29 had over 23000 views! For the week, 88K views and some change. A record for the blog! I wish I knew what or who checked out the blog but Google stats have little info of where the views come from!

AI PEPLUMTV

 SHIELDED

Image of the week!

Iole (Sylva Koscina) tries to revive an imprisoned and unconscious Hercules (Steve Reeves) in HERCULES (1958)