Monday, March 26, 2012

Photo of the Day

Maciste (Kirk Morris) walks about in Hell in MACISTE IN HELL

Like many others, I saw this under the bastardized US version called THE WITCH'S CURSE, which is a badly edited version, robbing all of the film's careful direction by Riccardo Freda. The best transfer is from the French DVD which is simply stunning. I've seen other widescreen transfers from other sources and they don't compare to the French DVD. The colors and detailing are perfect. So good that the film looks like it was released yesterday. The colors from the other sources are wrong, cheesy and badly saturated.

This is without a doubt Kirk's best film and one of the best PEPLUM epics ever. Riccardo's direction probably goes over the head of almost everyone but there's more to this film than meets the eye. The way Freda contrasts Kirk's physique and youthfulness with the surrounding dark environment, on Earth or in Hell, is brilliant and an amazing thing to behold. 

5 comments:

Steven Lester said...

Where or how does one find or purchase such a French DVD? Ebay? Craig's List? I don't have a clue at the moment. If I did, I also would soon own such a treasure.

PEPLUM cinema said...

If you have an account with Amazon in the US you'll be able to buy stuff from Amazon France or Amazon Germany or Amazon Italy or Amazon Spain. But European dvds don't work in dvd players in north america but you can always play it on you computer like I do by tweaking the computer's dvd drive.

PEPLUM cinema said...

http://www.amazon.fr/Maciste-enfer-dans-mines-Salomon/dp/B001795STQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1332862725&sr=1-1

Bunche (pop culture ronin) said...

I have an all-regions DVD player so no problem there, but does the French DVD have English subtitles?

PEPLUM cinema said...

There is no English subtitles option on the French DVD