Monday, November 12, 2012

Photo of the Day

Landa (Chelo Alonso) and Emiliano (Steve Reeves) are star-crossed lovers in GOLIATH & THE BARBARIANS.

Nice photo.

I always wondered who made Emiliano's furry garb. Nicely tailored for the time. Kidding aside, this is a classic PEPLUM with Chelo and Steve at their best.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

GOLIATH AND THE BARBARIANS?

Stevens Miller said...

Wow!

Just found your site and your YouTube channels today. What an amazing labor of love!

I remember these films from my childhood in the '60s, but only as so many mixed-up images (no DVRs in those days, so I tended to watch them starting in the middle, and not always to the end). You've done an extraordinary job of compiling and analyzing this material.

Is there a forum or similar online gathering place for fans of this genre? I'd love to ask a "what film is this?" question, based on some of the scenes I can remember.

Thanks so much for putting up this site!

PEPLUM cinema said...

Welcome to the blog Stevens and thanks for the compliment. I work hard on this blog and any kudos is always appreciated. I assume you're a big fan of the genre.

I'm glad you discovered the blog and channels.

When I started the blog, which was 2 years ago, there was a forum but no one visited it so I removed it. I'd love to have a forum and have discussions about the genre, films and stars but I suspect that there would be only a few who would visit. In fact, few people leaves messages at my Youtube channels. I'm lucky if I get 5 messages a month at my PEPLUMz channel.

John

Stevens Miller said...

John,

Too bad about the forums. I used to love these films as a kid, but I don't ever see them on cable these days. Ten years ago, when cable was just getting started, you might have been able to justify a channel just for this kind of material. Today, they all seem to have converged on wrestling and psychics. Sad, and a lost opportunity for those of us who enjoy niche genres.

Any suggestions as to where I can ask a "what film is this?" type of question?

Thanks,
Stevens

Foxman said...

Now you've got me curious. Can you give us some details about the film you can't identify? We are few on this site but we are mighty...perhaps we can help.

Stevens Miller said...

Hey, thanks! It's really got me kind of obsessed. I've been looking at all the peplums I can find on YouTube and haven't found it yet (possible I missed it, skimming too fast, I suppose).

Here it is, best as I can remember (keep in mind, you are reading the 45-year-old recollections of a film I saw once, when I was about nine, in 1968):

Scene has three people in it, whom I will call The Girl, The Evil Guy, and The Lackey. Apparently, The Evil Guy wants The Girl to confess to something, or otherwise tell him something. He has a book he keeps showing her at various times, as though he wants her to write something in it. Not sure, but I think The Girl may be mute. To coerce her into doing what he wants, The Evil Guy puts The Girl into a kind of trap/torture machine. The Lackey, when signaled by The Evil Guy, opens a sluice from time to time, letting what appears to be boiling water (or maybe oil) into the chamber where The Girl is located at one end of a plank or board. As the liquid rises, she is forced to sort of "walk the plank" to stay above it. Unfortunately for her, this causes the plank to move downward at the far end (the one she is walking towards) and, each time it does, the walls of the chamber she is in move inwards towards her. If I recall correctly, the walls are covered in spikes. The Evil Guy keeps repeating the business of having The Lackey open and close the sluice, to allow more hot liquid in, forcing The Girl to take another step, which brings the walls closer together. On each such iteration, The Evil Guy holds up the book, and The Girl keeps shaking her head in a "no" fashion, like she is refusing to sign or write in it.

That's about all I remember. It's quite a combination of evil gadgets, with spiked walls closing in, boiling oil (or water), and walking the plank, all in one fiendish contraption. My impression is that, if such a thing were actually to exist, it wouldn't really work, since, each time the plank drops downward, the victim would be in worse danger of being burned by the liquid, forcing her to take another step towards the end, which would drop the plank again, and so on, over and over. If anyone ever were in such a situation, I think it would be over for them pretty quickly. But, this is just a movie, so whether or not the machine would actually be effective is not all that important.

Does that scene sound at all familiar? It's kind of making me crazy, trying to find it. At one point, I thought it was from "Thor and The Amazon Women," but I have just watched that one all the way through recently, and did not see the scene I have described.

Any ideas?

PEPLUM cinema said...

That from MARS GOD OF WAR aka Venus vs the Son of Hercules

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mNQ5nRsNkpM/UKWnbAttbeI/AAAAAAAALiQ/f1apphTU86E/s640/marsgodwar.jpg

Stevens Miller said...

Great Ghu, you are amazing! That's the one, thanks.

I don't remember any of the rest of it. Is it worth tracking down and watching the whole thing? Any idea where I can get it?

Foxman said...

I told you we were mighty...the ten gladiators have nothing on us!