Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Vintage article

Interesting article on the special effects/stunts of Hollywood epics.





7 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was an interesting story about Jennings and DeMille on the Samson and Delilah set. I had to chuckle when I read Jennings describing the armor he wore under his shirt. Fantastic article. Thank you for sharing.

Matt Page said...

Thanks for posting this. Really interesting. if it's not too much trouble, please could you detail the source, just in case I need to cite it one day. Thanks,
Matt

PEPLUM TV said...

Hi Matt

I got the article from another blogger. He previously sent me many articles from Films & Filming magazine but I doubt it's from that magazine. The blogger has stopped blogging since 2017. So I'm not inc communication with him anymore.

https://osullivan60.blogspot.com

Matt Page said...

Thank you

Anonymous said...


The article is from this particular issue (#41) on peplum cinema, see link for details:

https://www.moviemem.com/products/movie-books-magazines/the-movie-magazine-issue-41-charlton-heston/

Anonymous said...


The article by John Brosnan is from the weekly magazine THE MOVIE (The Illustrated History of the Cinema), Chapter 41, p. 810-813 (1980), Orbis Publishing Limited, London. Editor: Ann Lloyd.

On John Brosnan: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brosnan
On Orbis Publishing: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbis_Publishing

The entire magazine series came out in 158 weekly issues from Dec 1979 to Jan 1983 and there were special binders you could buy for the entire collection. It was available from newsagents in UK, Eire, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Europe and Malta.

Because Issue 41 (1980) is peplum-specific I would like to share the contents information from the inside cover:

https://www.moviemem.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/MOVIEMAGAZINE41.jpg

p. 801. Epic entertainment. Wide screen and 3-D films to beat off the challenge of TV - by Allen Eyles

p. 803. Big screens mean big themes. The art of epic film-making - by Derek Elley

p.807. Heston's heroes. Moses, Michelangelo, Major Dundee: the faces of Charlton Heston - by Jeffrey Richards

p. 810. Those feats of ancient times: special effects in the Fifties epic - by John Brosnan

p. 814. Ben-Hur (1959) - by Adrian Turner

p. 816. The incredible hunk. Victor Mature - star of epic proportions - by Kingsley Canham

p.818-820. Cloaks and sandals. Cheap and cheerful epics from Italy - by Derek Elley

PEPLUM TV said...

Thanks for this