SPFX DEPT.

Scenes from THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1964)

This is a mega-production and there's very little information of the use of special effects in the movie since humongous sets were built so people assumed everything in the movie was built full scale. It wasn't. The top shot is definitely a matte painting. The structures behind the wall give it away. This shot has a left to right pan.

There are many big statues in the movie and the one below is definitely a special effects. Reading the credits at IMDb, this is most likely a foreground miniature and not matte painting. Francisco Prosper is credited for foreground miniature work. I recently explained the use of foreground models with THE GIANTS OF THESSALY (1960).
 

Then & Now: Sophia Loren

Sophia Loren in THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1964); A recent photo of the actress.

Musings!

Jacques Sernas and Franca Bettoia in DUEL OF CHAMPIONS (1961) 

Everything about this movie is sorta sad. Jacques Sernas was in a major Hollywood blockbuster, HELEN OF TROY (1956), before returning to Europe to continue with his career in PEPLUM movies that weren't as high caliber as the TROY movie. After a long time covering the PEPLUM genre, and knowing very little about Franca Bettoia at first, I realized, after years of research, she must have been disappointed with her short-lived career. She tried to make it big in American productions but that didn't happen. She even courted Alfred Hitchcok, not realizing she wasn't really his type. Sernas and Bettoia are not even the stars of the movie. A tired Alan Ladd was, who looked out of place. Ladd walked off the set of the movie after nearly 3 months because he hadn't been paid anything. He only resumed filming after he got paid. That would explain his performance in it. 

Terence Young was the director, or the co-director since there was an English crew and an Italian one, lead by Ferdinando Baldi. Young's career would explode after this gloomy production by directing DR. NO (1962), FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (1963) and THUNDERBALL (1965). The setting and sets are bleak. The whole project looks bleak. There's a scene in a flooded forest. The outdoor locations look cold and uninviting. The story is not that compelling. It seems everyone involved was either going down or rising after making it. The tone and feel of this movie is similar to the WAR GODDESS (1973), also directed by Terence Young. I wrote about that movie's effects last week. Both movies have the same uninspired feel to them. And yet I don't hate it. It's not a fun movie but I watch it because I'm fascinated by it. The only bright spot is the beautiful score by Angelo Francesco Lavagnino.

PEPLUM Movie Poster

Arabic and Italian poster of THE LOVES OF HERCULES (1960) 

One of many posters for this movie. This one is Italian but with Arabic lettering next to the title which means it was released in one of the many Arab countries.

BY THE GODS! magazine issue 4 on SALE!

BY THE GODS! magazine is on SPECIAL again. This special rate applies to all issues. It's a limited time discount.

Details at the link below.

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

A reminder as well: I'm not responsible for the publishing and shipping of the magazine. MagCloud is.

Peplum Public Discussion

Comments are open in this post. You have something to mention about this week's posts? Or something else. This is the only place you can voice your opinion. Comments are curated therefore any bad comment won't be published! Be respectful! 

The post last week was quite successful so I'm keeping it.

Image of the week!

Maciste (Kirk Morris) appears out from the rocks after being summoned by people in help in MACISTE IN THE VALLEY OF THE THUNDERING ECHOES (1964)

VHS Covers

VHS covers of THE SON OF SPARTACUS (1962) starring Steve Reeves, Gianna Maria Canale and others. A pretty good selection. The only major cover missing are the German and English ones. I don't think it was released on VHS in the US. But I couldn't find one from the UK.

Italian VSH cover

 

First French VHS cover

 

Second French cover

Spanish cover

VHS from the Netherlands

Musings!

 
Dan Vadis, as Hercules, and Enzo Fiermonte in TRIUMPH OF HERCULES (1964)

This Hercules movie is also a Hercules movie in its original Italian version. It's not a Maciste film re-titled into Hercules for US markets. Dan is quite impressive (he's 6'4") and is very athletic so it works with Hercules but it's always a bit odd to watch a beardless Hercules. If you follow the blog, you know that I don't often criticize PEPLUM movies for their lack of logic. I personally watch them for entertainment, the colours, the beefy action, etc. There are a lot of PEPLUM movies which seem to lack some internal logic but I don't care. But in this case, this movie has A LOT of issues! I've already wrote about it many times before. And it's not a case of a Maciste movie turned Hercules, which would explain discrepancies. But in this shot alone, we see Hercules chained with the tiniest chain. What would that do? Hercules could snap those chains in a fraction of a second. It seems the writers didn't actually know much about Hercules. I love this movie. It's very entertaining but there are a lot of silly details which confound me. 

Side note: the shield in the background is the same shield seen in the MACISTE AGAINST HERCULES IN THE VALE OF WOE (1961), posted last Friday. The same shield also appeared in FURY OF ACHILLES (1962) and they were first seen in THE MINOTAUR (1960) but with different colours. 

Behind-the-Scenes

Photo of a scene filmed in front of a blue screen on the set of THIEF OF BAGHDAD (1961). The caption said it's Steve Reeves, who played Karim, but that's doubtful. It's most likely Giovanni Cianfriglia, Steve's stuntman/body double. I didn't colourize the image because I knew AI wouldn't understand what was going on and the colours wouldn't match. Below is the scene in question, when Karim falls from the bridge after being attacked by the ugly troll (Chignone).
 

Clip of the week: MACISTE AGAINST HERCULES IN THE VALE OF WOE (1961)

In this comedy, Hercules (Frank Gordon) flattens guards. With Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia and others.

Portraits

Tina Louise, as Diana, in SIEGE OF SYRACUSE (1960)

BY THE GODS! magazine issue 4

BY THE GODS! magazine is on SPECIAL again. This special rate applies to all issues. It's a limited time discount.

Details at the link below.

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

A reminder as well: I'm not responsible for the publishing and shipping of the magazine. MagCloud is.

HD Alert!

Nadia Sanders, as Gaia, and Roland Carey, as Jason, in THE GIANTS OF THESSALY (1960)

One of the most anticipated and long awaited titles to be released in HD is finally here: THE GIANTS OF THESSALY. It's streaming in Italy in HD. What took so long is a mystery.

A 4K version of the film was shown last December in New York city at the MoMA! I believe this is in anticipation of THE ODYSSEY movie coming out this summer. It's also in honour also to its amazing director, Riccardo Freda. If only HERCULES and HERCULES UNCHAINED got this treatment. Oh well...

As for the print itself, the clarity is beautiful. But the print is pretty much the same as the ones released before on DVD. As I wrote at BY THE GODS! blog, there were two versions available on DVD, the French one and the Spanish one. I personally preferred the Spanish one as the French print has a brownish hue which I don't care for.

Here are three screenshots of the three prints for a quick comparison.

The French DVD has an unpleasant brownish hue which I don't like. The Spanish print doesn't have a brownish hue but it does have a slight yellowish one. But the greys look grey. The colours of the Spanish version and the new HD Italian streaming version are almost identical but there's a brownish hue to it, as one can see in the columns and bricks. I would say the movie was filmed like this but the Spanish DVD is not like this so it's a transfer issue. The clarity of the HD print is excellent and compared to the two DVD releases, there's additional information of both ends of the widescreen format, which is always welcomed. But the reds and other colours between the Spanish DVD and the new HD print are identical and vibrant, which is sorta why this release is a bit anticlimactic. I love it but I'm not wowed by it since I'm so familiar with the Spanish release (I did a Fan Dub with it and spent hours studying it).

I hope the spectacular movie will be released on Blu-ray, with English dub. I will look at the new HD version in greater detail and determine if a more thorough comparison is worth doing.

Thanks to my European source for this new HD print.

Permanent Pages updated!

Here are three permanent blog pages that have been updated. Enjoy!

SHIELDS in PEPLUM films

I created this permanent page a long time ago but put it private/locked it. I don't remember the reason but I thought tracking the shields in every movie would take forever. So, I made the page public again. I will update the page regularly like other permanent pages. But it is time consuming.

Permanent page

The cool shields in THE MINOTAUR (1960)

MINI FOTONOVELAS

Here's another permanent page that I locked years ago. Here it is again, unlocked. I really loved doing this.

Permanent page

THE LASCIVIOUS LOOK

I updated the page. The focus is on SANDOKAN - PIRATE OF MALAYSIA (1964).

Permanent page

Steve Reeves and Pierre Cressoy

Musings!

Massimo Serato, Chelo Alonso and Lex Barker in THE PIRATE AND THE SLAVE GIRL (1959)

This movie is sometimes referred to as the worst PEPLUM movie. I disagree. There are much worse than this. It's not 'amazing' or 'wow' but I like it for many reasons. In its original widescreen format, it's beautiful to look at. The cast is excellent. There's a fashion show of sorts in it which is fun to watch and unique. The ending is memorable, if improbable. It's one of those rare movies in which Massimo Serato plays a good guy. Barker is the bad guy but he's really not that bad. Chelo has an excellent dance number. The location filming is top notch. But the scenes in the studios are quite obvious (see above). It had a US and Canadian release! I tried doing a Fan Dub of this but there are two different edits/versions for this so the English audio doesn't match the European print. The movie had an Adult rating in some countries but the makers of the movie wanted kids to see it so they had to cut some scenes (the Fashion show?). Overall, the movie has a lot to offer. 

The only big negative is the somewhat slow pace or unhurried feel of it. Sometimes one wonders what exactly is going on since it's so relaxed. And an unimportant scene was taken from this movie for the KOLOSSAL - I MAGNIFICI MACISTI (1977) faux documentary and because of this, as I explained it here, I can't upload the movie to Youtube. So, no, it's not the worst PEPLUM movie ever.

PEPLUM Movie Poster

Original Italian poster of THE AVENGER (1962; aka War of the Trojans)

Ok poster. It's not bad but Steve looks old and the action below looks like a cartoon. In EuroScope!

PEPLUM PUBLIC DISCUSSION

Comments are open in this post. You have something to mention about this week's posts? Or something else. This is the only place you can voice your opinion. Comments are curated therefore any bad comment won't be published! Be respectful! This is just a test (as I mentioned in the comments post last week).

Image of the week!

Hercules (Frank Gordon) is about to crush the incoming soldiers with the massive stone wheel in MACISTE AGAINST HERCULES IN THE VALE OF WOE (1961)

PEPLUM Movie Quotes

MACISTE IN THE VALLEY OF THE THUNDERING ECHOES (1964) starring Kirk Morris and Hélène Chanel

Farida: Sit down!

Maciste sits down.

Farida: Are you afraid that it's poisoned? Look! If it'd even been my intention to killed you, I'd have done it before now!

Maciste: Who ever knows what really goes on in a woman's head!

Musings!

Gaius Mucius (Gordon Scott) gets his wounded and bandaged hand looked over by a doctor in COLOSSUS OF ROME (1964)

I don't know how accurate this movie in terms of the real life of Mucius but this aspect, of having a crippled hand, makes the movie more real than most PEPLUM movies. It does have some improbable moments at the beginning, with Mucius lifting up a huge tree trunk all by himself. It's fun to watch in the HERCULES-style action but I highly doubt the man was that strong. But aside from that the movie itself is pretty much grounded, which is a nice change. I love over-the-top PEPLUM movies, but it's cool to see more reserved ones as well and this one fits the bill. There's still no official HD print available anywhere.

Behind-the-Scenes

A behind the scenes photo of Steve Reeves (right) and Joseph E. Levine (middle) during the cocktail party for the third and final Hercules movie with Reeves that was never filmed, HERCULES AGAINST THE GODS. I wrote all about it here.

Clip of the week: VEILS OF BAGDAD (1953)

Before social media, wrestling was the best way to communicate! With Victor Mature, James Arness and Mari Blanchard.

Funnies!

 Brad Harris and Gloria Milland in GOLIATH AGAINST THE GIANTS (1961)

SPFX DEPT.

Scenes from WAR GODDESS (1973) 

This movie is about the Amazons. It's directed by Terence Young. It sorta resembles PEPLUM movies of the 1950s and 60s with one big exception. It includes full female nudity, including nude wrestling. The movie suffers from some sort of identity crisis. It's a comedy? It's an accurate portrayal? It's an action movie? It's an adult movie? Anyway, the production appears much higher than the usual for these kind of Sex and Sandal movies from the 1970s. This includes two matte painting shots. The one above is the big one. It's a combo of real set (on the right) and matte painting (on the left). Notice the big tower on the far left side. Below is the tower but it's missing the top. They forgot to add a matte painting or didn't bother matching the look shown in the image above. The third image shows another matte painting, probably the tiniest one I've ever seen. 

Matte work by the excellent Emilio Ruiz del Río.