Image of the week

Hercules (Reg Park), who has been looking for Androcles (Ettore Manni) after arriving in Atlantis, finds him in his room and hit him by surprise. Antinea (Fay Spain), Queen of Atlantis who had said to Hercules that Androcles wasn't on the island, has some explaining to do.

PEPLUM Movie Quotes

From GIANTS OF ROME (1964)

Drood: 'We Druids have mastered the art of torture (audio issues). We are well acquainted with the human body and we know where to apply a white hot iron to produce the maximum amount of pain. Eventually, one of you will speak freely. Wouldn't it be wiser to save me this effort?'

I'm currently currently creating a new permanent page with an article for the blog (not the magazine) that I'll write progressively. It's a companion piece with THE REAL PEPLUM X and WARDROBE MALFUNCTION. This scene will be featured in the article.

Musings!

Alan Steel tries to survive a sandstorm in HERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN (1964)

In the current issue of BY THE GODS! I cover disasters in PEPLUM movies. This includes this movie which has the evil Moon Men try to destroy the earth and our Hero du jour tries to stop them. The disasters includes the infamous sandstorm which, at one point, became a meme. It was a point of ridicule by folks who trash PEPLUM movies in general. There's nothing bad about the sandstorm. It might be a bit long but overall, I like it. Steel stands out, literally, in this scene, which is one of the reasons why these film geeks hate it so much. The big difficulty writing the article for the magazine was decided what to cover and what to leave out. There's so much to write about. Volcanoes alone could have taken the entire length of the article. I included this movie because I like it. Nothing will make me not like it. And Alan Steel is one of the reasons why I give it thumbs up. Legend.

If you bought the magazine, leave a comment here.

You can buy the magazine at 20% off with the code HOLIDAY2025 until December 11!

BY THE GODS! magazine issue no 4

Behind-the-Scenes

Sophia Loren, Christopher Plummer and Stephen Boyd have a laugh on the set of THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1964)

Clip of the week: THE INVINCIBLE BROTHERS MACISTE (1964)

Elder Maciste (Iloosh Khoshabe) is pitted in a fight and becomes the favourite of Queen Thaliade (Claudie Lange). With Ursula Davis.

BY THE GODS! issue no 4

This was the original cover for issue 4. I like it but the image wasn't sharp enough and I couldn't find one better than this. It's 79 AD: THE DESTRUCTION OF HERCULANEUM (1962) starring Brad Harris and Mara Lane.

You can buy a copy of the newest issue, no 4, about disasters in PEPLUM movies with the link below.

New Issue no 4 

You can buy the magazine at 20% off with the code HOLIDAY2025 until December 11!

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

Funnies!

 Miles O'Keeffe and Sabrina Siani in ATOR (1982)

SPFX DEPT.

Scenes from KING OF KINGS (1961)

Roman soldiers arriving in Jerusalem at the very beginning of the movie. Excellent matte paintings. The scene above is actually from BEN-HUR (1959; below) also seen at the beginning of that movie but darker, as the Roman army arrives in Nazareth. They flipped the image and added much better painting than the one in BEN-HUR. Like Italian productions, Hollywood movies also recycled stuff. There are other matte works throughout the movie.

Then & Now: Tia Carrere

Tia in KULL THE CONQUEROR (1997); a recent photo of the actress.

Musings!

Rosanna Schiaffino, as Ariadne, in THE MINOTAUR (1960) 

I like this movie. I feel like I'm the only one who likes it. The best aspect of this movie is the double role Rosanna plays, as Ariadne, from Greek mythology, and the evil twin sister Phaedra. Without Rosanna's double role, the story would have been less interesting. In this scene, like the Greek myth, Ariadne uses a thread from her clothes to make sure she can find her way out of the Minotaur's lair. In the myth, the Minotaur lived in a labyrinth but in the movie, the setting changes to a cave/cavern, which is disappointing but I don't really mind it. Visually, the labyrinth would have been more interesting though. Overall, the production is solid with a great cast. Olympian Bob Mathias makes a good debut as Theseus but the movie needed a more imposing Hero. The score by Carlo Rustichelli is excellent. A spectacular movie should be made from this story including the labyrinth. There's so much to it.

PEPLUM Movie Poster

Original Italian poster of WITH FIRE AND SWORD (1962) 

Beautiful artwork even if she doesn't really look like Jeanne Crain. And Pierre doesn't look that old in the movie. Great title!