Musings!

Belinda Lee and Massimo Girotti in GODDESS OF LOVE (1957) 

The English audio to this movie is missing. It has never surfaced in any format even if the movie was released in English in cinemas. It's one of the most frustrating aspects of the PEPLUM genre. Today, some are using AI to generate the English dub. They take the English subtitles and process the dialogue via AI and voila, instant English dub. For some movies, it seems this will be the only way until the actual English dub surfaces but there are a lot of problems with this. I've heard films dubbed this way. It's not very pleasant. The voices are harsh and robotic. The voices also change in mid-sentence. It's one of the aspects of AI that's still problematic: consistency. Listening to a AI voice voicing dialogue changing repeatedly is not good. But the biggest problem is the voice matching the actor or actress. In Belinda's case, she has a very distinctive voice. She's British and I've heard her actual voice. Presuming that they used her real voice for this movie, the AI voice for her simply doesn't match. It's jarring. So, it's a noble idea but there are too many pitfalls and issues with using AI to recreate the missing English dubs of many movies.

Comments are back on...

I'm turning the comments back on. If things get wild and nasty again, I'll turn them off.

PEPLUM Movie Poster

Belgian poster of THE LION OF St. MARK (1963) 

Typically colourful poster from Belgium. I like it.

Image of the week!

Mercury (Gabriele Tinti) consoles Prometheus (uncredited) in ULYSSES AGAINST HERCULES (1962)

Lobby Cards Set: THE SWORD OF EL CID (1962)

Original US lobby cards set of THE SWORD OF EL CID starring Roland Carey, Sandro Moretti and Daniela Bianchi. Disappointing set with  no cards with a clear view of Roland Carey or Daniela Bianchi. The set is missing one card but still. Only Sandro is in this set. Oh well...

Musings!

Mark Forest as Maciste in SON OF SAMSON (1960) 

PEPLUM movies became popular with scenes like this one. The Hero using the God given strength to help people with no power. Feats of Strength scenes were crucial for the PEPLUM genre to stay popular but gradually, these scenes became more rare with movies that were released later during the PEPLUM explosion. For me, this never made any sense. They may have run out of ideas but I doubt it. There are some of the craziest scenes ever conceived for movies so anything goes. But they stopped slowly. One just has to look at Steve Reeves movies and by his last movies, he rarely did any Feats of Strength, which is one of the major reasons he became so popular. The characters in Steve's latter movies were strong men and he fought and battled hard but nothing superhuman. And the PEPLUM genre eventually died. This scene is very brief but memorable thanks to Mark's visibly strong physique. Those arms are thick and impressive. A similar scene was made in SAMSON AND THE 7 MIRACLES OF THE WORLD (1961) with Gordon Scott.

Behind-the-Scenes

A behind the scenes photo of the QUO VADIS (1951) set. There's Peter Ustinov, Leo Genn, Patricia Laffan and more. 

Clip of the week: ROLAND THE MIGHTY (1956)

Rick Battaglia is Roland the Mighty. Great film directed by Pietro Francisci. From the German print. This movie desperately needs a better print.

FUNNIES!

Pietro Ceccarelli in THE ADVENTURER OF TORTUGA (1965)

HD Alert!

Steve Reeves in THE GIANT OF MARATHON (1959)

A good news/bad news day!

The good news: the German Blu-ray has arrived. It's beautiful.

The bad news: it has issues.

The first issue I quickly noticed: the English audio being out of sync early on in the movie. This was after a quick scan. I'm not aware if there are other scenes but comparing that specific scene at the beginning with the US public domain copy and it's obvious the US version is editing ever so slightly differently.

The other issue: the movie is cropped. One of my sources in Europe pointed this out. Below is a comparison.

Added to LIST OF PEPLUM MOVIES IN HD

The top one is the original framing. The below image is from the German Blu-ray. The German BD is more zoomed in. They had to cropped the top, bottom and sides to zoom it in.

It's still nice but not the original framing. And, yes, it's one gorgeous and excellent film!

Sergio Fantoni, Ivo Garrani, Mylène Demongeot and Steve Reeves

 

Steve Reeves and Alberto Lupo

Musings!

Gianna Maria Canale and Moira Orfei are prisoners on a pirate ship in QUEEN OF THE PIRATES (1960)

One of the fun aspects of Italian Swashbucklers are the number of movies with female leads. It dates back all the way to the silent era in Italy. A sequel was made after this, TIGER OF THE SEVEN SEAS (1962), which, IMO, is better than this one. Not that there's anything bad with it. It's very good. Cast, production, etc. All excellent. But TIGER blows it away. The reason? I wrote about it in the upcoming issue of BY THE GODS! magazine (explanation of what's going with the magazine tomorrow). It's always fun to see Queens of PEPLUM movies together and seeing Gianna with Moira is, as a PEPLUM fan, a treat. They should have made more films together. 

PEPLUM Movie Poster

Original Italian poster of AVENGER OF THE SEVEN SEAS (1962) 

Beautiful poster even there really isn't such a scene like that in the movie. It's a work of art though.

PEPLUM Break

I take a break roughly every two months so it's that time again. 

So stay tuned!

I'll leave you now with King Leonidas (Richard Egan) from THE 300 SPARTANS (1962), saying "From this wall, we do not retreat!"

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!

Image of the week!

Catherine (Hildegard Knef) plays Venus in a play, helped by Count Poniatowski (Giacomo Rossi Stuart), who is after her, in CATHERINE OF RUSSIA (1963)

At the movies...

THE VIKINGS (1958) playing at the Astor Theatre in New York City.

Musings!

Brad Harris shows his mettle in 79 AD: THE DESTRUCTION OF HERCULANEUM (1962)

Even when a PEPLUM movie doesn't have a super strong Hero in it, like 79 AD, it doesn't mean it can't have a boatload of PEPLUM clichés in them, like Feats of Strength. The Superhuman Hero throwing or tossing a boulder is a familiar cliché but this movie doesn't have a super strong Hero. I recently posted a clip of Gordon Scott in GLADIATOR OF ROME  with such a scene. The character Brad Harris plays is strong but he's more a regular man. So, in this case, he and his fellow friends all helped in pushing these boulders over the cliff. Voila! Feat of Strength, of sorts. I love it when PEPLUM movies are resourceful such as this. 

Behind-the-Scenes

Dinner party of the premiere of ULYSSES (1954) with Silvana Mangano, director Mario Camerini, Kirk Douglas and his wife Anne Buydens, and Anthony Quinn. Very nice.

Clip of the week: THE ARENA (1974)

Pam Grier dances in THE ARENA. With Margaret Markov, Daniele Vargas and many other actors. And a donkey.

Portraits

Massimo Girotti, as Arminio, in THE IRON CROWN (1941)

HD Alert!

Scenes from THE SARACENS (1963)

The new HD print of THE SARACENS is astounding. The image is so crisp it's incredible. Now a lot of people are not familiar with this fun Richard Harrison (above) film. It's a pirate movie that mostly takes place on land. It's enjoyable movie with a fantastic score. The fact that this movie has an excellent HD print while HERCULES (1958) and HERCULES UNCHAINED (1959) still have sub-par HD prints is bizarre.  Thanks to the one who provided this to me.

Added to List of PEPLUM Movies in HD

 

The clarity is wow!

Updates to two permanent pages!

PEPLUM MYSTICISM

Hercules (Steve Reeves; below) meets Oepidus (Cesare Fantoni) and his son, Polyceines (Mimmo Palmara). Full of mysticism.

Permanent page

MINI FOTONOVOLAS

Kirk Morris in TRIUMPH OF MACISTE (1961)

Permanent page

Musings!

Rossana Podesta and Pier Angeli in SODOM AND GOMORRAH (1962) 

For a movie about the most wicked place in existence, the movie itself was sorta short on babes (I'm trying not to be sexist here...lol!). The movie starts with Scilla Gabel, who is a babe, but her role is short. It also has Anouk Aimée. I assume some find her desirable back in the day but she's a villain and to many, that's a no. So, the two actresses were basically the only real 'hot' ones. There's also Claudia Mori but she's always in the background. And some dancers. But only 2 for a movie on Sodom and Gomorrah? I like this movie. I've watched it many times but I admit it has several issues. I already wrote extensively on it here in the past 16 years doing the blog. But this issue surfaced while writing issue #4 of BY THE GODS! magazine. The movie is filled with hunks...to the point that it's sometimes difficult to tell who's who, as they wear the same clothes and have the same beards, etc. It's a boatload of hunks. I could write down their names from memory. But only two babes? Hmm...

PEPLUM Movie Poster

Original Italian poster of THE IRON CROWN (1941) 

Yes, this is a movie poster. Very stylish with gorgeous colours. 

Last Week's Views

411k views last week. Nearly 173k last Wednesday. And 153k last Saturday. Wild! And zero comments.

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!

Image of the week!

Hercules (Alan Steel) fights Roman soldiers during a wedding ceremony in HERCULES AGAINST ROME (1964)

Lobby Cards Set: AVENGER OF THE SEVEN SEAS (1962)

Original Italian lobby cards set of AVENGER OF THE SEVEN SEAS (1962) starring Richard Harrison, Michèle Mercier and Roldano Lupi. Nice set. Very colourful. Italian lobby cards are a collection of montages, of more than one scene per card. It makes the movie look busy. It's missing the man-eating plants though.

Musings!

Gloria Milland and Mimmo Palmara are evil in GOLIATH AND THE REBEL SLAVE (1963)

It always makes me chuckle a bit when evil characters in movies, PEPLUM or not, look evil. I like both Gloria and Mimmo and both of them have had their share of good and bad characters. Gloria is good in playing an evil person but I prefer her when she's good. On the other hand, Mimmo, even though he has played good characters, has almost been cast as some nefarious character. This movie is no exception. They're good but it's played a bit on the cliched side. The clothes Mimmo wears in this movie is a bit much, sometimes it even doesn't fit him (he was really buff in this film). What Gloria is wearing leaves no doubt that she ain't a nice person. Fun film with some really quotable lines.

Behind-the-Scnes

Deborah Kerr on the massive set of QUO VADIS (1951). This is the bull scene with Buddy Baer.

Clip of the week: GLADIATOR OF ROME (1962)

Gordon Scott...gladiator or landscaper? With Wandisa Guida in GLADIATOR OF ROME (1962)

New PEPLUM Imagery

ARMOUR OF STEEL

MEN OF PULP

HD Alert!

Geneviève Grad, Philippe Hersent and Ettore Manni in ATTACK OF THE NORMANS (1962)

I recently got a ton of HD copies of 29 or so titles from two sources. I will be going over these one by one until I've covered them all. I really like ATTACK OF THE NORMANS and I was happy I got a quasi-HD print (not 720p but not 1920p either). The image clarity is amazing. It's such a great film made even better now. It's from a streaming source in Italy. My source in Europe added the English audio to it. I have no idea if it will ever be released on Blu-ry but it should.

Added to permanent page: List of PEPLUM movies in HD

Cameron Mitchell and Franca Bettoia

Then & Now: Helen Mirren

Helen Mirren in CALIGULA (1979); a recent official photo of the actress.

Musings!

Mark Forest and Anna Maria Pace in HERCULES AGAINST THE SONS OF THE SUN (1964)

Is a love story important in a PEPLUM movie? Personally, I don't mind it if it actually adds a lot to the story. In most cases, such as this one, it's often just padding. I'm not familiar with Anna Maria Pace. I looked her up at IMDb and according to the film's profile at the website, she only appeared in 4 movies. She was also in BRENNUS - ENEMY OF ROME (1963). I don't think she's awful in it and I actually don't mind the love angle here but this movie, which I love and have watched many times, is filled with padding. It has not one but two major dance scenes, and there's this love story. There's at least 30 minutes of padding. No, I'm not exaggerating. I still love it because it's so colourful and entertaining. It's one of the most original PEPLUM films to come out of the PEPLUM explosion, but I call it as it is. The script spends such an inordinate amount of time on the friendship between Forest and Giuliano Gemma that anything else seems superfluous. In my view, removing the love story in the case wouldn't have made any difference.

PEPLUM Movie Poster

Original Italian poster of TERROR OF THE RED MASK (1960) 

Good poster but I have to be honest, it's a bit too busy. Chelo and Liana look tired. 

Last Week's Views

115+K views last Wednesday, when I posted the clip from THE PIRATE AND THE SLAVE GIRL. 242K for the week!