Musings!

Taur (Joe Robinson) is escorted to Queen Akiba (Bella Cortez) at spearpoint in TAUR THE MIGHTY (1963)

As I've written many times here at the blog, the THOR / TAUR movies starring Joe Robinson were supposed to be Tarzan movies but the estate of E. Rice Burroughs threatened to sue and big changes were made to remove any resemblance to Tarzan. Well, it still sort of looks like it. I like these movies even though I suppose most people wouldn't but there's something fun about this one and THOR AND THE AMAZON WOMEN (1962)—they are Twins Productions. They resemble each other literally like twins. They're so over-the-top I can't help but find them entertaining. Joe Robinson makes an eye-pleasing Hero even though he often looked bored. The beautiful Bella is too nice to be an Evil Queen and, IMO, she's miscast here but it doesn't matter. BTW, Bella Cortez is not her real name.

The director loved playing with the race of the characters. A lot of his movies have a muscular white hero paired with a muscular black companion. And the evil ruler is almost always a beautiful Evil Queen. With all the bondage (his friend almost sends a bound Taur to his death), death traps, rituals, army of female warriors, and that big, bizarre pumping machine in this movie, well, his films look like extremely elaborate fetish movies. 😂 Think of GWENDOLINE (1984) before Gwendoline.

I love the original Italian title: TAUR - IL RE DELLA FORZA BRUTA. Or TAUR - THE KING OF BRUTE FORCE.

Behind-the-Scenes

With the new Australian release of THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD (1961), here's a behind the scenes photo of Steve Reeves riding the winged horse on the blue-screen set.

Clip of the week: THE AFFAIRS OF MESSALINA (1951)

Cinzia (Delia Scala) tries to save a bound Timo (Erno Crisa). With a host of other actors including Maria Felix and Georges Marchal. No English dub yet.

Portraits

Rhonda Fleming as Cleopatra in SERPENT OF THE NILE (1953)

HD Alert!

Steve Reeves in THIEF OF BAGHDAD (1961)

This magical movie was released on Blu-ray in Germany a few years ago but it's going to have its first English release, in Australia. It will be part of a boxset. It includes THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (1924), the silent classic starring Douglas Fairbanks. And the 1940 THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (duh!) version starring Sabu. 

For now, the boxset's price is $89 Australian. Maybe this is a sign that the classic will soon make its way to North America. 

Link

List of PEPLUM movies

As I wrote a few weeks ago at BY THE GODS! (link), one great resource of information on the versions of PEPLUM movies available out there is from another collector who has made PDF lists of all the movies releases he has. He was nice enough to give them to me. From VHS to DVD to BD and other sources, these lists are very informative. These lists are not available to the public. It's just something he does to keep tract of what he's got. I'm not disciplined enough to keep tract (I have over a thousand titles...) and even though the movies I have are sorta spread out on multiple hard drives, I do have one with a folder with all the titles in order, etc. It's just not listed as a file with titles, languages, runtimes, countries, etc. It's one of those things behind the scenes which helps the blog.

Musings!

Princess Nausicaa (Rossana Podesta) finds Ulysses (Kirk Douglas) on the beach in ULYSSES (1954)

I watched this movie, again, this weekend. I finally got a clear hold of what I think of it. I don't dislike. I like it (or else I wouldn't be watching it...) but the movie does have some shortcomings, the main one being the length. The production is stellar (set, costumes, etc). Cast is great. But the story is pretty much told in flashbacks. That was a bold way of doing things back then. But this creates a detachment in that we see things happening but since they're flashbacks we know Ulysses will survive all those perils. So the drama is lessened. It still has several amazing scenes in it. 

The other thing that I was surprised to see it in this scene, and wonder how I didn't notice it before, the other ladies on the beach, their dresses are basically sheer. There's nudity. It happens fast but still...how did they get away with it back in 1954 is quite amazing. I will post screenshots at Wardrobe Malfunctions.

PEPLUM Movie Poster

French poster of FURY OF HERCULES (1962) 

Simple poster. I like it but it's wonky. 

Stats week 29 July - 5 Aug 2025

July 29 had over 23000 views! For the week, 88K views and some change. A record for the blog! I wish I knew what or who checked out the blog but Google stats have little info of where the views come from!

AI PEPLUMTV

 SHIELDED

Image of the week!

Iole (Sylva Koscina) tries to revive an imprisoned and unconscious Hercules (Steve Reeves) in HERCULES (1958)

PEPLUM Movie Quotes

From SIGN OF THE GLADIATOR (1959)

Marcus Valerius: 'Who's tombs are these?'

Queen Zenobia: 'Ancient kings of Palmyra. They too once lusted and now all their passions are sealed in these tombs!'

Marcus Valerius: 'If they thought of death more often they would have enjoyed life more!'

Musings!

Steve Reeves is the Goliath in GOLIATH AND THE BARBARIANS (1959) 

The only Steve Reeves movies in High Definition are: THE SON OF SPARTACUS (1962) German BD. DUEL OF THE TITANS (1961) German BD. THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD (1961) German BD. 

THE WHITE WARRIOR (1959) and THE GIANT OF MARATHON (1959) have been shown on TV in HD. SANDOKAN THE GREAT (1963) and SANDOKAN - PIRATE OF MALAYSIA (1964) are both streaming in HD in Spain. But none of them are available to purchase.

That's about it. 

Well, the two Hercules movies, HERCULES (1958) and HERCULES UNCHAINED (1959) have BD releases but the prints are so awful that it's not even worth mentioning.

So only 3 titles are available to purchase with decent HD transfers.

Some have tried doing up-conversions of Reeves movies released on DVD, like this GOLIATH AND THE BARBARIANS I took the screenshot from, but the prints on those DVDs are terrible so the up-converted HD version looks terrible. 

See HD LIST OF PEPLUM MOVIES

Behind-the-Scenes

Belinda Lee and Jacques Sernas promoting GODDESS OF LOVE (1957).

Clip of the week: REVENGE OF THE GLADIATORS (1964)

The Invincible Six in action. With Giovanni Cianfriglia, Benito Stefanelli, Aldo Canti, José Greci and Ronaldo Lupi, among others.

Blog's 15th anniversary: Canadian PEPLUM stars

In celebration of the blog's 15th anniversary, I'm re-posting old posts. Here's one popular post I wrote back in 2012.

For a country with a small population, Canada has certainly contributed a lot to the PEPLUM genre. With a pretty eclectic mix of personalities, including one muscleman, in the form of Samson Burke. Christopher Plummer is probably the most celebrated actor from the list (he finally won an Oscar® last year for best supporting actor) and his energetic performance in FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE boosted the film's entertainment value. I wanted to add Barry Morse to the list but he was born and died in the UK even though he lived most of his life in Canada. I'll try to list actors from other various countries in upcoming posts.

Original article: link

Christopher Plummer as Commodus in THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE; Chris was born in Toronto.

Samson Burke in THE 3 STOOGES MEET HERCULES with Curly Joe; Samson was born in Montreal.

Montreal native William Shatner acts it up to Joseph Cotten in the TV pilot for a failed series ALEXANDER THE GREAT.

Lang Jeffries from FIRE OVER ROME. Lang was born in Ontario. Lang had a pretty solid streak in the PEPLUM genre.

André Lawrence, from Montreal, in 7 FROM THEBES

Geneviève Bujold made several films set in Medieval times but she also played Cleopatra in a TV production of George Bernard Shaw's CAESAR & CLEOPATRA with Alec Guinness. 

Canadian born Stephen Forsyth is being strangled by Alberto Lupo in REVENGE OFTHE CRUSADERS, written by Riccardo Freda.

Yvonne de Carlo played Sephora in THE TEN COMMANDMENTS with Charlton Heston as Moses; I wasn't aware she was from Canada; born in Vancouver. Yvonne appeared in a couple of other S&S films, including some made in Italy.

SPFX DEPT.

Scenes from THE EGYPTIAN (1954) with Edmund Purdom (above)

Beautiful matte paintings supervised by Ray Kellogg. There's a good number of matte work in it but not like THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1956) which was a catalog of different special effects. These matte paintings were conceived with the new CinemaScope aspect ratio. Pretty good when you think how new it was and how well the artists accommodated this new screen size.

Then & Now: Edoardo Nevola

Edoardo as Prince Darius in THE INVINCIBLE GLADIATOR (1961) with Richard Harrison; A recent photo of the former child actor

Musings!

Wandisa Guida and Burt Nelson in REVENGE OF THE CONQUERED (1961)

The beginning of this unassuming movie is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen, PEPLUM or not. It's not only of the actors and their sharp costumes, with Wandisa looking absolutely gorgeous but the cinematography, the dream-like setting. It's a wow! The story itself is not an astounding one, with some characters acting a bit on the wacky side but I'll never get over what a good looking movie this is. And yet, few people know about it. 

PEPLUM Movie Poster

Original Italian poster of SINBAD AND THE CALIPH OF BAGHDAD (1973) 

The last movie directed by Pietro Francisci, who directed HERCULES (1958). Nice art. This was released during the brief PEPLUM explosion of the early 1970s up to the mid-70s, with 1973 being the peak year. The wife of Robert Malcom once contacted me via Facebook to tell me he was still alive. That was years ago. Anyway, it's a fun film, with some sadistic touches, only Francisci knew how to make. 

At the movies...

Drive-in showing THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1956) starring Charlton Heston as Moses. Location: Utah, 1958.

Back full time next week!

Behind-the-Scenes

Lana Turner and Edmund Purdom on the set of THE PRODIGAL (1955). In real life, Lana wasn't, let's just say, a fan of Edmund.

Clip of the week: GODDESS OF LOVE (1957)

The guards are looking for a man but find something else. With Belinda Lee, Massimo Girotti and Jacques Sernas. First time in English from a new Fan Dub! Thanks to Mr Burke.

(the odd formatting is due to Blogger...)

Various notes

A couple of notes worth mentioning. Thanks to Paul for two of these notes.

 

There will be an show called HERCULES UNCHAINED that will take place during Germany's biggest Roman festival. Above are Jan Kruger as Hercules (!) and Katy Karenbauer as the Queen of the Amazons. 

If someone goes to see it, can you email me on how or what it was and maybe some photos. 

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A 35mm print of HERCULES IN THE HAUNTED WORLD will be shown in Boston on August 1 at the Brattle. Link.

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According to Paul, if you ask Google AI about PEPLUM movies scripts, PEPLUM TV is first shown as suggestions!

What's remarkable about this is that Google shadow banned PEPLUM TV for months/years and still does to a certain extent, and yet it recommends the blog. Amazing!

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Warning: the blog's views!

The views during the week off skyrocketed!  Every day was 8 thousands or more views! Maybe I should stop blogging! Unreal!

Musings!

Rosalba Neri and Mark Forest in THE LION OF THEBES (1964)

A very solid PEPLUM in terms of action, entertainment and production. The story is purely speculative: Helen of Troy escapes the destruction of Troy only to end up in Thebes with her bodyguard/soldier, played by Forest. According to legend, Helen returned to Sparta to her husband Menelaus. So, this story definitely takes a whole different take on her story. Of course, Helen's appearance in Thebes causes a lot of turmoil amongst the elites there, including Rosalba's character. Everyone is after Helen and even if Arian (Forest) survives a near deadly snake attack during a wrestling match, no one is too concern about him even if he's the one that can cause maximum damage. PEPLUM stories often, not always, but often use this motif: the big hero is overlooked, to the detriment of the villains. When they do go after him, it's too late.

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I'll be posting just a couple of times this week before resuming full time next week!