OOPS...

Can you guess what's the title by the cover art?

Answer here

The title is QUEEN OF THE PIRATES! Hmm...

Photo of the Day

Esther Williams, George Sanders and all in JUPITER'S DARLING

A big flop for MGM; sorta not surprising. I mean unless it's an all and out spoof, the idea of a romantic musical comedy with Hannibal is a bit misconceived, no matter how well mounted the film was, certainly the underwater scene with the statues coming to life as Esther swims about in a *big* pool. 

IMMORTALS costumes on display

Costumes for Zeus (played by Luke Evans) and Theseus (Henry Cavill) are (or were) on display at the ArcLight Sherman Oaks cinema. The costumes are by Eiko Ishioka. Link.

I'm not sure about the "intestines" design on Theseus' armour.

PEPLUM Art

Front cover artwork for an edition of the Spartacus novel. Art by Clifton Dey. Great artwork.

Last night I had a mini Spartacus festival on PEPLUM TV; played the Kubrick film followed by SPARTACO (Sins of Rome) by Riccardo Freda. It was amazing seeing both films one after the other. 

Photo of the Day

Steve Reeves as Hadji Murad in THE WHITE WARRIOR (or is it just WHITE WARRIOR?) 

Great photo of Steve. Uploading it to the HEROES & BEEFCAKE page.

Cinematic Confusion

Are we certain that those are eyes?

Photo of the Day

Kerwin Mathews and Tina Louise in SAPPHO - VENUS OF LESBOS

Mini SAPPHO day here at the PEPLUM blog. I recently acquired a copy of this film in widescreen but with a muddy image and even though it's partially unwatchable it's still great to see it as it was supposed to be. I uploaded a clip of the first 9 minutes of it at Youtube (see below). Additionally there are some scenes in it which were cut in the US version so those are always great to see. Hopefully one day someone will have a clear, pristine copy in widescreen and uncut. 

Then & Now: Riccardo Garrone

Riccardo Garrone as Hyperbius in SAPPHO - VENUS OF LESBOS. He's great in that film.

Below, a recent photo of Riccardo. Riccardo is still in the business. He did voice work for the Italian dub of TOY STORY 3.

Photo of the Day

Mara Berni and Abbe Lane in TIBERIUS (Italian title: I baccanali di Tiberio)

One of those kooky PEPLUM comedies that starts in modern times with our two heroes ending up back in ancient time. Lotsa babes in this film and as you can see, historically inaccurate. I know it might be a bad comparison but it's sorta like PORKY'S B.C.. Modern guys trying to get a good look at Roman babes.

Movie Poster Mondays

Italian photobusta for Riccardo Freda's THEODORA - SLAVE EMPRESS

The single greatest photobusta ever made and it's for a film I absolutely love. It really captures the Baroque feel of the film. I'll fix the image and make a banner out of it.

300 DVD blu-ray cover

 Anyone else find something off with this French DVD cover for 300?

Below is the cover for the US edition. Hmm...weird.

Photo of the Day

Image from Japanese animated film called ARABIAN NAITO : SHINDOBADDO NO BOKEN

It's a Sinbad story. Made in 1962, it was released here only for the TV market. I haven't seen it but I want to. It looks good.

IMMORTALS - box office and reviews

IMMORTALS is no 1 at the box office with a take $32 million, which is good but not amazing

The reviews have been remarkably brutal. Roger Ebert said "it's without doubt the best-looking awful movie you will ever see." Basically every review says this: great looking film, no story, logic or sense. The biggest complaint is how everything looks too cgi.

10 Commandments spoof

This is brilliant; even though I consider this film a campy one to start with I still laughed out loud several times, certainly with the "Moses, Moses" bit and Anne Baxter's campy acting which comes across even with these short clips; and yet also depressing as anything can be reduced to pure 100% generic stuff Hollywood makes today geared to teens.

Photo of the Day

Frank Gordon as Hercules in the comedy MACISTE AGAINST HERCULES IN THE VALE OF WOE

No one knows who Frank Gordon is. He's most likely Italian but there's no info about who this bodybuilder (?) is. This is his only film. A real mystery.

QUO VADIS 60th anniversary: Shields

To close the week devoted to the 60th anniversary of QUO VADIS, I've compiled the shields which appear in the film. Surprisingly enough, for a huge epic that last 3 hours, there are few shields visible or they are so far away that you don't see any details. The shields above have re-appeared in JULIUS CAESAR and BEN-HUR.

Artist representation: Colossus of Rhodes

Which one is the most accurate?

...and for something cheeky, there's the NSFW anatomically correct Colossus...to view click here

Photo of the Day

Jean Simmons and Robert Newton in the film adaptation of ANDROCLES AND THE LION

One of those rare post 40s Black & White PEPLUM films, even if this one is a Bernard Shaw satire.

Before and After they were PEPLUM stars: Paul Wynter and Ahnuld

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Paul Wynter meet backstage (at some bodybuilding championship?) 

Paul won Mr Universe twice and was a PEPLUM star back in the early 60s while Ahnuld was about to become Mr Olympia and a PEP star as well.

QUO VADIS 60th anniversary: Nero sings

Nero (Peter Ustinov) sings while Rome burns; Petronius (Leo Genn) looks on at what monster he, indirectly, created. When Petronius kills himself, in his last note, he pleads to Nero to stop butchering the arts. Someone should remix Nero's singing with a beat. 

Photo of the Day

Michèle Mercier is about to be sliced in two in THE NIGHTS OF LUCRETIA BORGIA

Damsel in distress!

SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN - Trailer

First look at SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN starring Kristen Stewart as Snow White, Chris Hemsworth, and Charlize Theron as the Evil Queen! If I see another scene with a person disolving into a flock of crows, I'll hurl my computer through the window.

The idea is sorta cool BUT as a fantasy. As an action pack film with sword fights and such, the concept of an evil queen sucking up the lifeforce of beautiful women to stay young and beautiful and orders her minions to seek out Snow White because she's more beautiful than her is risible. Can you imagine is the genders were reversed: instead of women, it would be men and the Evil King would send out his minions to seek a young man because he's more handsome than him. How serious would people take that for an action film?

QUO VADIS 60th anniversary: One Hit Wonder

Arthur Walge plays wrestler/fighter Croton in QUO VADIS and this is his only PEPLUM film. He only appeared in 2 films. In the story, Croton has never been defeated and he fights with Ursus at one point.

Photo of the Day

George C Scott as Abraham in THE BIBLE: IN THE BEGINNING...

George was 39 when he made this film so he was made to look older but then again, even when he was young, he looked prematurely old. I have to admit that, like so many Biblical PEP films, I've never seen it in its entirety, just parts of it here and there. Cool photo.

QUO VADIS 60th anniversary: PEP Recycling

Cesare Danova's screen test for BEN-HUR. He's wearing one of Robert Taylor's tunic in QUO VADIS (photo below). I have to say that I really like Cesare's screentest. If it was up to me, I would have hired him on the spot, not for the main role but at least a good supporting role. He looks like a real Roman and, dare I say it, that tunic looks better on him than Robert. Why didn't he make more PEP films?

Leo Genn, Robert Taylor and Deborah Kerr in QUO VADIS