PEPLUM X

make sure to visit my second PEPLUM blog by clicking link: PEPLUM X

Photo of the Day

Gorgia (Enrico Maria Salerno) teases Diana (Tina Louise) in SIEGE OF SYRACUSE

Both actors would appear in another film directed by Pietro Francisci, SAPPHO - THE VENUS OF LESBOS. Enrico plays villains in both films. SIEGE OF SYRACUSE is more serious than action-packed SAPPPHO and Enrico's character here is less of a caricature than the mad Emperor he plays in the other Francisci film. I like this scene. They play entertainers traveling through Sicily. Tina's 'illusion' dress always seems to be about to spill over.

Movie Poster Mondays

Italian poster for REVOLT OF THE BARBARIANS

Nice. I like this film. A real PEPLUM and a good cast. Roland Carey and Gabriele Antonini make a great team.

MACISTE IN THE LAND OF THE CYCLOPS - Feat of Strength - Gordon Mitchell

I uploaded this 'Feat of Strength' from Maciste in the Land of the Cyclops starring Gordon Mitchell, Paul Wynter and Dante DiPaolo. Great 'Feat of Strength' moment. It didn't make it in the top '30 Greatest Moments of PEPLUM Cinema' but it almost made it. Dante makes a great villain. Paul should have being one of the pullers. Now that would have been hard.

Photo of the Day

Moira Orfei's fate in THE LOVES OF HERCULES (aka Hercules vs the Hydra)

This brief scene is cut from the US version. Why or why? I recently watched the French, Italian and English versions all at once and compiled all the differences between versions. The French and Italian are identical but the English or US version is different in many minor ways, including this shot. Love Moira in this film; it's one of her few 'good girl' roles and her death is important and yet the US distributors thought it was a useless scene. Weird.

Back on Monday!

Cinematic confusion

The poster for MORGAN THE PIRATE, with Steve Reeves right in the middle, used for THE ADVENTURER OF TORTUGA for this VHS cover. They kept everything the same, including 'The Boldest Swashbuckler…", except for the title and the tiny list of actors below.

PEPLUM Location : Marina de Laredo

This spectacular location in THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES was filmed at the Marina de Laredo in Laredo, Spain. You can view it at Google Maps : link.

PEPLUM @ Google+

The blog has a Google+ profile. Google has merged all their services under one account and because this blog and my old PEPLUM Youtube channel (PEPLUMz) are linked together, I decided to create a Google+ profile. Posts from this blog are automatically linked to Google+ so for those who don't follow the blog via Twitter of the Facebook page well you can follow it at Google+.

PEPLUM @ GOOGLE+

I also have another Google+ profile for my new PEPLUM TV Youtube channel but I'll only be using that profile with that new channel. This one is linked to the blog and my old PEPLUMz Youtube channel.

Photo of the Day

María Teresa Orsini and Mark Damon are lovers in THE TYRANT OF CASTILLE

A good production with some of the usual PEPLUM deficiencies, mainly improbable use of dilapidated castles used as inhabited settings for the characters. I'm sure old, OLD castles existed even back then but I believe most of them were probably empty or abandoned. It's one of those anachronistic issues we see so often in European Swashbucklers. 

Another issue is sorta odd: the size of Mark Damon. Unlike his appearance in SON OF CLEOPATRA in which he looked heroic and powerful, Mark is literally dwarfed by the entire cast in this film which indirectly makes him look small and ineffective. It's an odd thing to see. This also brings up one of my pet-peeves: the head of the leading man always has to be bigger than the one of the leading lady and as you can see in this photo, Orsini's head, including bouffant hairdo, looks so much bigger than Mark's head. It's needlessly distracting. I've seen this in other films and it irritates me. Like in KISS ME, STUPID with Kim Novak's head (also with bouffant hairdo) dwarfing Dean Martin's head. Aside from those things it's a solid actioner. 

Whatever happened to...

This unlikely story, of US marines ending up in Ancient Rome, was touted years ago as a new film project inspired by a REDDIT thread (link). 2 years later the project is nowhere to be seen. Someone at Warner Bros probably wised up.

Noah - Official Trailer (2014)

New trailer for NOAH starring Russell Crowe, Emma Watson, Anthony Hopkins and Jennifer Connelly.

Photo of the Day

Will Sasso plays Awesomest Maximus (in blue paint) in THE LEGEND OF AWESOMEST MAXIMUS

A National Lampoon production, this crude comedy on PEPLUM films continues with the very long tradition of unfunny PEPLUM comedies. Yes, there are a couple of gems here and there but most comedies spoofing Romans or Greeks films set in Antiquity are painfully unfunny. Hmm…are these type of films cursed or something?

Blog notes

New address for blog!

As you might have noticed by now, the blog has a new address. From now on when you simply type PEPLUMTV.COM in a browser it'll bring you automatically to the blog. It makes it so much simpler. You can also re-bookmark this new address if you want to.

PEPLUM website and more

I've started work on the main PEPLUM website. It's going to take some time to finish it as there's so much info but I might simply upload a basic version of it and work progressively on it in the background. The website will be hosted eventually at the PEPLUM.CA address. I'll try to make it the one place for all things PEPLUM.

I'm also working on other projects about the PEPLUM genre, including a possible book. I'll try to work with the website in conjonction with the book. And I'm toying with other cool ideas, all for 2014.

Italian Film Studios

Here's a sample of Italian film studios which distributed PEPLUM films during their reign.

Photo of the Day

Hercules (Reg Park) is dwarfed by the Atlantean surroundings in HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN

Brilliant production design and composition. Directed by Vittorio Cottafavi.

Blog note : I'll be posting 5 times a week. There won't be any posts on Wednesdays and Sundays from now on. Too many posts bump the old stuff off the main page too quickly and few visitors go beyond the main page and miss out on a lot...by posting less more people will see the stuff on the main page. And because I want to post on Saturdays (for now) Wednesdays will be a day off. 

Behind-the-Scenes

Behind-the-scenes action during the filming of O.K. NERO (1951). The location is Museo Della Civilta Romana, which I profiled last week: link.

Same statue, different films

Same statue, different films. What's interesting here is that both films were made around the same time. GOLIATH AND THE DRAGON was released in Italy in November 1960 while THE GIANTS OF THESSALY was released in Italy in December 1960 (What a time for PEPLUM fans!!!). I believe the statue was made initially for THESSALY first and showed up in DRAGON after. There are two different statues in THE GIANTS OF THESSALY including the giant one which has a passing resemblance with the main one but is marketably different (different head, arms, etc). It's probably from the same mold.

GOLIATH AND THE DRAGON

The statue seen in GOLIATH AND THE DRAGON...

THE GIANTS OF THESSALY

…the statue seen in THE GIANTS OF THESSALY. It's covered by the Golden Fleece here.

The giant statue has a passing resemblance but has some differences to the smaller version above.

Photo of the Day

Marjina (L. Vijayalakshmi) showcasing her dancing talents in ALIBABA AND 40 THIEVES (1966; India)

She's not cleaning the floor here. It's a screenshot taken from one of those typically elaborate dance numbers seen in Bollywood films. It's quite over-the-top, which I like. This one is 2.5 hours long and it's available on Youtube in HD with English subs but you can't download the film with the subs and I tried to find some on them interwebs and couldn't find any. This film is not listed at IMDb.

Movie Poster Mondays

French poster for SAMSON AND THE 7 MIRACLES OF THE WORLD

Colorful and sorta cute.

PEPLUM Location : Tor Caldara

An arial view of Tor Caldara. Practically every PEPLUM film shot a scene in that often dried up riverbed.

Most of the cast from HERCULES, including Steve Reeves, in a scene shot at Tor Caldara

Yvonne de Carlo in THE SWORD AND THE CROSS (aka Mary Magdalena)

Susy Andersen as Actis in SAPPHO THE VENUS OF LESBOS

Steve Reeves and Gordon Scott in DUEL OF THE TITANS (aka Romulus and Remus)

From MORGAN THE PIRATE

The spectacular climax from HERCULES CHALLENGES SAMSON 

(aka Hercules, Samson and Ulysses)

Original post : June 21, 2011

PEPLUM Location: Laghetto dell'EUR

A dried-up artificial lake was used as location for several PEPLUM films. I couldn't find a photo of the lake sans water but the image above and the last one below sorta give a good idea of what it could have looked like.

The location was used in THE QUEEN OF SHEBA

Mimmo Palmara and Steve Reeves in the location that might be the Laghetto dell'E.U.R., a dried up lake bed.

The wrestling scene from HANNIBAL (1959)

Original post : March 18, 2012

PEPLUM Location: Museo Della Civilta Romana

The "Museo Della Civilta Romana" in Rome was often used as exterior set in many PEPLUM flicks. So many in fact that it's hard to keep up. The following photos are just a *tiny* sample of films made there.

Sophia Loren in TWO NIGHTS WITH CLEOPATRA

Rhonda Fleming in QUEEN OF BABYLON

GOLIATH AGAINST THE GIANTS

Mickey Hargitay and Jayne Mansfield in THE LOVES OF HERCULES

THE GIANTS OF THESSALY

Original post :  September 1, 2011

PEPLUM Location: Palazzo della Civiltà

This location was used in many PEPLUM productions, including THE TEN GLADIATORS.

The opening shot from APHRODITE - GODDESS OF LOVE (1958)

 From THE GIANTS OF THESSALY. A facade was added to the surroundings.

From MESSALINA (1960)

Original post : April 26 2011