VHS vs DVD

I finally got hold of an official DVD of MARS - GOD OF WAR, one of my favorite PEPS and was ready to ditch the VHS copy to oblivion but then I watched it and in many parts it's so damn dark, you can't see anything. Does anyone who makes these transfers even watch the film they just printed? Seriously, the VHS is fuzzy and the image wobbles and the sound buzzes but at least we can see something. In the "bright" scenes the sharpness of the DVD wins hands down but the DVD is way too dark. And, just a note, except for the fist example with Roger Browne, the other screenshots of the DVD were taken from a rip that I brighten. The first screenshot, with Roger, shows how dark it is directly from the DVD.

I'm keeping my VHS copy.

Who wore it best?

Mark Forest in MACISTE VS THE MOLE MEN or Pietro Torrisi (below) in SEVEN REBEL GLADIATORS.

Photo of the Day

Annie Gorassini is Venus in VULCAN - SON OF JUPITER

The new banner above for this part of the month is from the same movie. 

This is a mini-Venus/Aphrodite day!

Aphrodite/Venus in name only

Aphrodite/Venus is often used in films/film titles to evoke beauty and love but it's rarely about the actual Greco-Roman goddess. In PEPLUM films, Aphrodite/Venus is synonymous with beauty/love the same way Goliath or Samson is synonymous with strength and heroism.

Tina Louise is Sappho - the VENUS of the island of Lesbos

Jackie Lane appears as VENUS in MARS - GOD OF WAR but it's only a mirage

Belinda Lee is as beautiful as Aphrodite in GODDESS OF LOVE

Isabelle Corey and Irene Tunc (below) from APHRODITE GODDESS OF LOVE

Both women are an amalgamation of APHRODITE/VENUS

Valerie Kaprinsky is the beauty comparable to Aphrodite in, well, APHRODITE

Photo of the Day

Galley scene from the silent version of BEN-HUR

This photo shows how more sophisticated people were in the past regarding nudity. You couldn't see this in the 1959 version or even any version today.

Cyclops trailer

Another contender for worst PEPLUM ever?

Lobby card sets: SON OF SPARTACUS

As a movie poster collector I've always loved collecting lobby card sets. The problem I always had with lobby cards is that they often show boring scenes and/or show spoilers. Here's a first set of lobby cards profiled here at the blog. There are many memorable scenes in this film (Steve in bed; Steve on horseback with helmet, etc) which are nowhere to be seen in this set. But nothing too spoilish too. The best card is the 8th and last one. I rate it a 6 out of 10. Could have been much better.

Photo of the Day

 George Eastman in IRONMASTER

He wears a head of a lion, sorta like Hercules did, after killing the animal with his new weapon, an iron shard. George's performance makes the movie. With a few reservations, I like this Umberto Lenzi flick.

Movie Poster Mondays

Danish poster of SPARTACUS

When I saw this I literally laughed out loud. I never thought of seeing a "cute" poster of SPARTACUS but here it is, a cute poster of SPARTACUS. It only went for $29 at a recent auction (link). That's low.

Photo of the Day

Samson Burke in a oh so brief appearance in FELLINI'S SATYRICON

He's not credited at IMDb but that's him for sure.

After they were PEPLUM stars: Alan Steel

Alan Steel in FAST HAND IS STILL MY NAME(1973)...from the looks of this photo, this spaghetti western is not that different than your average PEPLUM.

Photo of the Day

Mimmo Palmara narrowly misses an arrow while caught in a precarious position in COLOSSUS OF RHODES

One of Mimmo's rare "good guy" roles.

Behind the Scenes

Behind the scenes photo from SPARTACUS of the controversial moment which was cut and only restored over a decade ago. Laurence Olivier is being massaged/cleaned by Tony Curtis and the two talk about snails and oysters. So much furor for nothing.

German pressbooks

German pressbooks (or programs) are some of the best memorabilia out there. They had some of the best covers often better than the original posters. Here are a couple of PEP titles.

GOLIATH & THE DRAGON (or Vengeance of Hercules)

HERCULES & THE CAPTIVE WOMEN

THE SEVEN REVENGES

THE QUEEN OF SHEBA

AVENGER OF THE SEVEN SEAS

Photo of the Day

Pollux (Fulvio Carrara), Hercules (Steve Reeves) and Castor (Willy Colombini) in HERCULES 

One of the many classic scenes in it. I'm looking for a color photo of this scene (can't make a screenshot of it as it's too far away) so I can make a banner out of it. If anyone has one, send it this way. If not, I'll use this image.

PEPLUM Clichés Updated!

Mara Lane is about to treat Brad Harris with some grapes in 79 AD THE DESTRUCTION OF HERCULANEUM. I've updated the permanent page with multiple additions.


PEPLUM CLICHES page

Gina Lollobrigida in SOLOMON & SHEBA

Technical goofs: Taking you out of the film

ARABIAN NIGHTS is one of those rare films were the recreation is almost total and it's easy to lose yourself in it, which happened to me recently but then bam the technical goof seen above took me straight out of the film. The camera wobbled a bit to high showing the back projection screen's edge.

Addendum: someone pointed out that the scene is fine: that what we see is the blue sky and sands...which makes sense...I guess I was reacting to the wobbly rear projection...

Massimo Girotti in SPARTACO (Sins of Rome); this shot is from one of the greatest moments in PEPLUM cinema unfortunately this shot is its weakest point, with Massimo obviously standing in front of a painting which always take me out, briefly, of the film. Aside from this terrible shot, the rest of this elaborate scene is brilliant.

Photo of the Day

A scene from BEOWULF

Where do CGI characters go to die when they're not in use?

They should have been a PEPLUM star: Edwige Fenech

In 1960 Edwige was 12 years old so of course she missed out on all the PEPLUM glory from the explosion of films made during the Golden Era but she would have been great in those Rosalba Neri/Helga Line kind of roles.

Then & Now: Brigitte Bardot

Brigitte in NERO'S BIG WEEKEND (1956); A recent photo of Brigitte

Photo of the Day

Goliath (Brad Harris) desperately needs to save his buddy (Jose Rubio) from certain death in GOLIATH & THE GIANTS

This film has it all, including excellent production values, except for one important thing: a script. More of a collection of PEPLUM scenes cobbled together than an actual story. But I like it. In fact I'm playing it tonight on PEPLUM TV.

PEPLUM-SCOPE

Supertotalscope. Euroscope. Supercinescope. MexiScope! Those are some of the numerous film screen aspect ratios seen on movie posters and during opening credits to compete with the more expensive CinemaScope format, which slowly disappeared from movie screens when it wasn't a selling point anymore.

 (this is from ADAM & EVE (1956))

Photo of the Day

Mylene Demongeot and Jeffrey Hunter are about to ignite their passions for each other in GOLD FOR THE CAESARS

This scene is one of the highlights of this film.

Real PEPLUM Art

Old painting based on the fables of AESOP


Mosaic with painted highlights of Orpheus charming animals

1 year of PEPLUM TV

This month is the first anniversary of PEPLUM TV, the live channel where I broadcast films directly from my collection of 600+ titles. It's been pretty cool for the most part. I don't know how long I'll be able to maintain it but as long as I have free time it should be on for some time. The film which had the best ratings was ADAM & EVE. The screengrab shows 42 viewers but it peaked at around 60 viewers at one point. One of the annoying part of dealing with the Justin.tv site is the viewer counter which is terrible and unreliable. I would often have 10 viewers showing under the viewer list and yet the counter would only say 4 or 5. In fact, the whole site is pretty unreliable (the chat room often doesn't load) but it does what it supposed to do so I'm staying put. Tonight I won't be broadcasting.