SABINES vs SABINES

Here's a visual comparison between RAPE OF THE SABINE WOMEN (1962), a Mexican film, and ROMULUS AND THE SABINES (1961), an Italian/Euro production, which was first made. The Mexican production stars Lorena Velázquez, Tere Velázquez, Lex Johnson and Wolf Ruvinskis. The Italian one stars Roger Moore and Mylène Demongeot, among others.


The Setting : EARLY ROME

The three main male characters

The celebration before the abduction

The main targeted female(s)

The charmer trying to seduce the female(s)

The abduction of the women

The abducted women revolting

The conclusion

Photo of the Day

Good guy battling bad guys on the Colossus in THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES

Great scene!

Anyway, I'm taking some time off. I might post irregularly here and there! I'll be back soon enough.

Pietro Francisci's Films : Running maidens / ladies-in-waiting / musicians

A signature aspect in Pietro Francisci's films: we see a group of maidens or Ladies-in-Wainting or musicians running away or strutting away from their ruler. This is just one of the many signature details in his films which makes them fun.

posted at the permanent THE FILMS OF PIETRO FRANCISCI page


THE QUEEN OF SHEBA

Above and below : dancer and musicians are told to leave by the Queen of Sheba and they promptly leave together

HERCULES (1958)

Above : Iole's ladies-in-waiting run away from her once her father enters the room.

HERCULES UNCHAINED

Above : A lot of ladies-in-waiting / maidens running away in this film: Hercules arrives and the ladies-in-waiting leave promptly.

Above and Below : Hercules is fed up with the ladies-in-waiting playing with him so he orders them to leave.

Above : Maidens are being chased by Ulysses (not in shot)

SAPPHO THE VENUS OF LESBOS

Above : The King's maidens run to him when the rebels enter the temple. Many such brief scenes in this film.


SIEGE OF SYRACUSE

Above : a group of three ladies-in-waiting inform the woman working on the flowers that this lady, Clio, is distraught and they have to leave

Above: another ladies-in-waitting running away scene in SIEGE OF SYRACUSE

HERCULES, SAMSON & ULYSSES

Above : Delilah tells everyone to leaves, including the female musicians who all run-off together

PEPLUM GIF Animation : PERSEUS THE INVINCIBLE

Richard Harrison as Perseus battles the creepy Medusa monster. Love this! This is taken from the Spanish version with the Medusa shooting lasers from its eye!

Photo of the Day

Michael Biehn is Sebastian in THE MARTYRDOM OF ST. SEBASTIAN

A French TV production starring two English speaking actors (the other is Nicholas Clay). Like so many PEPLUM films, the story starts in modern times and Biehn is transported back in Antiquity and becomes Sebastian. Biehn and Clay are lovers at one point, which was daring back then. Not bad but very serious or some might say pretentious. Even if next to impossible to get a good copy of this film, you can view some clips on Youtube.

After work activities

Steve Reeves eating some gelato, along with his girlfriend/wife, in Rome back in the day. Yes, his beard was authentic.

PEPLUM fashion : THE PRODIGAL

Here's a brief overview of some of the costumes from the MGM film THE PRODIGAL starring Lana Turner and Edmund Purdom. I like these retro production design details. I tried to find some sketches for some costume for Edmund but couldn't find any.

The costume in this sketch can be seen in the screenshot below.

Photo of the Day

Cleopatra (Pascale Petit) and Ptolemy (Corrado Pani) fight for the throne in A QUEEN FOR CAESAR

Great photo. I like this film and I will always defend it, mainly for the two actors in this photo, certainly Pascale.

Behind-the-Scenes

A behind-the-scenes photo of Jacques Sernas while filming HELEN OF TROY

Then & Now - Fraser Clarke Heston

A one year old Fraser Clarke Heston, as a baby Moses, in THE TEN COMMANDMENTS; a recent photo of Fraser.

Fraser is Charlton Heston's son.

Photo of the Day

Maria Sol (Chantal Deberg), Bianca (Eliana Grimaldi) and Elvira (Daniela Bianchi) in a quieter moment in SWORD OF EL CID (1962)

Deberg plays the daughter of El Cid. One year after this film was released the statuesque Daniela Bianchi would appear in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. Not bad for a PEPLUM star.

I like this film. It's a real PEPLUM: cast, supporting cast, production values, music, direction, are all keyed up like a real PEPLUM which is always fun to watch.

Best PEPLUM Villains : MACISTE VS THE MOLE MEN

Continuing with the series of best PEPLUM villains here's MACISTE VS THE MOLE MEN (aka Mole Men vs the Son of Hercules)  and its chief villain is Halis Mojab played with over-the-top confidence by one and only Moira Orfei. Moira often played villains and bad girls but this her at her baddest or most merciless. She's the queen of an underground race of mole men who can't live on the surface of the earth. Her twisted kingdom is a sad place and she tries to exert as much power from it as she can, to hide the fact that she really doesn't have a much of a life.

By the end of the film, her character is sorta redeemed since she's not a real Mole person and is able to live in sunlight but even so Moira Orfei as the evil Queen is one of the most memorable villains in PEPLUM cinema.

Her cohorts are Kathar (Gianni Garko) and his father the high priest Kahab (Enrico Giori). Kathar wants Halis Mojab for himself but Queen Halis has her eyes on Maciste (Majesteus in the film; Mark Forest), below.

Maciste is put to the test by the Queen; if he loses his friend Bangor (Paul Wynter) and Loth (Roberto Miali) will die with him.

After surviving the Feat of Strength to end all Feat of Strengths, the Queen wants Maciste for herself.

Halis Mojab and the High Priest torture Bangor, among other terrible deeds.

They also mercilessly kill the slaves of the underground kingdom.

Photo of the Day

Spectacular scene from JUDAS' KISS (1954)

A rarely seen Spanish film, made several years before the PEPLUM explosion after HERCULES was released. Very somber and excellent production values but seems very grim. It's rare to see big special effects moments in European PEPLUM films and this (most-likely) matte painting is effective.

Movie Poster Mondays

British quad for HANNIBAL

Now if the film was actually like the poster maybe it would have been a bit more interesting.

Photo of the Day

Publicity photo of Samson Burke as Hercules and the 3 Stooges for THE 3 STOOGES MEET HERCULES

Some like this film while others find it utterly unfunny. Unlike all PEPLUM films made in that period this Columbia Pictures comedy was in black & white and not in widescreen. The trailer for this film purported that Burke, unlike Steve Reeves or Mark Forest, was the only 'real' Hercules. No.

Back on Monday!

Lobby Cards Set : ALONE AGAINST ROME

US lobby card set of ALONE AGAINST ROME: yes, this proves the film was released in theatres back then in North America. Aside from the awful colors this card set would have intrigued my curiosity. There's only one weak card, no 3, while the others are all solid. Slightly above average set.

PEPLUM GIF Animation : THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Christopher Plummer, as Commodus, makes his entrance as Emperor of Rome. Grand scene.

Photo of the Day

Judith (Isabelle Corey) joins Holophernes (Massimo Girotti, far left) and his men who are watching a fight between a cobra and mongoose in HEAD OF A TYRANT

I like the costumes here, ornate in a Baroque kind of way. Massimo's hair is braided which was rare back then making the already serious looking Massimo look even more severe. The fight between the animals was, unfortunately real, which horrifies Judith. I don't know if Isabelle witnessed the actual deadly fight. I don't want to show it too.

Location : Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California

Alabama Hills, in California, was the location for THE ADVENTURES OF HAJJI BABA (1954) starring Elaine Stewart and John Derek. The locations were well used even though they didn't look too 'Arabian'.

Oops...

So I was watching TROY the other night and I just can't believe how many mistakes there are in this big production. Just look at this simple scene: in the top shot, soldiers on foot and horseback are running towards the middle of the field, where the entrance is, with no one coming from the opposite direction but then in the next shot, we see men on horseback galloping wildly where there were none just a second ago. What a sloppy film!

Photo of the Day

The pirate ship from THE PIRATES OF BLOOD RIVER

This is the only shot which indicates that there are pirates from a ship. They added palm trees in the obvious matte painting even though the rest of the film was shot somewhere in the UK, not the Caribbean.

This shot makes me laugh. Talk about penny-pinching filmmaking. This is a Hammer film and one rarely hears how cheap and bad their films are even though they were really low-budget productions but you constantly hear how trashy and stupid Italian PEPLUM films are even though those films had  actual *real* ships and had actual action on said *real* ships. Trashing Italian-made films is just xenophobia and this is just a good example of the double-standard.