PEPLUM X Tuesdays
Alan Steel
Alan Steel
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Monday, November 2, 2015
By the Gods!
I got a copy of this rare film from Alan. It's pretty good. It's about an evil man (Serato, who else?) who tries to marry himself into power and a masked avenger known as The Masked Cavalier who tries to stop him. The story is pretty much standard stuff (so many PEPLUM films have this storyline) and it has pretty much almost every PEPLUM clichés known to man, including this one, trap door, but it's solidly directed by Mario Costa, so the familiar script doesn't detract. Part of the film's intrigue is trying to figure out who's The Masked Cavalier and even though I guessed it, it was still fun to watch how the script played with it. The film was originally in color and widescreen but this Italian broadcast showed it in B&W. Very entertaining.
Movie Poster Mondays
Belgian poster for THE LOVES OF HERCULES (aka Hercules vs the Hydra)
Colorful, almost cartoony artwork for the colourful, nearly cartoony film.
Thursday, October 29, 2015
By the Gods!
This is a screenshot of a copy provided by Alan (thanks!). It's in widescreen (cropped at the sides) from an Italian TV broadcast. So glad this exists. The version available in the US is in 4:3 screen format and poor at best. Fun film with the recently deceased Alan Steel in a showy supporting role.
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
By the Gods!
Dan Vadis and team in THE TEN GLADIATORS
This screenshot was taken from a HD broadcast of the film in Italy. It's the best looking I've ever seen for this film. Is it true HD? I don't know. The one downside to this HD copy is the edges have been cropped. So It didn't retain the true aspect ratio of the original film. In this image, Ugo Sasso is barely visible on the far left. The other actors are (from left to right) : Arnaldo Fabrizio (short fellow), Emilio Messina, Pietro Torrisi, Giancarlo Bastianoni, Salvatore Borgese, Aldo Canti and Vadis (with the worst haircut in the world!). If the English audio matches the HD image, I'll do a Fan dub.
RIP : Maureen O'Hara
Maureen O'Hara, the beautiful, fiery redhead Hollywood actress, died last Saturday at the age of 95. She starred in mostly family films and costume / period dramas, some of which were PEPLUM-inspired films, either Swashbucklers or Arabian adventures. She recently published a biography which had some juicy tidbits in it. Fiery till the end. It's amazing that she lived such a long life. RIP.
Maureen with Tyrone Power in THE BLACK SWAN (also first picture)
Maureen was the love interest in SINBAD THE SAILOR starring Douglas Fairbanks jr.
Above & Below : Maureen in BAGDAD, costarring Vincent Price (above)
Maureen with Jeff Chandler in FLAME OF ARABY
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Monday, October 26, 2015
By the Gods!
Setas is one of the best (or worst?) villains in the PEPLUM genre. He's so bad, slimy and stubborn, and yet I can't help but admire him. His villainy, in a film with wall-to-wall bad guys and gals, almost makes the movie. Prendes is excellent and is up to the challenge.
Movie Poster Mondays
French poster for HEAD OF A TYRANT
How to describe this film? A morbid PEPLUM romance?
Thursday, October 22, 2015
By the Gods!
The PEPLUM genre needed to do more of these mash-ups to stay alive but by the time this came out and HERCULES, SAMSON & ULYSSES were released, the entire genre was dying.
PEPLUM GIF Animation : GLADIATOR OF ROME
Gordon Scott in GLADIATOR OF ROME
This moment is the one I've been using for my blog and other social media outlets. It's sorta iconic and yet Scott misses out on all of the action by being crucified there.
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
By the Gods!
Massive pageantry scene for Marcus Vinicius' triumphant return to Rome from QUO VADIS
High Priestess : "Venus, goddess of love!"
Crowd : "We worship you!"
Whether you like this film or not, no one can deny that the production values were amazing in this film.
