By the Gods!

Kin Khan (Nadir Moretti) gets crushed to death by Hercules (Mark Forest) in HERCULES AGAINST THE MONGOLS (1963)

One of my major complaints about the PEPLUM genre of the Golden Era is how some action scenes are too brief. This scene for example could have lasted a bit longer. Nadir's character is so relentlessly mean  and badass that I wanted his last days on earth to be more torturous than it is in the movie. Mind you, it's still good scene, and Hercules crushing Kin Khan to death is pretty harsh but I would have loved more interaction between these two men. In comparison, today's actions scenes often are over-extended to the point of being ridiculous. Love this film. I go a new HD print of this. 

PEPLUM Movie Posters

Turkish poster of HERCULES UNCHAINED (1959)

The woman doesn't look like Sylvia Lopez or Sylva Koscina (misspelled here), But that's a pretty good rendition of Steve. Kind of racy poster.

New Twitter account: MACISTE

New Twitter account dedicated entirely to the actors / bodybuilders who played all the heroes, and villains, of PEPLUM cinema. Please follow!

MACISTE @ Twitter

By the Gods!

Renato Baldini and Gianna Maria Canale are lovers in THEODORA - SLAVE EMPRESS (1954)

I have so many different copies of this movie. I just acquired two more versions, in French and in original Italian with French subtitles. I also have Portuguese, English, German, and simply Italian. And you know what? Not one of them is great. Good or serviceable but not 'wow' great. This needs a HD transfer now. The relationship between Empress-to-be Canale and hunky Baldini in this is fun to watch. 

Behind-the-Scenes

Future PEPLUM star Gordon Scott pays a visit to the set of THE CONQUEROR (1956) starring John Wayne.

BY THE GODS!: HD releases of...

 HERCULES (1958) and HERCULES UNCHAINED (1959)

Info at BY THE GODS!

By the Gods!

Gordon Scott shows his might in GLADIATOR OF ROME (1962)

If Gordon's character was so strong how did he end up being a gladiator? Haha! Anyway, I want to go back when heroes pushed big boulders off cliffs in movies. Fun times. 

I did a Fan Dub of this movie years ago. It holds up pretty well today but the image needs an upgrade. Where's the HD version?

Lobby Cards Set: SWORD OF ALI BABA (1965)

Original lobby cards set of SWORD OF ALI BABA (1965) starring Peter Mann and Jocelyn Lane. I only this movie once on TV and I remember it but I can't recall the 'best' moments. The card is fairly standard. Note: the is movie was made in 1965 but included scenes from ALI BABA AND THE 40 THIEVES (1944). Therefore the movie wasn't in widescreen but standard 4:3 aspect ratio.

Clip of the week: THE GIANT OF MARATHON

Steve Reeves as Phillipides

By the Gods!

Matte painting from THE MAGIC CARPET (1951)

Nice painting. The cool thing about it is that we see two versions of it: daytime and nighttime. 

As for the movie itself, well, it's sorta forgotten for a good reason. It's not bad. It's fun to watch in a Matinee at the movies kinda way but nearly everyone in the cast, including Lucille Ball, is miscast. The hero (John Agar) is not much of a hero (his costume is terrible). Actors mispronounce Arabic words. It's more of an oddity today than anything else. A fun curio.

Musings!

Searching far and wide for all things PEPLUM! Luciano Marin and Steve Reeves in GOLIATH AND THE BARBARIANS (1959)

The deaths of Haya Harareet and Christopher Plummer

The death of a famous actor who starred in PEPLUM movies is always sad but two deaths in less than a week is depressing. With the passing of Haya Harareet and Christopher Plummer, seemingly the last vestiges of the PEPLUM Explosion of the Golden Era are leaving this world quickly. Will the PEPLUM genre ever be as popular as it was between 1949 to 1965 again? Remember the death of those two actors are for movies made 60 or so years ago. And we're still talking about them. How many movies made today will be discussed 60 years from now? Few if any. Their deaths remind me of a time long gone, not just because of the stories of the movies but also of the great craftsmanship in moviemaking of the 1950s and 60s. 

The never-ending task of 'Identifying actors' is rife with pitfalls

One of the most bizarre things which has happened in the 10 years I've made the blog was someone who wanted to befriend me on Facebook, who said he was a fan of PEPLUM movies, only to lose that friendship after trying to identify an actor. For me, the identity of the actor was obvious from the get go but to the other fellow my answer was wrong, wrong, wrong. He was so adamant that I was wrong that he stopped being friends. The actor is Burt Nelson. He's very familiar, with starring roles in REVOLT OF THE SLAVES (1960) and REVENGE OF THE CONQUERED (1961). 

The top image is from REVENGE OF THE CONQUERED. The other movie below is WITH FIRE AND SWORD (1962). For some odd reason Burt is not credited for WITH FIRE AND SWORD. So, when trying to identify the actor and told the Facebook friend it was obviously Burt even though he's not credited, the Facebook friend insisted it wasn't Burt but an Italian actor.

There's no question that's Burt Nelson. He's still not credited for that movie, including at IMDb. I'm adding this to the permanent page BLOGS MANY FIRSTS. If you haven't seen this page check it out (note: some links within the article might not work anymore).

I'll have more on this former Facebook 'friend' in upcoming musings.

Cinematic Confusion

What is the movie for this Greek DVD from my collection? It's TRIUMPH OF MACISTE (1961) starring Kirk Morris. They used artwork from GOLIATH AND THE VAMPIRES (1961) starring Gordon Scott. There's also Chelo Alonso from SON OF SAMSON (1960). It seems Gordon Scott is the go to guy whenever they need to substitute one actor for another.

New DVDs / Blu-ray

  

Nothing earth-shattering in regards to new DVDs or Blu-ray.

- Spanish DVD of CORIOLANUS - HERO WITHOUT A COUNTRY (1964). 

- French Blu-ray of MESSALINA (1960), which I mentioned last Friday.

- German DVD of 79 AD: THE DESTRUCTION OF HERCULANEUM (1962)


On a side note, I have some interesting news about some new Blu-rays. Sorta big news. I'll be posting this news in a few days at BY THE GODS!


Have you seen this Russian film? 

Discovering new movies, old or new, is always fun. I saw a German trailer for this movie. It's sorta like 300 (2007) but set in Russia.

Addendum to previous article 

I'm sorting out my hard drives, putting every title unto one hard drive. It's been a very long task and it's almost completed. Oddly enough, while doing this I discovered a couple of titles in my collection I had forgotten. One of which is the US version of CONQUEROR OF CORINTH (1961). In the US the title was THE CENTURION. I have a copy of this and I updated the recent article on DIFFERENT TITLES. You can view it here. The title is misspelled during the opening credits.

-----

Another title I had forgotten which I found during the cleaning up was this one.

It's a Mondo-style nudie movie with strippers enacting dances set in Antiquity or the past. It includes the popular one I uploaded to Youtube I called 'PEPLUM Interlude'. It's also known as HERCULES OBLIVIOUS. 

I'm glad I sorted out my collection. I'll have some musings on this in a future post.

Future musings:

- New official PEPLUM TV merchandise

- A PEPLUM TV podcast?

- Comments at the blog

- A PEPLUM TV forum?

- Wardrobe malfunction in HD!

By the Gods!

 

Horst Buchholz and Gina Lollobrigida in CERVANTES (1967)

The casting of Gina and Horst was an odd one. I watched this movie a few days ago and I can never get past this point. It's not just an age issue. Gina is a tiny woman. She's 5'4". And yet Horst looks so much smaller than her. The film has some really good sword fights. It was released as THE YOUNG REBEL in the US.

PEPLUM Movie Poster

US one sheet of THOR THE CONQUEROR (1983)

This poster sums up the Sword and Sorcery trend of the 1980s.

Christopher Plummer, RIP

Last Friday, just as I was winding down the posts for the week, I learned that Christopher Plummer had died. He was 91 years old. It was sad news, certainly after news of the recent death of Haya Harareet just a couple of days before. It seemed the Gods had something to say.

Christopher Plummer was a Canadian actor, which I profiled here amongst others. He was exceptionally talented and starred in many movies, including THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965). He did star in a handful of PEPLUM movies but surprisingly enough, not many. I'll list him here. R.I.P., Christopher.

THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1964)

One of the biggest PEPLUM movies of the era, this was Christopher 3rd movie. Quite a feat and an excellent acting tour de force. I've said this before but he was the best thing about this epic. He played Commodus with a lot of verve and enthusiasm. His performance still holds up today.

Christopher as Commodus. Personally I think he should have been nominated for an Oscar but the movie was a financial failure and only the score was nominated for an award.

OEDIPUS THE KING (1968)

For his 8th film, Christopher starred in the film production of OEDIPUS THE KING (1968). With Lili Palmer as Jocasta. The director of the movie, Philipe Saville, had already filmed a TV special of HAMLET with Plummer in 1964. Though a movie, it comes across more as a stage play than anything else.

ROYAL HUNT OF THE SUN (1969)

Christopher starred as Atahuallpa in this adaptation of the popular play of the same name. Not that different to OEDIPUS THE KING in that it feels more theatrical than cinematic even though this movie's production is more cinematic than OEDIPUS. No one seems to remember this movie.

Robert Shaw and Christopher Plummer.

JESUS OF NAZARETH (1977)

Christopher starred in the TV mini-series as Herod Antipas. I haven't seen this mini-series in decades so I can't recall his performance.

ALEXANDER (2004)

Christopher had a small role in ALEXANDER as Aristotle. He was so good in it I wish his role had been bigger.

Plummer had appeared in many other movies and TV productions set in the past, such as THE NEW WORLD (2010) and WATERLOO (1970) but I focused his profile on his PEPLUM roles.

Christopher Plummer in FALLOF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1964)

With Stephen Boyd

By the Gods!

Spyros Fokas and Belinda Lee in MESSALINA (1960)

This screenshot is from the recent French Blu-ray. The opening credits are in English and there an English audio tract. It's almost a completely English release except for the packaging and that the movie is in PAL format. The image is really beautiful and clear but the movie was always available in nice copies, which is rare for the PEPLUM genre. I scanned the movie and I can't find any faults with it. I didn't make any adjustments to the image. If you can view movies from Europe, from your computer or a region free BR player, I highly recommend it. I'll have a full review of it soon.

Christopher Plummer R.I.P..

Just as I completed the last post of the blog, I just heard news that Christopher Plummer has died. He starred in a handful of PEPLUM movies, including THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1964). I'll have more on his career next week. He was 91 years old.

At the movies...

THE ROBE premiere at the RKO Palace in Rochester, 1953.

By the Gods!

Haya Harareet died on February 3 at the age of 89. She starred in only a handful of movies, 2 of which were of the PEPLUM genre, including BEN-HUR (1959). She played Esther, the love interest to Charlton Heston's Ben-Hur (below). She also starred in a mega project ANTINEA (1961) known as JOURNEY BENEATH THE DESERT. R.I.P..

Above and below: Haya in JOURNEY BENEATH THE DESERT. She played Queen Antinea. Shot in Technirama (70mm), this ill-fated project was, according to Edgar G. Ulmer, a nightmare to make. In it, Haya was a sultry Queen of Atlantis, playing up her cheesecake charms.

Behind-the-Scenes

Behind the scenes photo of the SPARTACUS (1960) crew preparing for the 'Snails and Oysters' bath scene, with Tony Curtis and Laurence Olivier waiting. This scene was cut from the original release, since it was deemed too risqué. The scene was re-instated in a future restoration. It can be viewed on Youtube.

Clip of the week: GOLD FOR THE CAESARS (1963)

With Jeffrey Hunter and Mylène Demongeot

By the Gods!

Jeff Cooper and Luciana Paluzzi in 1001 NIGHTS (1968)

 

A sexy Arabian adventure with Paluzzi as a 'third class' genie who helps Cooper regain power of the throne. Is it good? Is it entertaining? It's okay. I wouldn't say it's a favourite of mine. Its fun to watch Paluzzi who's first big break was in HERCULES (1958) but her role is not really defined in this. Even at 90 minutes, I thought it was overlong. Very colourful with some fun scenes (like this one) but very lightweight. I have a couple of copies of this film and the one I watched was a Fan Dub someone made. Halfway through, the audio became out of sync with the image. It wasn't too bad but the audio needs to be fixed. 

Musings

This will be a regular feature here at the blog.

Searching far and wide for all things PEPLUM! Luciano Marin and Steve Reeves in GOLIATH AND THE BARBARIANS (1959)

When I started the blog over 10 years ago, I didn't expect to be working on it after a decade and I certainly didn't expect it to be more popular than ever. I took a break last week but I felt sorta guilty about it since the views got up to 1700 views a day! I thought I should continue on, to capitalize on the current interest out there but aside from a few days during the Holidays, I hadn't taken a time off in well over two months. I was getting overwhelmed by the constant work and posting. The break was needed. Oddly enough, I thought the break went by too fast and yet with the many things going on, it also felt like it lasted a month.

Just prior to the break I re-activated a couple of my old PEPLUM social media accounts. The response has been incredible. The Pinterest account got over 120K views recently, which is 3 times the number of views I get for the blog in a month! I'm glad I didn't close that account years ago. I'll post stuff there almost every day, just to keep it going.

As I posted here recently, I also re-activated my old PEPLUM Channel Facebook profile and the response there has simply been amazing. This blog is the main source of all things PEPLUM so my focus is constantly here, and even though the blog's views have been excellent these days they don't compare to what's going on at Facebook. I have over 150 followers here at the blog but at the PEPLUM Channel account I have ever 2400 Friends. People have fun commenting there. Not much going on here at the blog in regards to comments. More on this next week.

Movies I watched

During the break, I watched a bunch of movies. Remarkably, all the movies had the same theme/storyline. My choices were totally random so it was fun to see how many PEPLUM movies use the same storyline over and over again.

I watched (not in this order):

A THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS (1945) starring Cornel Wilde

THE MAGIC CARPET (1951) starring Lucille Ball

THE GOLDEN BLADE (1953) starring Rock Hudson and Piper Laurie

A SWORD IN THE SHADOWS (1961) starring Germano Longo

SIGN OF ZORRO (1963) starring Sean Flynn

1001 NIGHTS (1968) starring Luciana Paluzzi and Jeff Cooper.

ISABELLA - DUCHESS OF THE DEVILS (1969) starring Brigitte Skay and Mimmo Palmara

Every movie was about a child of nobility of sorts who's parents were murdered and replaced by fake nobles only to discover this deception when they're adults, and it's their quest to overthrow these villains and avenge those responsible for the deaths of their parents.  I'll have reviews or overviews of these movies in coming days. It's quite fun to see the progress from the 1940s to the quasi-porn ISABELLA 24 years later. My surprise find was A SWORD IN THE SHADOWS with Germano Longo having fun in a meaty role. Very entertaining.

During the past month, I acquired a bunch of movies, most of which I already have, with just a few that were new to me. I like collecting different versions of the same movie for several reasons: to see the opening title/credits in whatever language the copy is in. I also realized a long time ago that different versions of the same movie, from a variety of sources, ie VHS, TV broadcast, obscure bootlegs, etc, are often a great source to find scenes that were cut in the US version. It's always fun to discover new scenes in a movie I've watched many times before.

One of those titles, GERMANICUS IN DER UNTERWELT (above), the German version of COLOSSUS OF THE STONE AGE (1962) starring Reg Lewis and Luciano Marin (him again). A really cool print in that the quality of the image really looks like film. A couple of prints of CATHERINE OF RUSSIA (1963). I got BUREBISTA (1980) which I already had but this new one has English subs. Without the help of subtitles, I always thought this movie was a sequel of sorts to DACII (1966).  

Discovering new titles that were unknown or remained under the radar is always fun. I recently discovered KNIGHTS OF THE TEUTONIC ORDER (1960) which was a real surprise. And now, thanks to my excellent source, I just got BARABBAS (1953), a Swedish Biblical film directed by Alf Sjöberg. Not your typical Biblical movie.


Cinematic Confusion

I've come across so many new examples recently. Here's one.

French VHS artwork for ULYSSES AGAINST HERCULES (1962) starring Georges Marchal and Mike Lane but they used the artwork for the US poster of SAMSON AND THE 7 MIRACLES OF THE WORLD (1961) starring Gordon Scott. There are no tigers in ULYSSES AGAINST HERCULES. Why not use the plethora of artwork for ULYSSES AGAINST HERCULES (1962)? Very confusing.


Can you identify this movie?

I posted the above image at PEPLUM Channel and no one has identified the movie yet. So I'm trying it here.

Orsh figured out the mystery movie: THE GIANTS OF ROME (1964) starring Richard Harrison. Good job, Orsh.

- I'm currently working on a couple of 'Articles of the week!' Will post them soon. I'm also working on a new profile for an actor seen in many PEPLUM movies but people might not know his name. I haven't done one of these in a long time.



More musings in upcoming weeks:

- New official PEPLUM TV merchandise

- The never-ending task of 'Identifying actors' is rife with pitfalls

- A PEPLUM TV podcast?

- Comments at the blog

- A PEPLUM TV forum?

By the Gods!

Steve Reeves as Captain Morgan in MORGAN THE PIRATE (1960)

Beardless or bearded Steve Reeves...which is your favourite? Steve looks great with or without a beard but he does look younger without one. This is a great movie and Steve looks refreshed and youngish after looking tired in his previous movie, THE GIANT OF MARATHON(1959).

PEPLUM Movie Posters

German poster of TAUR THE MIGHTY (1963)

The title translates as TAURUS - THE GIANT OF THESSALY. Hmm...quite different. I like the arms and swords art.