By the Gods!

 Spectacular scene from THE TARTARS (1961)

This scene is quite cinematic and eye-filling. Later on in the movie, there's a spectacular dance number with men, and one sole female dancer. Everything is top notch. The matte painting work is so good that I'm still not sure if it's matte work. The production design is for a top tier movie while the story itself is strictly pulpy, B-movie kind. I like it but the underwhelming story doesn't live up to the epicness of the production.

PEPLUM Movie Poster

Japanese poster of THE NIGHTS OF LUCRETIA BORGIA (1959)

I love Japanese posters and this one is as dramatic as other PEPLUM movies. That's Belinda Lee and Jacques Sernas.

By the Gods!

Hercules (Steve Reeves) consults the Sybil in HERCULES (1958) 

The screenshot above was taken from the Japanese Blu-ray, the only real HD version available anywhere. Even with its perculiar faults, this is a genuine HD transfer. One can see the details, such as Reeves eyes and his physique. If you click on the image you'll see how big the resolution is.

As posted below, some Youtubers claim they have 4K versions of this movie and HERCULES UNCHAINED. Check out the link to By The Gods! blog to get the scoop. Below is a screenshot taken from the 4K version posted at Youtube. Compare it to the Japanese Blu-ray. 

At the movies...

Here's a photo taken from a postcard of HERCULES UNCHAINED (1959) starring Steve Reeves playing at the cinema in Goshen, Indiana. I now have that postcard in my collection. 

BY THE GODS!: HERCULES and HERCULES UNCHAINED in 4K?

Only @ BY THE GODS!

By the Gods!

Alberto Lupo, as Menelaus, and Mark Forest, as Aryan, confer in THE LION OF THEBES (1964)

Lupo often played these roles, sorta cameos, in PEPLUM movies. He was an excellent actor so his contribution was always seen a positive for any production, no matter how short the role was. One has to remember that this movie takes place aster the fall of Troy and here is Menelaus from the story of Troy. Depending on which side you're on with the legend of Troy, Menelaus is either evil or good.

Lobby Cards Set: JULIUS CAESAR (1953)

Original US lobby cards set of JULIUS CAESAR (1953) starring Marlon Brandon, and a host of actors. Good set if one hasn't seen the movie but if you seen it, it's lacking. There's no close up of Marlon Brando, who was a big star back then. Really odd decision to not include one head shot. I like it. But it's repetitive and it's missing scenes.

Clip of the week: THOR AND THE AMAZON WOMEN (1963)

Man vs women - starring Joe Robinson and Susy Andersen 

If you don't see the video, click this link. 

By the Gods!

Harry Baird is placed on a plinth to be showcased for some mysterious woman in THOR AND THE AMAZON WOMEN (1963)

When you think of Thor does an image like this come to mind? It's a very peculiar movie in the PEPLUM genre, even more so as a Thor story. And there's a reason for this. It was first conceived as a Tarzan story but when the E. R. Burroughs estate threatened to sue the production, they changed everything while still maintaining the 'jungle adventure' aspects of the original story. Hence, a PEPLUM movie that's a hybrid of Sword and Sandal and Tarzan / Jungle Adventure. There is a direct connection between the two genres which I'll go over one day.

Musings! (07-13)

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

RAFFAELLA...

With the recent death of Raffaella Carrà, her movies came into the spotlight again and one title that eluded me for a long time was ROSE ROSSE PER ANGELICA (1966) co-starring Jacques Perrin (above). There is a clip on Youtube but the movie itself was MIA. Anyway, it is available at the OK.RU but it has one of those atrocious Russian voiceovers talking in lieu of the characters being dubbed. I don't know why Russians do this. Raffaella is cute in it. 


CINEMATIC CONFUSION

Can you guess what PEPLUM movie this is just by this German poster? It's CORIOLANUS: HERO WITHOUT A COUNTRY (1964) starring Gordon Scott and directed by Giorgio Ferroni. The German title translates as THE BATTLE OF THE GLADIATORS. Oddly enough, the movie itself has zero gladiators in it. There are no scenes which takes place in the arena. This poster is very confusing. 


IDENTIFY THE MOVIE

Can you identify the movie from this screenshot with the excellent matte painting?

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No one identified the movie from last week's screenshot (below). It was from THE WARRIOR AND THE SLAVE GIRL (1958) starring, among others, Gianna Maria Canale. We see her back in the screenshot. Directly below it is her doing the whipping. I thought someone would have figured it out. It's a popular movie. 

 

WHO WORE IT BEST?

I posted this at the PEPLUM CHANNEL Facebook account and the MACISTE Twitter account. So, I'm posting it here. Who wore it best? Alan Steel in SAMSON AND THE SLAVE QUEEN or Kirk Morris in SAMSON AND THE SEA BEASTS. 


IDEFIX Kids TV series

The popular cartoon dog from the classic ASTERIX AND OBELIX comics has an animated TV series. Cute. In French for now. 


STATS

The blog's stats have been very healthy the past week. In around 2000 views a day, with two days above 2K. 

Last week's Behind-the-Scenes photo of Tina Louise during the filming of SAPPHO - THE VENUS OF LESBOS got over 9600 impressions on the PEPLUM Twitter account. It's so random. It also shows how popular Tina Louise is.

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Someone uploaded a rare PEPLUM movie, that was featured here in MUSINGS!, to Youtube. That's not the interesting aspect of this. The channel where it was uploaded was basically dormant for 10 years. Nearly all the few videos uploaded at that channel were uploaded in 2011. And now they uploaded this rare movie which has nothing to do with the other old uploads there. The whole thing is very odd. 

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Speaking of odd things...one of the strangest things when doing these websites and social media accounts about PEPLUM movies is the hate directed at Gordon Scott. I posted a picture of Scott from KERIM - SON OF THE SHEIK (1963) at the PEPLUM CHANNEL Facebook account and some have tried to disparage his physique. Scott was literally at his fittest in that movie. His body was on point. But people keep mocking him. I've heard multiple nasty comments made about him elsewhere, for years. One was so bad that my mind went WTH?!?! Why is there so much ire directed at Gordon Scott? Can someone explain this to me. I mean, the man is dead and yet people still have burning hot hatred directed at him. It's so weird. 

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Future Musings:

- List of best costumes, for women and for men.

- List of PEPLUM books

- List of movies available in HD / Blu-ray

- PEPLUM Museum?

By the Gods!

 Samson (Alan Steel) in action in SAMSON AND THE SLAVE QUEEN (1963) 

One of the fun aspects of the PEPLUM genre is watching actors doing their own stunts and physical feats without the need of stuntmen. This scene is a great example. It's all performative of course but it's cool. The 'realism' of these scenes often offset some of the lesser realistic aspects of the genre. Alan was in fine form in this fun movie directed by the always reliable Umberto Lenzi. In the original Italian version, Steel was Maciste not Samson.

PEPLUM Movie Poster

US half-sheet of GOLIATH AND THE BARBARIANS (1959) 

Art by Reynold Brown. Colourful and action packed. Different art than the one-sheet. Steve Reeves name should have been more prominent though.

PEPLUM TV Official store

Official PEPLUM TV Merch 

By the Gods!

Raffaella Carrà in ULYSSES AGAINST HERCULES (1962)

Sad news from Italy. PEPLUM star Raffaella died on July 5 at the age of 78. Her career started modestly in mostly PEPLUM movies and she eventually became a popular singer not just in Italy or Europe but all over the world. She was a 'Babe of the Month' eight years ago here at the blog. And I posted about her legendary career as a singer. She was always excellent in her roles. One of the genre's bright stars. R.I.P., Raffaella.

For more on her career, visit the links posted here.

Raffaella Carrà in CAESAR THE CONQUEROR (1962). One of her best roles. 

Then and Now: Salvatore Borgese

Sal in SPARTACUS AND THE TEN GLADIATORS (1964) ; a recent photo of the actor

By the God!

The Hydra beast in CAPTAIN SINDBAD (1963)

This is a peculiar adventure movie directed by the excellent Byron Haskin (note the spelling of Sinbad). It was shot in Germany and stars Guy Williams. The full scale special effects is cool and also funny. The visual effects are credited to Tom Howard but it's hard to figure out if he was only responsible for optical effects and not practical effects. Regardless, it's my favourite thing from this movie. I need to do a list of movies featuring the Hydra. 

Behind-the-Scenes

Tina Louise plays with a trumpet on the set of THE WARRIOR EMPRESS, aka SAPPHO - THE VENUS OF LESBOS (1960). 

Clip of the week: GODDESS OF LOVE (1957)

With Jacques Sernas and Belinda Lee

By the Gods!

Matte painting from THE MIGHTY CRUSADERS (1957) 

These types of matte paintings were fairly standard in Hollywood movies but not so in movies made in Europe or Italy. There are some but there weren't used as extensively as those from Hollywood productions. I like this one. It's nice and, as usual, it shows someone arriving at a location.

Musings! (07-06)

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

YOUTUBE AGAIN...

I recently uploaded GLADIATOR OF ROME (1962) starring Gordon Scott on Youtube last week and there were no restrictions or claims. Everything was fine. The movie was in good quality (below). My channel's subscribers were happy and then suddenly out of nowhere, a claim appeared several days after uploading it there. It was blocked worldwide.

The movie is available on another channel (which, in part, was involved in this) but it's not of great quality. I really don't know to do with the Fan Dubs I've created. I want people to enjoy them but there's currently no feasible outlet or platform that would support this.

The thing is, I've seen many channels, PEPLUM or not, that were closed permanently. I feel like Youtube is on its last leg. Everyone is going to TikTok. 


CINEMATIC CONFUSION

This amazing VHS cover from Argentina is for HERCULES (1958) and NOT the sequel, HERCULES UNCHAINED (1959) but all the images on the cover is the sequel, including the images on the back cover. I have to say that this one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time but it's still stuck in Cinematic Confusion.



HAVE YOU SEEN...

Ludmilla Tcherina's dance number from SIGN OF THE PAGAN (1954)? It's one of those scenes that has been cut. Speculation for the reasons it was cut are numerous but oddly enou the BBC showed the uncut version, with dance scene intact, in May of 1976. So, someone out there must have seen it. 



WHATEVER HAPPENED TO...GLADIATOR 2?

The long delayed sequel to the 2000 hit, GLADIATOR, was sorta announced at one point but then nothing? Maybe too many people laughed at the idea? 


IDENTIFY THE MOVIE

Can you identify the movie from this screenshot? Should be easy for PEPLUM fans.

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PEPLUM TV library is coming soon. I've decided to dedicate a page to all the genre books I have in my library. Most books have been disappointing so the list will be anti-climatic. Keep an eye on future developments...

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I'll be taking some extended time off in August. I know things are going good in regards to the blog's views and all but I need to work on multiple projects days on end and it's difficult to do this while doing the blog. I might post once a week or post whenever I can. Anyway, I have a month to think it over. Any suggestions would be helpful. Maybe hire someone to work on the blog? 

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Future Musings:

- List of best costumes, for women and for men.

- List of PEPLUM books

- List of movies available in HD / Blu-ray

- PEPLUM Museum?

By the Gods!

Lee Horsley and Kathleen Beller in THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER (1982)

A sorta notorious 'Sword and Sorcerer' movie of the early 1980s which was released to theatres and became a success (nearly $40 million at b.o.) and continued to be successful once it was released for the home video market. This was the first movie directed by Albert Pyun. Lee Horsley played his role with exuberance even if his character was tortured repeatedly throughout the dark story. He had a major TV series back then, MATT HOUSTON, the same year this was released. Beller appeared mostly in TV productions such as DYNSATY. It has a cult following today. Scenes from this movie were copied in GAME OF THRONES series.

PEPLUM Movie Poster

French poster of CALIGULA: THE UNTOLD STORY (1982) 

The French title translates as CALIGULA: THE REAL STORY. Great poster. Also known as THE EMPEROR CALIGULA: THE UNTOLD STORY and CALIGULA 2 - THE UNTOLD STORY.

Blog note

No regular posts today

By the Gods!

Ursus (Ed Fury) is a captured man and has to answer to Ayak (Alberto Lupo) in URSUS IN THE VALLEY OF LIONS (1961)

The second Ursus movie starring Ed Fury. Both THE MIGHTY URSUS and this movie were released in 1961. The third Ursus movie, URSUS IN THE LAND OF FIRE, was released in1963. The cast and crew of both first movies were sorta identical, with Fury, María Luisa Merlo, and Moira Orfei back together again. In the US, people saw it as VALLEY OF THE LIONS. Director Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia started his career back in the 1930s and he eventually ending up doing mostly PEPLUM movies at the end of his long career. He directed THE MIGHTY CRUSADERS (1957), HANNIBAL (1959), and AMAZONS OF ROME (1961), amongts his PEPLUM titles. Like HANNIBAl, elephants are featured prominently in this movie.

Lobby Card Set: HERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN (1964)

Original US lobby card set for HERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN starring Alan Steel and Many Clair. features almost all the highlights of the film, including the sandstorm scene (card #6)  and the classic feat of strength (#7) but there are still several great scenes missing like the "shower" moment and the many fights with disposable soldiers. But overall a good set.