Same set, different films!

Two different movies with the same set!

PEPLUM movies are known for recycling stuff, wether they are scenes from others movies or props. There's nothing wrong with re-using props and sets. Here's an example. Above is full view of the set from THE SON OF CLEOPATRA (1964) starring Livio Lorenzon and below is the same set in REVENGE OF THE GLADIATORS (1964) starring Mickey Hargitay. There are slight differences including the pyramids in the background in SON OF CLEOPATRA which isn't in REVENGE OF THE GLADIATORS. Other differences are statue and curtains but the rest is the same, including the plants. 

 

 

Above: Livio Lorenzo in THE SON OF CLEOPATRA. Below: Mickey Hargitay in REVENGE OF THE GLADIATORS.

Musings!

Alessandra Panaro is in a tight situation in THE SECRET MARK OF D'ARTAGNAN (1962)

Torture scenes are common in PEPLUM movies. It's one of the most predictable things when watching them. The majority of the folks being tortured are men but there's quite a few PEPLUM movies with women being tortured. This is definitely one of the best or should I say worse? Anyway, the movie is vey well made and is, in general, quite family friendly, but then there's this scene and we're in almost horror territory. This happens a lot. Movies can go from quaint to shocking in a nano second. 

PEPLUM Movie Poster

Original US poster of HERCULES AND THE BLACK PIRATE (1964)

Cinematic Confusion! 

Ok, the US title for this movie is nothing but confusing. As one can see, the title of the US theatrical release was HERCULES AND THE PIRATES. The original Italian title is SANSONE CONTRO IL CORSARO NERO, which translates as SAMSON AGAINST THE BLACK CORSAIR. Or Pirate. Singular. The US title removes the word BLACK and what was singular is now plural. But the title for TV broadcast in the US was HERCULES AGAINST THE BLACK PIRATES. But the title is, like I wrote above, should be HERCULES AGAINST THE BLACK PIRATE. Singular. 

Another weird thing: AIP would always rename Italian movies, certainly when MACISTE was in the title, as HERCULES, SAMSON, ATLAS or GOLIATH. Now that the original Italian title actually has SAMSON, they still re-titled it. lol! I have no idea why these AIP titles often went against the actual title. Poster itself is quite modern in design, including the clear fonts. Nice.

Image of the week!

Cleopatra (Claudette Colbert) is made 'Queen of the Desert' in CLEOPATRA (1934)

MUSCLES Inc

AMERICAN APOLLO magazine with Steve Reeves on the cover as Hercules. From 1959. A lot of bodybuilding and physique magazines of the time promoted the release of HERCULES.

Musings!

Amazons (including Moira Orfei) find an injured and weak Hercules (Mickey Hargitay) after he fought with the Hydra in THE LOVES OF HERCULES (1960)

This is a good scene in a somewhat goofy movie. I like this movie and watched many times but it's a real cartoony Hercules but this scene has some dramatic weight. The Amazons are always fun to watch in a PEPLUM movie. Even though I doubt Amazons would be dressed as glamorous as them. Moira was a statuesque presence and the actress made many PEPLUM movies and, in my opinion, is one of the big 'Queens' of the genre. This was her first PEPLUM film. She's like the female Mimmo Palmara. She reportedly told the camera and lightning crew to film her better than Jayne Mansfield, who's the female lead. I posted about this battle almost 10 years ago.

Behind-the-Scenes

 Rossana Podesta and Kirk Douglas relaxing on the set of ULYSSES (1954)

Clip of the week: URSUS IN THE LAND OF FIRE (1963)

Ursus (Ed Fury) in a special kind of Feat of Strength. 

HD Alert!

Malcolm McDowell as Caligula in CALIGULA (1979)

At last years Cannes Film Festival, a new cut of CALIGULA, called THE ULTIMATE CUT, was shown. I got a copy of this cut in HD. It was released on Blu-ray in Spain in January 2024. This cut is apparently totally different. 

“Another feat is that not a single shot from the original film was used, which makes “Caligula – The Ultimate Cut” a completely new feature film.”

So they had 96 hours of footage and re-edited a brand new film out of that. 

Tinto Brass, the director, is apparently getting ready to sue Penthouse Films over this new cut. 

Seriously, I don't know how many cuts this film has. I can't keep track.
 

BY THE GODS! magazine and more...

Some might wonder where's BY THE GODS! magazine issue number 2. It's completed. But there has been changes made to it.

The magazine will be published quartely from now on. So this new issue will be for January/February/March. Issue number 3 should be available at the end of April in the middle of May.

This issue has 52 pages (covers included) which is more than issue #1. Since there'll be less issues per year and it has more pages, the price will go up one dollar. But MagCloud has a lot of specials so it's nothing really.

I thought that people wouldn't want to pay for the magazine 6 times a year at that price. So, a comprise is made. Less issues but more pages. In addition, I have new upcoming projects, including a couple about PEPLUM stuff, and they would compete with BTG! It would be too much.

I have to get a printed copy of it and once I made corrections after reading the printed copy, the magazine will become available for purchase. It's a process. I don't want to publish something with a lot of mistakes.

This issue has been fun to make. I enjoyed the whole process.

For those who didn't buy the first issue, you can buy it here.

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The other issue going on right now is with GOOGLE. Unless you live under a rock, the whole disastrous GEMINI AI situation has exploded and has revealed a totally ideologically captured mega-company. Google's AI supresses everything it believes to be incorrect. This includes blogs like mine, which is not only hosted with Google but the search results of m blog have been all over the place. Technically speaking, my blog is/was shadow banned and GEMINI is most likely the reason behind this since Google uses their AI for their entire infrastructure. 

This thing has created a host of problems which I'm still trying to figure out what to do about it. It might affect the future of the blog. Anyway, we'll see about it but this GEMINI AI thing is unreal.

Musings!

Bathing beauties in THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1956) 

It's not a PEPLUM movie without a Bathing Beauty scene and this one is a Bathing Beauty scene on steroids. It's not just one lovely lady but a bunch of them. This is the scene right before baby Moses is found drifting on the Nile. I like this movie and have watched it many times but the one thing I dislike about it is the studio-bound sets. This looks like inside a studio. There's just no ways about it. Looking at it, it's difficult to figure out what time of the day it's taking place. Imagine if it had been shot outside. Oh well...

PEPLUM Movie Posters

French poster of ROLAND THE MIGHTY (1956)

Super colourful poster. I like it. Rosanna looks a bit like she belongs in a Tim Burton movie though. In GammaScope. 

Image of the week!

Pharaoh Nemorat (Corrado Pani) has designs on Shila (Debra Paget) in CLEOPATRA'S DAUGHTER (1960).

VHS Covers

VHS covers of ROLAND THE MIGHTY (1956) starring Rik Battaglia, Rosanna Schiaffino and others. Directed by Pietro Francisci. I finally found the Something Weird cover of it. Not many covers but enough to showcase. Great film!

 

The standard Something Weird cover of ROLAND THE MIGHTY. The images are from the movie.

French VHS cover with artwork from the Italian poster for the Tony Curtis - Janet Leigh movie, THE BLACK SHIELD OF FALWORTH (1954). Cinematic Confusion!

German VHS cover. ROLAND DER EROBERER...which translates as ROLAND THE CONQUEROR.

Ok this German cover is for the Betamax? But it also says VHS. Anyway, close enough. Also ROLAND DER EROBERER.

Musings!

Galla Placidia (Colette Régis) confronts Honoria (Sophia Loren) in ATTILA (1954) 

ATTILA was directed by Pietro Francisci, 4 years before he directed HERCULES (1958). I like all of Francisci's films, including this one. The only big issue I have is that the movie is too short. It needed to be more epic in scale. I like it as it is. I mean, it's very entertaining, like all Francisi's film. Excellent production, cast, the costumes and colours. It's all beautiful. But for a film on Attila, it sorta comes up short. It feels like something is missing. 

Sophia was gorgeous in this and held her own vs the leading men, Henri Vidal and Anthony Quinn. She looks the part. But Loren publicly stated she hated the experience of making it. Certainly during a scene with Quinn and some greasy pork sandwich. 😂

The movie's availability is also another of the film's frustration. I bought the Sophia Loren DVD pack in which the movie was included and it's in Italian with English subs. Finding a good copy of it in English is non-existent. Sophia's voice wasn't used for the English dub. I have multiple copies of this movie, and only one old fuzzy copy with the English audio. Oh well...

Behind-the-Scenes

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor on a break on the set of CLEOPATRA (1963). Next week, I'll have a mini-review of it.

Clip of the week: MACISTE VS HERCULES IN THE VALE OF WOE (1961)

Hercules (Frank Gordon) on the rampage! 

SPFX DEPT.

The Moon Men from HERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN (1964)

I love this movie so of course I like the Moon Men practice effects (or is it costume? lol) Anyway, my only complaint about them is their lack of movement. But overall I think they work great. They make Alan Steel look puny (below).

 

Anna Maria Paloni and the Moon Men

THE WHITE WARRIOR: which is the correct one?

This comparison is not the usual I make here at the blog. It's to show how different the versions I have and which one is the correct one. I recently got an HD print of THE WHITE WARRIOR (1959) and I was surprised how different it looked with some other copies I have. Since then I figured out that the app VLC makes movies look much darker, which was one of my complaints. I won't discuss about that now. I'll just make a side by side comparison. I didn't take the following screenshots with VLC. I didn't retouch any of the images.

Just to note, the cinematographer is Mario Bava, who, as we all know, loved playing with colours. He might toned down his style for this film directed by Riccardo Freda but it's odd how different some of the colours are.


HD

The recent HD version. It's dark and brownish.


DVD 
 

The French DVD. Basically the same as the HD version since both were released by the same company, SNC.


DVD - VCI USA
 

The VCI DVD, which I had for a long time. Totally different than the HD - DVD versions above. Cool colours with an emphasis on blueish tones.


Italian TV broadcast

This copy from an Italian TV broadcast is not as dark and brownish as the HD - DVD prints and it also has some blueish tints in it.


French VHS
 

This VHS print is nowhere near as dark as the HD - DVD versions and even though it does have a blueish tint it's not as pronounced as the VCI version.

So, which is the correct version? The VCI is wildly different than the recent versions that I wonder what's going on? The VCI version is more colourful, a la Bava, but the colours on these new versions are darker and muted.

Musings!

Dina De Santis and Alan Steel in HERCULES AGAINST ROME (1964) 

This is fun action-packed PEPLUM with Alan is top form. I have few quibbles about it. My only major complaint is the so-called Love Interest. I'm actually fine if the Hero of a story remains single but in this movie, Hercules spends a lot of time with beautiful ladies, including Dina or more importantly, Wandisa Guida, and by the end of the movie, Wandisa hooks up with Mimmo Palmara not Herc. It's very odd. It always baffled me. This is not the only PEPLUM movie that does this. The movie needs some sort of Romantic angle but it's not coming from the our Hero, which again is fine. But in this one it's sorta odd.

PEPLUM Movie Poster

Croatian poster of SIEGE OF SYRACUSE (1960)

Different. Looks very 'handmade'

Image of the week!

 The fate of Paris (Jacques Sernas) in HELEN OF TROY (1956)

At the movies...

 BEN-HUR (1959) at the Roxy Theatre in Atlanta. Rare colour photo.

Musings!

Rossano Brazzi, as Archimedes, and Tina Louise in the epic SIEGE OF SYRACUSE (1960) 

Directed by Pietro Francisci. This is one of his most epic film as the story takes place during decades and has a major battle at the end. I like this movie with just a few quibbles. I like Rossano but his brown hair and his sometimes ill fitted costumes do him no favours. It's unnecessarily distracting. Some people dislike him, thinking he's just a 'melodrama' actor but look at his earlier films and I understand why he became a big star. Also, and this is just a side note, Archimedes was an old man when the legendary siege occurred. 

As for Tina, this is one of two PEPLUM movies she made in Italy, which SAPPHO - THE VENUS OF LESBOS being the other film. (see post below). Unlike SAPPHO, the US dub (which is still missing) doesn't use her voice, which is a shame. The altar next to Rossano shows it was recently used in some sacrificial offering (it's not part of the movie). Great film.  

Tina's PEPLUM films are a constant source of frustration. SAPPHO is in English but a beautiful widescreen version of it, in any language, has never surfaced. And SIEGE has been released in beautiful widescreen prints but the English audio is missing. 

This was a little Tina Louise fest today. 

Behind-the-Scenes

Tina Louise with two extras dressed as Melanchrus' soldiers on the set of SAPPHO - THE VENUS OF LESBOS (1960; aka The Warrior Empress). Below: how the set looks like in the final film.