PEPLUM Book corner

I came across this book while shopping at Amazon.fr. The title is fairly blunt. It translates as "The PEPLUM a bad genre".

Sounds like a riveting read. Seriously, the title says it all. There's no compelling need to read it and dig deeper inside the pages if the title just point blank declares the PEPLUM genre as being terrible in its title. I would read anything on the subject, and I can read in French but I won't be buying it. The title spoils it. Arf.

Addendum: Michel Eloy replied (see comments) with an explanation for the title in that the word "mauvais" is used as "maudit" or in English, "cursed" or "damned" so the translation would be: "The Peplum a cursed genre" or "The Peplum a damned genre", which is better than "bad" and it does describe it as the genre is often derided as being useless and stupid, by critics and the public in general certainly because of the MST3K bunch, but I still sorta find it on the negative side. Underrated would be a better word to describe the genre. The author of the book, Claude Aziza, is a fan of Sword & Sandal films and wrote a couple of books on the subject, including this one which Michel reassures me that it's a positive one on the subject.

Photo of the Day

Mark Damon is the SON OF CLEOPATRA.

Today, Mark is a famous film producer in Hollywood.

Cinematic Timeline: The Trojan Horse

The trojan horse in HELEN OF TROY (1956)

The Steve Reeves movie from 1961 is called THE TROJAN HORSE. Above and below.

The trojan horse from the TV spectacle HELEN OF TROY (2003)

The elaborate horse design from TROY (2004)

Photo of the Day

Joan Collins as a pretend Cleopatra from a guest spot on FANTASY ISLAND. In the episode, Joan's fantasy is to go back in time when Cleopatra ruled Egypt. In the story, she's used as a substitute for the real Cleopatra (who's in a dungeon) to seduce Mark Anthony (Ron Ely) and keep him company (sorta a twist on TWO NIGHTS WITH CLEOPATRA with Sophia Loren). Oddly enough, Joan was mentioned as a potential replacement of Elizabeth Taylor for CLEOPATRA when Taylor became ill and delayed production. I guess this episode was some sort of in-joke. You can view clips of My Fair Pharaoh on Youtube.

Posted at the BABES & BEAUTIES page.

Movie Poster Mondays

Italian poster for Robert Wise's big production of HELEN OF TROY. I've been posting parts of the comic book here and it's near its completion so I'm posting this in regards to it. I have to say that most of the posters I've seen for this film are not that impressive or awe inspiring. This one is good though. The cover for the comic book, as passive as it is, is better than most of them.

Greek Myth of the Month: Ariadne's thread (Week 3)

While researching stuff on The Minotaur, which is the blog's Greek Myth of the Month, I was reading at Wiki on Ariadne's thread and googled it and found this preview for a short film. Looks cool, It's a shame we can't view all of it.

Photo of the Day

Mylène Demongeot in THE GIANT OF MARATHON. Beautiful photo of a beautiful actress.

I've uploaded photos of Mylène at the BABES & BEAUTIES page.

Greek Myth of the Month: The Minotaur (week 2)

Art inspired by the Minotaur mythology. Picasso was famous for his many paintings and sketches with the famous half-man half-bull.

Artist: Justin Sweet

Artist: Picasso "the king of the minotaurs"

Artist: Justin Gerard

Cinematic Goof: It's cold in Egypt

Cinematic goof from SON OF CLEOPATRA: you can see the actor's breath.

The effect is jarring: right in the middle of warm Egypt we can see the cold breath of Livio Lorenzo.
It must have been really cold in the studio for it to be visible.

Blogger issues!

Blogger has been down for over 2 days and of course it affected my blog here. It's working now (fingers crossed) and hopefully things won't go down again. I'll try to add some posts for today later on. Comments  posted since May 11 have been lost. I've re-uploaded the posts for May 11. Sorry about this mighty interruption.

"blogger is down..nooooo!"

Photo of the Day (May 11)

Publicity shot of Kirk Morris

I've updated the HEROES & BEEFCAKE page with photos of Adriano Bellini.

Before they were PEPLUM stars

Gordon Mitchell on stage with Mae West in 1956.

Gordon would appear in small roles in such films as THE 10 COMMANDMENTS

before moving to Italy and start throwing papier-mâché rocks.

Photo of the Day

Lex Barker tries to rescue Sylvia Lopez in THE SON OF RED CORSAIR.

Great Swashbuckler/PEPLUM. Lex and Sylvia make a sexy on-screen couple. The annoying thing about watching the English dub version was the awful voice they got for the beautiful Sylvia. It's jarring and doesn't match her look. The voice actress they got for Sylvia in HERCULES UNCHAINED was so much better. Aside from that, thumbs up! This one of the three PEPLUM films Sylvia made before dying of cancer. She was fabulous. Sylvia, who was a tall gal, is just the right height for the tall & strapping Lex Barker, who is really good in it.

PEPLUM Cliché: the "Catching Multiple Arrows with a Single Piece of Wood" Feat

Peplums Heroes are usually able to overcome every obstacle with their might but what happens when a bunch of bag guys are about to skewer him with multiple arrows/lances shot at the same time? Don't worry, our quick witted hero picks up a beam of wood or tree trunk and voila!

Four guards are about to kill Goliath but Goliath is able to stop every arrow with that thin 

piece of wood beam. Woah, that was close. From GOLIATH AND THE VAMPIRES.

Mark Forest in HERCULES AGAINST THE MONGOLS.

That's one arrow and then two.

Publicity shot of Alan Steel from HERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN. 

In this scene, it's spears, not arrows.

PEPLUM Behind the Scenes

Sergio Leone directs a scene from THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES while 

Rory Calhoun watches on. Looks like a heated moment there.

Photo of the Day

 

Lang Jeffries is shackled, awaiting his fate in ALONE AGAINST ROME

Movie Poster Mondays

French poster for forgotten French/Italian production of THE LOVES OF SALAMMBO starring Jeanne Valérie and a splendid Jacques Sernas who's a stand-out in this grand action/adventure/romantic PEPLUM. Finding an uncut version of this film is almost impossible. The US version runs a little over 70 minutes when the film's original length was 110 minutes. That's 40 minutes cut!

The film was based on the book by Gustave Flaubert, published in 1862, which also was the basis for the silent film CABIRIA(1914). The film was directed by Sergio Grieco and has a grand epic romance feel to it that's quite unique because of it and also because of its sexiness. Jeanne Valérie wears very little in many scenes and the camera is often focused on Sernas' athletic physique. Some scenes were considered quite hot.

Photo of the Day

Gordon Mitchell and Bella Cortez are in a precarious moment in THE GIANT OF METROPOLIS.

A cool film, with clever sets, concept and storyline. The film is basically 90 minutes of feats of strength against Gordon, who goes through a series of tests after tests by the evil Yotar.

Greek Myth of the Month: THE MINOTAUR

The Minotaur is one of the most popular characters in Greek mythology. Eternally linked with Theseus and labyrinths, the Minotaur is at ounce a tragic character but also an ominously powerful one that has been evoking images and inspiring artists since forever. This month I'll try to cover the many cool aspects of this most impressive man-beast.

Here's how the story of the Minotaur began:

After he ascended the throne of Crete, Minos struggled with his brothers for the right to rule. Minos prayed to Poseidon to send him a snow-white bull, as a sign of approval. He was to sacrifice the bull in honor of Poseidon but decided to keep it instead because of its beauty. To punish Minos, Aphrodite made Pasiphaë, Minos' wife, fall madly in love with the bull from the sea, the Cretan Bull. She had the archetypal craftsman Daedalus make a hollow wooden cow for her. Pasiphaë climbed into this wooden cow in order to copulate with the white bull. The offspring of their coupling was the monstrous Minotaur. Pasiphaë nursed him in his infancy, but he grew and became ferocious; being the unnatural offspring of man and beast, he had no natural source of nourishment and thus devoured man for sustenance. Minos, after getting advice from the oracle at Delphi, had Daedalus construct a gigantic labyrinth to hold the Minotaur. Its location was near Minos' palace in Knossos (wikipedia).

As usual in Greek mythology, the story of the Minotaur is a mixture of tragedy, depravity and a pinch of twisted dark humour.

An original Greek vase depicting Theseus battling the Minotaur.

An example of the Cretan maze Minos created after meeting the Oracle at 

Delphi, in order to trap the fearsome Minotaur. Cool stuff. I would love to

see a film which shows the building of this maze/labyrinth and how they

got the Minotaur there. 

Photo of the Day

An unrecognizable Rose McGowan as seen in the new CONAN THE BARBARIAN film.

She's stealing some of Jason's thunder.

Conan Imagery

In anticipation of the new Conan film, here are some cool art to rekindle some of the excitement.

Artist: Joe Jusko

Artist: Frazetta

Artist: Joe Jusko

Conan the Barbarian Trailer 2 | 2011 HD

Trailer for the new CONAN THE BARBARIAN reboot

Photo of the Day

Chelo Alonso and an unrecognizable Jacques Sernas in THE QUEEN OF THE TARTARS.

I have yet to see this film. I got a copy of it and will be watching it for the very first time.

Identify this movie

This screengrab is from which movie? This should be relatively easy for diehard PEPLUM fans

But is it a PEPLUM?

Dolph Lundgren as He-Man in MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE

IMDb has it listed as Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Sci-Fi | Thriller. There's no doubt the story and film are definitely Science-Fiction/Fantasy but Dolph would look right at home in a PEPLUM in this photo.