Before HERCULES (1958) starring Steve Reeves the presence of the legendary Greek demi-God at the movies was almost non-existant. This POPEYE cartoon is one of the few examples of Hercules before HERCULES.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Photo of the Day
Elana Eden and Tom Tryon are doomed lovers in THE STORY OF RUTH (1960)
A super elaborate Biblical epic that's often overlooked. Directed by the same guy who made THE ROBE ten years prior. I admire the production, it's truly well mounted, even if some bits are pure Hollywood hokiness. Elana's first film and she only appeared in a couple of films before fading away. Who was she? As for Tom Tryon, his sporadic/troubled career as an actor in Hollywood is the stuff of legends.
Where's HERCULES?
Lou Ferrigno at some convention, with a table filled with his own stuff and Hulk stuff but no HERCULES material in sight. I know those HERCULES films weren't great but they still helped him stay in the spotlight.
PEPLUM offsprings, the Hollywood Legends edition
Sean Flynn, son of Errol Flynn. Sean disappeared mysteriously in Cambodia in 1970. His remains were apparently found two years ago. Sean did a couple of Italian Swashbucklers in the 1960s.
John Gable, Clark Gable's son. Clark was in MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (below). John was in the news recently about some mysterious death of a friend.
The Son of Spartacus, Michael Douglas, aka son of Kirk Douglas. Kirk had several kids but Michael was the one that had a successful career in movies, with no PEP film in his resume though.
John Drew Barrymore in ROME AGAINST ROME; John D is the son of stage and MGM legend John Barrymore. Both Father & Son have had extensive careers in the PEPLUM genre.
Last but not least, Patrick Wayne was a PEPLUM star as his father, John Wayne, who appeared in THE CONQUEROR among a few other films. Patrick is still with us.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Photo of the Day
This scene is not in the US cut. It happens just before the opening credits. In a way, it's not important to the upcoming main story but it does set up the mood for the film and I like it for that. The sea creature is a simple seal which is not really terrifying and might be the main reason why it was cut. Today that could be fixed with CGI retouching. Mario is not credited at IMDb for this film *spoiler* because he dies in this scene therefore he's not in the rest of the film.
PEPLUM Book corner: CINEMA ITALIANO
CINEMA ITALIANO by Howard Hughes
To say that this book is disappointing would be an understatement. It covers Italian cinema in different categories (PEPLUM, Euro crime, Spaghetti Western, etc). Of course the section about the PEPLUM genre interested me the most. After 20 minutes, I was finished with the 70+ pages chapter and put the book down...for good.
There's nothing much really to review here as the book is basically an index, with the author describing the story (often incorrectly) with a quick one line or two line review. That's it. I can't even begin to decide which part of the book was most disappointing or offensive. It's pretty clear PEPLUM films are not his cup of tea even if he starts the book with the genre because of the enormous success of HERCULES started the ball rolling.
I'm certain he didn't see some of the films. The synopsis are that simplistic. Very little details. For example, his review for TRIUMPH OF MACISTE on page 14 made me realize this. His brief synopsis and review (claims the score is Chinese-sounding! What?) is simply terrible, on many levels. Not only the brief review is filled with errors (he misspells the actress' name that played Queen Tenefi) but proceeds to review the US cut of the film, dismissing it as filled with stock footage from MACISTE IN HELL. Hmm, the original ITALIAN version (you know it is CINEMA ITALIANO...) doesn't have those added scenes. American producers added those pointless scenes for the US market. Hughes didn't even bother trying to find the original version and compare it with the US cut. That's not all. In the review for KINDAR THE INVULNERABLE he writes that Mimmo Palmara overplayed his role and that his exuberant laugh was annoying. Doesn't the author realize that the terrible English dubbing is to blame here and not Mimmo or the film itself? I mean, come on. All the reviews are like this throughout. Very lazy stuff.
The super brief reviews are underwhelming, often dismissive: he describes the Ten Gladiator films as "powered along by their own dumb, illogical momentum." Wow!
In my quick scan of the book, I easily found several glaring mistakes. He wrote that THE SPARTAN GLADIATORS' alternative title is THE SECRET SEVEN. Eh, no. THE SECRET SEVEN is a different film altogether also starring Tony Russel.
The chapter dedicated to the PEPLUM genre is divided in three sections: Mythological Epics, Costume Adventures and Sword & Sandal Spectacles, which makes little sense as many films from one section easily overlap into another section. Big titles are also missing even if the book tout itself as "The Complete Guide from Classic to Cult." It's not. Where's SAPPHO - VENUS OF LESBOS directed by Pietro Francisci? THE BACCHANTES?
According to the author, the measuring stick for these kind of films are set by Hollywood and writes that many people expected De Mille stuff when seeing these Euro films and got short-changed. Huh?
Things like this makes me wonder: is this book really about CINEMA ITALIANO?
In this age of blogs and IMDb reviews and such, these kind of books need something more, something extra to make them worth buying. The other chapters on the other genres are probably better but from the chapter on the PEPLUM genre alone this book wasn't worth purchasing at all.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Photo of the Day
Regina, Queen of the Bird Men (Dominique Boschero) is resting in her nest in ULYSSES AGAINST HERCULES
This role could have easily been ridiculous but Dominique carries herself in such a way that it works beautifully. Her feather costumes are eye-popping and as flimsy as can be. I'm sensing a banner in the making. Dominique will be the Babe of the Month for April as well.
Movie Poster Mondays
Spanish poster for REVENGE OF SPARTACUS (aka Revenge of the Gladiators)
Rare poster of a rare film. Nothing earth-shattering about it but what I like is the artwork with the little heads of the cast, including the recognizable Daniele Vargas on the top right. Also the action depicted on top is inspired by a scene in the film (I have a photo of the scene) and Roger Browne sure had a good kick in him, even if the way it's rendered in the art is almost physically impossible to reproduce in reality.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Photo of the Day
Steve Reeves as Aeneas in WAR OF THE TROJANS (aka The Avenger)
This scene might not seem spectacular but it's quite cool because it's not including in the US version. Around 7 minutes was cut from the original Italian version, including this scene when Aeneas tries to find a new land (I always thought the US version started too abruptly). The opening credits are also different, with different music. Any missing scene of Steve is important as every second of film of him needs to be preserved. I have to do a Fan Edit.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Photo of the Day
Jesus (Robert Le Vigan) is about to be prosecuted by Pontius Pilate (Jean Gabin) in GOLGOTHA
A rarely seen French film, the first full movie showing the life of Christ, it's an oddity of sorts as it was released in the 1930s, a decade with few PEPLUM films, aside from Swashbucklers. This is a screenshot from the copy I got and it's in a terrible state: scratchy audio, murky image, the right side of the frame is practically visible throughout, flickering nonstop and really distracting (you can see it in this screenshot). PATHE didn't bother doing a restoration. Pretty shoddy job on their part. I have to do a fix on this one.
They Should Be PEPLUM Stars: Mark Wahlberg
20 years ago Mark Wahlberg (aka Marky Mark) was modelling Calvin Klein underwear before he became the full time A-list star (!) of today. He was always buff but too slim back then to star in a PEPLUM movie but now Mark has been bulking up for a new Michael Bay intellectual masterpiece called PAIN & GAIN (co-starring PEP star Dwayne Johnson). Yeah, he'd look right at home in a Sword & Sandal film, accent notwithstanding.
Doppelgänger
A funny thing happened yesterday. Like I mentioned below, I finally got SWORD OF THE EMPIRE, a film difficult to get, one which I've never seen before and had very little knowledge about except that it stars Lang Jeffries. When I quickly scanned the AVI file, I thought "Ah there's Wandisa Guida, looking as lovely as ever." But Pasquale at Facebook corrected me saying it's Jose Greci. Usually I have no problem differentiating the two, in fact I've never confused them before but in this case I really thought that was Wandisa, looking like she did in HERCULES AGAINST ROME. After comparing them, they do look alike.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Photo of the Day
The beautiful Jose Greci is in a tight spot in SWORD OF THE EMPIRE
I finally got hold of this super elusive film. It's in Italian but I'm ecstatic. The production design is surprisingly strong for a film made when the genre was dying. Now I just need to find a copy in English or English subs.
Real feat of strength!
Blog's Blind Spots
That's Sean Bean right?
With a blog getting nearly 2000 hits a day, I feel I need to cover stuff not only from the past but also what's currently happening to try to be as informative to readers as possible. Well, I'm definitely guilty of failing in certain regards. Because of my obvious blind spots.
For example, GAME OF THRONES' second season just started and the HBO program is a hit and yet I hardly know anything about it. I've watched 3 or 4 episodes from season 1 and didn't like it. Not my cup of tea. But many people out there like it and that's fine with me but I can't really write about it, including Season 2, as I simply don't know anything about it. Usually this kind of show would be right up my alley.
It's one of the reasons why you'll never see much from HERCULES THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS or XENA WARRIOR PRINCESS as I never watched those two long lasting series. For a myriad of reasons, I never got into those two programs. I'll just say that I never bought Kevin Sorbo as Hercules. And Xena's scream/shriek/yelp made me reach for the remote to change channels. Unlike the current state of TV programs, certainly the cable ones, those two shows were, imo, too campy, silly and goofy for me to get into.
Same thing for the current SPARTACUS series. I WANT to like it and want to watch it but the silly fake cgi blood, obvious studio bound setting, the slow motion Matrix style action, the many unpleasant characters and well I just can't get into it. Therefore I can't write about it. Unlike the 90s programs HERCULES and XENA, this new retelling of Spartacus is super serious and violent and horny (that's not a problem even though it gets tiring).
But also, just to mention another obvious point, I have difficulty following TV series these days. I just don't have the time. I'm able to watch a movie even if I don't like because it's only 90 minutes or 2 hours. A series asks a lot of dedication which I don't have.
On a final note, like so many programs and films these days, including GAME OF THRONES, in order to get away with so much exposed raunchiness, certainly the male flesh kind, producers, writers seem to believe they need to overcompensate with the comic book violence and unpleasant tone in order to diffuse the potential, gasp, gay aspects. It's the same thing with many current films, like 300, IMMORTALS or CLASH OF THE TITANS remake: the people populating the landscape are mostly irritating, not compelling and a turn off because everyone seems so angry and growling. Overcompensating is not a beautiful thing. Oh well...
So sorry about my obvious blind spots. Maybe getting a guest writer to cover those blind spots would be the solution.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Photo of the Day
Part of a tragic trilogy directed by Mihalis Kakogiannis; ELECTRA (1962), this film, released in 1971 and IPHIGENIA in 1977. The film are available on DVD set. Only THE TROJAN WOMEN was filmed in English.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Photo of the Day
Yul Brynner and Shirley Anne Field in KINGS OF THE SUN
Critics trashed this film to bits and on some level they were right but the film is still entertaining certainly if the sight of a near naked Brynner, for minutes on end, would be perceived as eye candy for some.
STAGE PEP
It's difficult to write about plays with PEPLUM stories/themes as the majority of them haven't been preserved for posterity on film or video. Here are just a few examples/photos of PEP plays.
Kathryn Stanley in a stage production of SALOME
Paulette Goddard and company in some unidentified stage production
Cool photos.
Cool photos.
Marjorie Lawrence as Amneris
Steve Reeves, on the left, in KISMET
ALIX
The ALIX comic book was created in 1949 by Jacques Martin and there are 30+ books chronicling the story of a young Gaul man adopted by a Roman who eventually befriended an Egyptian orphan named Enak and both young men would remain friends as they experienced one adventure after another. Why this hasn't been made into a film is a mystery as it is rich with stories to draw from.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Photo of the Day
Corrado is pretty good as the crazed Pharaoh. As for Ettore Manni, well, he's always good. Great photo.