Both stars were veterans of the genre when they made this sorta sloppy but nonetheless entertaining PEPLUM film. According to IMDb, Rita is still alive today.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Photo of the Day
Both stars were veterans of the genre when they made this sorta sloppy but nonetheless entertaining PEPLUM film. According to IMDb, Rita is still alive today.
Behind-the-Scenes
Emil Jannings and Ernst Lubitsch pose together during the filming of THE LOVES OF PHARAOH.
The recently restored silent film is still not available for the home market.
The recently restored silent film is still not available for the home market.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Photo of the Day
Both Howard Ross and Nadir Moretti appeared in other PEPLUM films before and after this, including HERCULES AGAINST THE MONGOLS in 1963. As for French bodybuilder Yann, his career was over after this. This photo is missing Hercules (Alan Steel) but Hercules wasn't involved in the brawl at the tavern.
Steve Reeves trading card
Steve Reeves trading card from an Ed Wood Jr card set. The set has cards of most of the principle players from Ed Wood jr's films, including JAILBAIT which Steve appeared in before heading out to Europe to become Hercules. Drawing is not very flattering. Is there any photo of Steve and Ed Wood jr together? I've never seen one, which is a shame.
Steve's famous shirtless scene in JAILBAIT
Monday, October 22, 2012
Photo of the Day
I like this scene. It's something that few ever mention anywhere but the entire "single sandal" prophecy is handled brilliantly in this film. It's basically a mini narrative within the main narrative, with the help of the sound effect every time the prophecy is hinted at, which culminates with this scene. The script has a couple of "narratives within the main narrative" moments, including the memorable flashback at the beginning, and these mini narratives elevate this film above most PEPLUM epics and it's one of the reasons why I like it so much. The script, written by director Pietro Francisci, is actually quite clever.
Movie Poster Mondays
Belgium poster for HERCULES THE INVINCIBLE (aka Son of Hercules in the Land of Darkness) starring Dan Vadis.
Great artwork. I don't remember Mayan temples in the film though. I'll try to make a banner out of this.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Photo of the Day
Simon the Magician (Jack Palance) thinks he can fly in THE SILVER CHALICE
I love the look of the film but I'm in the minority even though I can see why some might not like it: it is stagey...but deliberately so, so the film is not the disaster everyone thinks it is. It's just stylised differently. But almost everyone hated it, including Paul Newman, with this being Newman's first starring role. Jack's "sperm" red unitard is something else.
Terrifying Masked Hero
"Goliath" (Steve Reeves) in GOLIATH & THE BARBARIANS was meant to be a terrifying nemesis played by the story's hero, not villain. There were a couple of films with the same idea.
The Red Wolf in REVOLT OF THE PRAETORIANS was basically the same thing as GOLIATH & THE BARBARIANS. Richard Harrison played the masked nemesis/hero.
A faceless hero in THE TERROR OF THE RED MASK.
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Photo of the Day
Nazimova is Salome doing the dance of the 7 veils in SALOME
So way ahead of her time. I watched it recently and I have to say that I loved it even if Nazimova was an acquired taste to some. There are some really cool PEPLUM elements in this even if this dance looks very modern.
PEPLUM FX
This shot in QUO VADIS (1951) has a lot of elements cobbled together to create the final look. It's quite elaborate for that time and shows how amazing the fx were in it. Here's a quick breakdown:
1 - The lion and the people on the far left were shot together
2 - the people about to be devoured by the lions were shot separately. The discoloration of the ground in element no 1 vs the ground in no 2 gives it away. Also, the shadows of the lions in no 1 extend to the left while the shadows of the terrified christians are to the right. Those two elements were shot at different times of a day. Without these two slight errors, the shot would have been much more seamless.
3 - The crowd is real; could have been filmed at the same time as no 2 but the lighting looks different. The shadows tell me it's the afternoon, which no 2 is not.
4 - no 4, all of yellow, is a matte painting with movement in it.
5 - The obelisk is either a model or another layer of matte painting. The look or shadows do not match with any other elements which tells me it's a model. It looks superimposed.
6 - Same thing as no 5: probably a model or a separate matte. The top of those columns are more sharp than any other part of the shot which tells me it was added later.
Like I said fairly elaborate special effects for a film made 61 years ago. It's cool.
Fittest Men of All Time
Men's Health magazine has compiled the 100 fittest men of all time. They decided that Steve Reeves belonged at #27 while Ahnuld at #3. Jack Lalane is at #4. Hmm...I believe Steve should be in the top 10. Without Steve there wouldn't be any Arnold or Lou Ferrigno.
Also, the text for Steve Reeves has some glaring mistakes in it. Oh well...
Men's Health
Also, the text for Steve Reeves has some glaring mistakes in it. Oh well...
Men's Health
Friday, October 19, 2012
Photo of the Day
Dardanius (Richard Egan) ravishes Lucia (Debra Paget) in DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS
I never quite understood this scene. It's just probably the way it's directed. They couldn't show her getting raped so they played it this way: it's as if she dies but as the film goes one we realize she's not really dead but is in shock.
Richard Egan makes a convincing brute/gladiator. Debra's role is not really fleshed out as a full character. Even with its faults I still prefer DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS over THE ROBE. It has a more PEPLUM feel to it than the first film.
Tragic Stars : Todd Armstrong
Uploaded to the TRAGIC STARS permanent page
Butt out!
Last month someone left a comment after viewing THE GIANTS OF THESSALY uploaded at my Youtube channel: Decent film. Could have done without seeing my pal's butt at 1;12;30, though. :-0.
The image directly below is what the poster referred to.
I didn't publish the comment but it does point out the difference between US made PEPLUM films and Italian/Euro PEPLUM productions, in that it's quite common to view men's rears from time to time in Italo/Euro productions. It's a cultural thing. I'm so used to them I don't notice it anymore but for newcomers to the genre, certainly today's younger Fan Boys, these brief scenes might be disconcerting and a total turn off and makes it more difficult to sell the old PEPLUM genre to them.
Jason (Roland Carey or stuntman) climbs statue to get the golden fleece. This shot upset a viewer.
An extra from LEGIONS OF THE NILE
Aldo Bufi Landi shows his true colors in TRIUMPH OF MACISTE
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Photo of the Day
The humour in Italian PEPLUM comedies usually gets lost in translation and this film is no different. I like it and it makes me smile and giggle but it's not laugh-out funny stuff. This is Bardot before she became the Bardot that everyone remembers.
Behind-the-Scenes
Below is how the shot looks like in the final cut. It only lasts 5 seconds. Setting up that equipment seen in the photo above probably took several hours. All of that trouble for a scene that lasted 5 seconds.
Now playing...in Europe, anyway
ASTERIX & OBELIX: GOD SAVE BRITANIA is now playing in France and Belgium and other countries starting tomorrow. It stars Gérard Depardieu as Obélix and Edouard Baer as Astérix. The film is set in Britain and Catherine Deneuve (below) plays Queen Cordilia
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Photo of the Day
Pietro Torrisi is third from the left. A great set-up and some fun action but with the beefy cast showcased here I expected a bit more action. It sorta ends pretty quickly.
German movie programs
German movie programs were amazing. Always had great covers with great photos of the stars. Here are a few examples.
THE REBEL GLADIATOR
SPARTACUS AND THE 10 GLADIATORS
TWO GLADIATORS
SAMSON
SALAMMBO
With FIRE & SWORD : RIP
I have the sad task of announcing that my "With FIRE & SWORD" Youtube channel is no more, which is something I never expected but there you go. It's a typical Google/Youtube cluster-f**k.
As I mentioned recently, Youtube put a strike on the channel because I uploaded THE BLACK TULIPE starring Alain Delon and Virna Lisi when a French TV network claimed copyright infringement even if that film is in the public domain here in North America. Because Youtube (Google) doesn't follow standard laws and creates new ones, I had to remove it and the channel was permantly tarred with a strike. After 3 strikes, a channel is permanently closed.
So yesterday Youtube put a strike on my now defunct "FAST FORWARD CINEMA" channel, which I loved, for a copyright infringement for ZONTAR, a film everyone, including Archive.org (see here), says it's a public domain film. So why would a strike on a different channel affect the "With FIRE & SWORD" one? Well, years ago, when Youtube was just Youtube, one could have multiple channels attached to a single email address. 3 of my 4 channels back in 2008 were attached to one single email address but when Google bought Youtube, Google changed the rules and every channel had to have its own separate email address. So I had to detach all 3 channels from that one email address and add 2 new emails to 2 channels. You'd think this would be the end of it but in typical Google cluster-f**k fashion, when the "FAST FORWARD CINEMA" channel got a strike for ZONTAR the "With FIRE & SWORD" channel, which was attached to that same email address years ago, also got that same strike. And there's NO way to go about and fix this (google statement: people have reported that accidental data merging can occur between accounts). The old email address shouldn't be attached to WFAS but somehow it still was. So in less than 2 weeks "With FIRE & SWORD" got 2 deadly strikes while it got nothing when it was in operations for the past 4 years. Instead of waiting for Google/Youtube to make another stupid blunder and kill my channel I decided to close it myself.
I might re-open another one down the road but for now I'm just glad I still have the main "PEPLUM TV" channel and the "Sappho PEPLUM" channel, for now at least. Needless to say I hate Youtube/Google.
BTW, if you search ZONTAR on Youtube you'll find dozens of channels showing the same movie or part of it. Why did they target me specifically?
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Photo of the Day
Francisco Rabal, as Quinto Licinio, kneels to Jesus in JUDAS' KISS (1954)
I've never seen this film. It is very rare but it was dubbed in English and yet I've never seen it available anywhere, either in English or Italian. I've seen clips of it and photos and it looks good. Francisco looks very young in this even if he was 27 years old when he made the film.
PEPLUM Fashion: Stola
The stola is a piece of garment Roman women wore back in the day. Above is an image of Galla Placidia wearing a tunic (in purple), a stola on top of the tunic and a red palla on top of the stola. The primary purpose of the stola was:
"The stola was a symbol of marriage, and by the late Republic all women married according to Roman law were entitled to wear it. Not all did, of course, since it was not a particularly fashionable or flattering garment, but wearing the stola was a way for a woman to publicly proclaim her respectability and adherence to tradition."
One of the reasons I'm writing about this is because stolas were not very popular in PEPLUM films. Producers and directors wanted to showcase the curvaceous figures of their female stars as much as possible and wearing a stola, though technically correct, would simply cover too much and deprive some members of the audience of some viewing pleasure. So the next time you watch a PEPLUM film set in Ancient Rome, remember this tidbit when the beautiful main actress walks about in a form fitting dress. The screenshot below shows Wandisa Guida wearing a stola, sans tunic or palla, from HERCULES AGAINST ROME.
A representation of a stola in a museum