PEPLUM X Tuesdays
Sophia Loren - Christopher Plummer
Sophia Loren - Christopher Plummer
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Monday, November 30, 2015
By the Gods!
This film is amazing. Not a swashbuckler (there's no action in it) but a romance in the purest sense of the word. Everything about it is great. The cast, costumes, music, sets, etc. Directed by Jean Delannoy, who also directed THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE-DAME starring Gina Lollobrigida and Anthony Quinn, has created a perfect jewel with this adaptation by none other than Jean Cocteau of an old book (same title) by Madame de La Fayette. Cocteau directed BEAUTY & THE BEAST with Jean Marais, who also stars in this film as the Prince of Cleves. When this film was first released, critics trashed it. How little they knew.
Movie Poster Mondays
French poster for THE QUEEN OF SHEBA (1921)
Nice poster. The PEPLUM genre has been going on for a long time now.
Nice poster. The PEPLUM genre has been going on for a long time now.
Thursday, November 26, 2015
By the Gods!
This is the second production the two PEPLUM stars appeared together. Mitchell's screen time is short but it's worth watching these two go at each other. Gordon appeared briefly in KERIM - SON OF THE SHEIK. If you blink you'll miss him in the latter.
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
By the Gods!
The SEVEN REBEL GLADIATORS
Pietro Torrisi, Nazzareno Zamperla, Roger Browne, Arnaldo Fabrizio, Jeff Cameron, Pietro Ceccarelli, Harold Bradley and Mario Novelli.
That's eight but Arnaldo is not officially a gladiator. It's one of those rambunctious Michele Lupo films were all the Roman soldiers fly in every direction, ending up with legs in the air. Not really my thing, to be honest, but I still watch them from time to time. There's no doubt that director Lupo had a style all of his own.
Different Versions : Ursus - the Rebel Gladiator
I finally got hold of more than one version of THE REBEL GLADIATOR ala URSUS - THE BEBEL GLADIATOR (thanks Alan). Whenever I have different versions I love to compare them to see if there's any differences. Here's a quick overview of the 3 versions.
Italian version
Italian full screen version
US version available on DVD
Cut scenes :
This simple and yet beautiful scene with Gloria Milland and José Greci is cut from the grubby US version available on DVD. It's a nice scene in which it establishes the "friendship" between the two ladies. Both look great.
The scenes above and below are cut from the widescreen version of URSUS - THE REBEL GLADIATOR. In the scene below Commodus (Alan Steel) complains to Milland that his life was spared by the barbarian and he finds it humiliating.
Italian version
Italian full screen version
US version available on DVD
Cut scenes :
This simple and yet beautiful scene with Gloria Milland and José Greci is cut from the grubby US version available on DVD. It's a nice scene in which it establishes the "friendship" between the two ladies. Both look great.
José Greci
Gloria Milland
The scenes above and below are cut from the widescreen version of URSUS - THE REBEL GLADIATOR. In the scene below Commodus (Alan Steel) complains to Milland that his life was spared by the barbarian and he finds it humiliating.
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Monday, November 23, 2015
By the Gods!
Ettore was an excellent actor in his own right and he often starred in PEPLUM films to balance out inexperienced actors aka bodybuilders, like Reg Park. He was often given more dialogue and such, which is normal. Ettore helped a lot in creating a semblance of quality in several big PEPLUM titles. That's Luciano Marin in the background.
Movie Poster Mondays
Belgian poster for DESERT WARRIOR
Nice poster. In Europe, Carmen had first billing but in North America, Ricardo got top billing.
Thursday, November 19, 2015
By the Gods!
Ricardo Montalban and Carmen Sevilla in DESERT WARRIOR
I just completed a Fan Dub of this rarely seen film. The US copy is in B&W and poor but mostly uncut. The Euro copy I used has about a dozen or so minutes cut from it. This copy, in widescreen and color, was really butchered but I did my best to make it seem seamless. There were three big scenes cut from it (including two whipping scenes and one dance / singing sequence which I uploaded at Youtube here) while 40 or so one second shots cut throughout this copy. A real nightmare to edit but the final Fan Dub still looks great.
This is an interest film for many reasons : it was made in 1957, way before HERCULES, which spawned an endless number of such films. It's filmed on location in Egypt, and, to my knowledge, it's the first Arabian adventure shot in widescreen and color that was produced in Europe (THE ADVENTURES OF HAJJI BABA (1954) was the first US-made Arabian adventure shot in widescreen).
I'm thinking of uploading this to my Youtube channel. I'm working on the final version for YT.
PEPLUM GIF animation : THE GIANT OF METROPOLIS
Scene from GIANT OF METROPOLIS starring Gordon Mitchell and Bella Cortez
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
By the Gods!
With a back like that, who could put Hercules in chains? Only Iole.
