Clip of the week: THE MAGNIFICENT GLADIATOR (1964)

Mark Forest liberates a few strong prisoners...

Funnies!

Anne-Marie Baumann in THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII (1959)

SPFX DEPT.

Scenes from THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII (1959)

This spectacular movie has several stand-out effects scenes, mainly the exploding volcano but it also has a good number of beautiful and subtle matte paintings. Above is the scene in the arena during the climax, with Steve Reeves and Christine Kaufmann. Below is how the location / set looked like. Mount Vesuvius was added in the background. Last image below: the screenshot of Pompeii and the volcano in the background is probably one of my favourite matte works. Absolutely beautiful and very subtle. Matte work by Emilio Ruiz del Río with Mario Bava (technical)!

IMO, one of the best matte paintings ever. It's simply beautiful.

Illustrator Angus McBride

I just got hold of the artwork of illustrator Angus McBride. He created illustrations based on history but also fantasy/fiction. He as born in 1931 and died in 2007. His work his quite extensive (too extensive to cover fully here) and he excelled in Roman and illustrations set in Antiquity. His work is all across the internet. Amazing stuff.

 

 

 

Musings!

Hélène Chanel, as Astra the High Priestess, and with Lia Zoppelli and Nino Dal Fabbro at her side in SAMSON AND THE MIGHTY CHALLENGE (1964)

This movie is a comedy and it's one of the most crowded casts of the PEPLUM genre. There are at least a dozen major characters, including these three. It's so crowded some characters get lost in the shuffle, including the one played by Hélène Chanel. She gets too little time for her fun performance. I like the movie, I watched it many times. But it's decidedly uneven. Some really great parts while some really boring parts (the feuding family sub-plot, with Livio Lorenzon, is pointless and really drags the entire production). They could have removed the boring parts or trimmed them down, and increased the visibility of other characters, like the High Priestess one. This movie is often ridiculed and doesn't deserve the hate since the film's goofiness reflects its comedic tone. It's deliberate. 

PEPLUM Movie Poster

Original Italian poster of HERCULES AGAINST ROME (1964)

Cinematic Confusion. That's Gordon Scott not Alan Steel. And there are no arena scenes in the movie.

Stats week 22 - 28 June 2025

On average, in the past, the blog had 1500 to 2000 views a day. Average. Last week, between June 22 and 28, the average was 7147. Only 9 comments. Views during the summer usually go down so I don't have a clue why it's doing the opposite. 

22 June   5385*

23 June   3443

24 June   3728

25 June   8116

26 June   9336

27 June   7585

28 June 12439

Total: 50032

*June 22 wasn't calculated with the 44.8k. I added it in the screenshot and the total for the day, which brings the weekly total up to 50k.

AI PEPLUMTV

LIONEYES

Image of the week!

Ares (Mimmo Palmara) narrowly escapes an incoming arrow in THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES (1961)

Spotlight: ERIK THE CONQUEROR (1961)

For June, a visual spotlight on ERIK THE CONQUEROR (1961), directed by Mario Bava and starring Cameron Mitchell, George Ardisson, Joe Robinson, Alice and Ellen Kessler, Folco Lulli (my favorite character but he's not in it for long) and Franco Giacobini. In Colorscope!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colourful action - adventure directed by Mario Bava.

The COLORSCOPE was working overtime!

What's the next movie that should have the PEPLUM TV spotlight for the month of July?

Musings!

Helga Liné and Dan Vadis in SPARTACUS AND THE TEN GLADIATORS (1963) 

When I began watching PEPLUM movies back in 2007, this was one of the first I really like. It does, like all TEN GLADIATORS movies, rely on scenes from previous movies but in this one, the integration of the scenes is done much better than the other two. It's fun, action-packed with a couple of stand-out scenes. It's the right balance of action, drama, humour and visuals (colours, costumes, etc). All three TEN GLADIATORS movies should be available to purchase on Blu-ray but none of them are. It's truly frustrating. Helga and Dan returned in TRIUMPH OF THE TEN GLADIATORS (1964) with virtually the same cast and same director but the supporting actors play different roles while the actors playing the gladiators reprise their roles as the Ten Gladiators. 

Behind-the-Scenes

George Eastman, profiled this week with 'THEN & NOW,' on the set of FELLINI SATYRICON (1969) as the Minotaur.

Clip of the week: SAMSON AND THE MIGHTY CHALLENGE (1964)

Raising a sunken boat from the bottom of the ocean is no obstacle to Hercules (Alan Steel).

 

Blog's 15th anniversary: HERCULES AGAINST THE GODS

In celebration of the blog's 15th anniversary, I'm re-posting old posts. Here's one popular post I wrote back in 2013. Here's the link to the post.

PEPLUM Mystery #1 solved: HERCULES AGAINST THE GOD

 

One of the biggest mysteries of the PEPLUM genre was whatever happened to the third Steve Reeves Hercules movie? Was it even a real thing?

Steve Reeves made two Hercules films: HERCULES (1958) and HERCULES UNCHAINED (1959) and that was it for Reeves and Hercules films. Watching HERCULES UNCHAINED I always feel that there was supposed to be a third film following it. It feels like an in-between story. Well the third Hercules film with Reeves was titled HERCULES AGAINST THE GODS and the ONLY proof I could find (for now) are these photos of a cocktail party for the announcement of the making of ERCOLE CONTRO GLI DEI or HERCULES AGAINST THE GODS. The date of the photos is October 30 1959. So the film was supposed to be a real thing. Unfortunately, and according to Facebook friend Pasquale (who met and chatted with Reeves), director Pietro Francisci wasn't going to direct it and Steve wanted ONLY Pietro. Because of scheduling issues (Pietro was filming SIEGE OF SYRACUSE and SAPPHO VENUS OF LESBOS during that period) Pietro wasn't going to direct it, most likely writing and/or producing it. Steve eventually pulled out of the project because of Pietro was unavailable and whatever was left of the project morphed into that fun oddity called GOLIATH & THE DRAGON starring newcomer Mark Forest.

So here are some photos of the cocktail party. Basically this is the only proof of a third Hercules production with Reeves. Sylva Koscina is nowhere to be seen so I wonder if Iole was in the original working script.

HD Alert!

I got the two new combo Blu-rays/DVDs from France.

THE THREE AVENGERS Blu-ray/DVD set from Artus Films and the new THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES combo Blu-ray/DVD set from Studio Canal+. Both are devoid of English tracks or subtitles. I wrote a mini-review of THE THREE AVENGERS set at BY THE GOD! (link). I'll have more of this one here at PEPLUM TV in the future.

Today, I'll focus on THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES release. I was always not impressed by the previous Blu-ray releases from the US and Germany. I have the physical disc of the US one but not the German release. But I do have a MKV file of the German one sent to me by my contact in Europe. Though the German one is much better than the US one, I was still not impressed. This new release from France beats both of them. This new Blu-ray from France is in Italian ONLY with French subtitles. The French dub is not even included, to the disappointment of many folks in France. 

Even so, this is the best release yet of the Sergio Leone film. The cover art is also very cool and makes a great addition to the collection.

Here's a quick visual comparison. First, US, second, Germany, and third, France.


USA

Germany

France

It's impossible to compare the US version with those from Germany and France since they're different. So comparing Germany and France: the French release is not as dark and has more information on all sides. The German copy is too dark and it's missing visual information on the sides.

USA

 

Germany

 

France

The US version has a ton of grain. It looks like a second generation print. It's also a bit too bright. And the image is cropped. The German one is good but too dark. Rory Calhoun and Lea Massari both look sunburnt. The colours in the background differ to the one from France. The French copy looks clear, skin tones look normal, details are more available, the image is not cropped on the left and right. The colours look more natural, certainly in the background. The image though is squeezed slightly, making everything look slimmer. Even with this slight distortion, the French release is the clear winner.


USA

Germany

France

Again, the grain in the US version is to the point of being distracting. The image is also cropped. The German version is excellent but one can clearly see more details in the French version. The tones are richer and things pop out. You can clearly see the texture of the costume. The image of the French release is also more complete on the right side. I can see details in Angel Aranda's eyes compared to other other versions. 

USA

Germany

France

This scene really stood out. The main problem with the German print is the right side is cropped. The cauldron with the woman's face is missing entirely in the German print. In this shot, even the US version beats the German one. The German print seems off-center. This scene in the French release stands out for many reasons, including the eyes of the evil face in the background which appear to shimmer in this new release. With Mimmo Palmara.

I'm really happy with this French release. It's a definite improvement over the other Blu-ray releases. This one impressed me.