An angry Goliath (Mark Forest) is in the mood for some renovations...
Wednesday, June 4, 2025
Blog's 15th anniversary: STAR WARS, a PEPLUM in space
In celebration of the blog's 15th anniversary, I'm re-posting old posts. Here's one popular post I wrote back in 2011. Here's the link to the post.
I added some screenshot of Google searches of how STAR WARS was inspired by Ancient Rome history and directly by the PEPLUM genre. I wrote it 14 years ago, way before anyone else.
Opening credits that sets up the storyline :
From REVENGE OF HERCULES
Desert locations, with bones of dead creatures :
Wise Old Man
Evil Ruler on his throne
Disposable soldiers of Evil Ruler
Resourceful little people always on the side of good
Donut-style hair fashion statement
Cheesecake (there's very little Beefcake in Star Wars films)
Torture (what's a PEPLUM film without a torture scene?)
Sword fights (hence the term Sword & Sandal)
Council chambers
HEROD THE GREAT
Crushing walls of death
Posted by
PEPLUM TV
Tuesday, June 3, 2025
SPFX DEPT.
Scenes from ANDROCLES AND THE LION (1952)
This Black & White production has many excellent special effects throughout the movie. Linwood G. Dunn is credited for Visual Effects. I assume that's he's the one responsible for the matte paintings. William Cameron Menzies is also credited as part of the production design. Menzies was brilliant. The people in the scene below walk. This is one of my irks about matte works in other movies.
Posted by
PEPLUM TV
Vintage Article
An old Spanish article on some publicity campaign for THE GIANT OF MARATHON (1959) with Steve Reeves and Mylène Demongeot in costume.
Posted by
PEPLUM TV
Monday, June 2, 2025
Musing!
Gianna Maria Canale in THE WARRIOR AND THE SLAVE GIRL (1958)
Personally, I love the movie's production, cast, etc. The story? Meh. It's not a compelling story. The direction, by Vittorio Cottafavi, is better than the script. The storyline, of her character poisoning a kid, was really bad. It made her character unredeemable. Gianna was eventually typecast playing evil characters after this role. Aside from a couple of titles, she appeared in a string of movies as the bad girl. It's a shame because she was such a good actress and could play other types of roles.
Posted by
PEPLUM TV
PEPLUM Movie Poster
German poster of REVENGE OF THE BARBARIANS (1960)
This is the 1972 re-release. In and around the mini PEPLUM explosion of 1973, old movies were re-released, including this one. In Germany at least.
Posted by
PEPLUM TV
Friday, May 30, 2025
Spotlight: THE SIGN OF THE CROSS (1932)
A visual spotlight on the pre-code epic directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Fredric March, Elissa Landi, Charles Laughton and Claudette Colbert.
What's the next movie that should have the PEPLUM TV spotlight for the month of June?
Posted by
PEPLUM TV