HD Alert!

Hildegard Knef and Sergio Fantoni in CATHERINE OF RUSSIA (1963)

Another classic PEPLUM movie, of Russian history, in HD and only available for streaming in Europe. It looks great. No glaring issues to report from this print. It's nice from beginning to end. A fun slice of history Directed by Umberto Lenzi, one of the most prolific directors of PEPLUM movies. 
 

BY THE GODS! issue no 5 now available!

BY THE GODS! number 5 is now available to purchase.

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Click the link below:

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You can buy any or all BY THE GODS! issues

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Issue no 1

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Musings!

Belinda Lee and Massimo Girotti in GODDESS OF LOVE (1957) 

The English audio to this movie is missing. It has never surfaced in any format even if the movie was released in English in cinemas. It's one of the most frustrating aspects of the PEPLUM genre. Today, some are using AI to generate the English dub. They take the English subtitles and process the dialogue via AI and voila, instant English dub. For some movies, it seems this will be the only way until the actual English dub surfaces but there are a lot of problems with this. I've heard films dubbed this way. It's not very pleasant. The voices are harsh and robotic. The voices also change in mid-sentence. It's one of the aspects of AI that's still problematic: consistency. Listening to a AI voice voicing dialogue changing repeatedly is not good. But the biggest problem is the voice matching the actor or actress. In Belinda's case, she has a very distinctive voice. She's British and I've heard her actual voice. Presuming that they used her real voice for this movie, the AI voice for her simply doesn't match. It's jarring. So, it's a noble idea but there are too many pitfalls and issues with using AI to recreate the missing English dubs of many movies.

Comments are back on...

I'm turning the comments back on. If things get wild and nasty again, I'll turn them off.

PEPLUM Movie Poster

Belgian poster of THE LION OF St. MARK (1963) 

Typically colourful poster from Belgium. I like it.

Image of the week!

Mercury (Gabriele Tinti) consoles Prometheus (uncredited) in ULYSSES AGAINST HERCULES (1962)

Lobby Cards Set: THE SWORD OF EL CID (1962)

Original US lobby cards set of THE SWORD OF EL CID starring Roland Carey, Sandro Moretti and Daniela Bianchi. Disappointing set with  no cards with a clear view of Roland Carey or Daniela Bianchi. The set is missing one card but still. Only Sandro is in this set. Oh well...

Musings!

Mark Forest as Maciste in SON OF SAMSON (1960) 

PEPLUM movies became popular with scenes like this one. The Hero using the God given strength to help people with no power. Feats of Strength scenes were crucial for the PEPLUM genre to stay popular but gradually, these scenes became more rare with movies that were released later during the PEPLUM explosion. For me, this never made any sense. They may have run out of ideas but I doubt it. There are some of the craziest scenes ever conceived for movies so anything goes. But they stopped slowly. One just has to look at Steve Reeves movies and by his last movies, he rarely did any Feats of Strength, which is one of the major reasons he became so popular. The characters in Steve's latter movies were strong men and he fought and battled hard but nothing superhuman. And the PEPLUM genre eventually died. This scene is very brief but memorable thanks to Mark's visibly strong physique. Those arms are thick and impressive. A similar scene was made in SAMSON AND THE 7 MIRACLES OF THE WORLD (1961) with Gordon Scott.

Behind-the-Scenes

A behind the scenes photo of the QUO VADIS (1951) set. There's Peter Ustinov, Leo Genn, Patricia Laffan and more. 

Clip of the week: ROLAND THE MIGHTY (1956)

Rick Battaglia is Roland the Mighty. Great film directed by Pietro Francisci. From the German print. This movie desperately needs a better print.

FUNNIES!

Pietro Ceccarelli in THE ADVENTURER OF TORTUGA (1965)

HD Alert!

Steve Reeves in THE GIANT OF MARATHON (1959)

A good news/bad news day!

The good news: the German Blu-ray has arrived. It's beautiful.

The bad news: it has issues.

The first issue I quickly noticed: the English audio being out of sync early on in the movie. This was after a quick scan. I'm not aware if there are other scenes but comparing that specific scene at the beginning with the US public domain copy and it's obvious the US version is editing ever so slightly differently.

The other issue: the movie is cropped. One of my sources in Europe pointed this out. Below is a comparison.

Added to LIST OF PEPLUM MOVIES IN HD

The top one is the original framing. The below image is from the German Blu-ray. The German BD is more zoomed in. They had to cropped the top, bottom and sides to zoom it in.

It's still nice but not the original framing. And, yes, it's one gorgeous and excellent film!

Sergio Fantoni, Ivo Garrani, Mylène Demongeot and Steve Reeves

 

Steve Reeves and Alberto Lupo

The good and bad news about BY THE GODS! magazine...

The good news: BY THE GODS! magazine issue 5 is ready. Well, it's been ready for some time now. It's been delayed for one reason. The bad news: I've been have recurring problems with my PayPal account. MagCloud, who publishes the magazine on demand, only uses PayPal with creators. I can't do anything until the PayPal issue is sorted out. I've had two major issues with PP this summer. The current issue is ongoing and might take one or two weeks to resolve! It's been extremely frustrating. Now, this is the best case scenario. I won't say what's the worse case scenario...

I'll keep you posted.

Musings!

Gianna Maria Canale and Moira Orfei are prisoners on a pirate ship in QUEEN OF THE PIRATES (1960)

One of the fun aspects of Italian Swashbucklers are the number of movies with female leads. It dates back all the way to the silent era in Italy. A sequel was made after this, TIGER OF THE SEVEN SEAS (1962), which, IMO, is better than this one. Not that there's anything bad with it. It's very good. Cast, production, etc. All excellent. But TIGER blows it away. The reason? I wrote about it in the upcoming issue of BY THE GODS! magazine (explanation of what's going with the magazine tomorrow). It's always fun to see Queens of PEPLUM movies together and seeing Gianna with Moira is, as a PEPLUM fan, a treat. They should have made more films together. 

PEPLUM Movie Poster

Original Italian poster of AVENGER OF THE SEVEN SEAS (1962) 

Beautiful poster even there really isn't such a scene like that in the movie. It's a work of art though.

PEPLUM Break

I take a break roughly every two months so it's that time again. 

So stay tuned!

I'll leave you now with King Leonidas (Richard Egan) from THE 300 SPARTANS (1962), saying "From this wall, we do not retreat!"

Peplum Public Discussion

Comments are open in this post. You have something to mention about this week's posts? Or something else. This is the only place you can voice your opinion. Comments are curated therefore any bad comment won't be published! Be respectful!

Image of the week!

Catherine (Hildegard Knef) plays Venus in a play, helped by Count Poniatowski (Giacomo Rossi Stuart), who is after her, in CATHERINE OF RUSSIA (1963)

At the movies...

THE VIKINGS (1958) playing at the Astor Theatre in New York City.

Musings!

Brad Harris shows his mettle in 79 AD: THE DESTRUCTION OF HERCULANEUM (1962)

Even when a PEPLUM movie doesn't have a super strong Hero in it, like 79 AD, it doesn't mean it can't have a boatload of PEPLUM clichés in them, like Feats of Strength. The Superhuman Hero throwing or tossing a boulder is a familiar cliché but this movie doesn't have a super strong Hero. I recently posted a clip of Gordon Scott in GLADIATOR OF ROME  with such a scene. The character Brad Harris plays is strong but he's more a regular man. So, in this case, he and his fellow friends all helped in pushing these boulders over the cliff. Voila! Feat of Strength, of sorts. I love it when PEPLUM movies are resourceful such as this. 

Behind-the-Scenes

Dinner party of the premiere of ULYSSES (1954) with Silvana Mangano, director Mario Camerini, Kirk Douglas and his wife Anne Buydens, and Anthony Quinn. Very nice.

Clip of the week: THE ARENA (1974)

Pam Grier dances in THE ARENA. With Margaret Markov, Daniele Vargas and many other actors. And a donkey.

Portraits

Massimo Girotti, as Arminio, in THE IRON CROWN (1941)

HD Alert!

Scenes from THE SARACENS (1963)

The new HD print of THE SARACENS is astounding. The image is so crisp it's incredible. Now a lot of people are not familiar with this fun Richard Harrison (above) film. It's a pirate movie that mostly takes place on land. It's enjoyable movie with a fantastic score. The fact that this movie has an excellent HD print while HERCULES (1958) and HERCULES UNCHAINED (1959) still have sub-par HD prints is bizarre.  Thanks to the one who provided this to me.

Added to List of PEPLUM Movies in HD

 

The clarity is wow!

Updates to two permanent pages!

PEPLUM MYSTICISM

Hercules (Steve Reeves; below) meets Oepidus (Cesare Fantoni) and his son, Polyceines (Mimmo Palmara). Full of mysticism.

Permanent page

MINI FOTONOVOLAS

Kirk Morris in TRIUMPH OF MACISTE (1961)

Permanent page