Saturday, January 28, 2012

Photo of the Day

Prithviraj Kapoor as Alexander the Great in SIKANDAR (1941); made in India

This is the first film in which Alexander the Great is the main character, preceding the Richard Burton one by a decade. Hmm, I need to see this. There are some clips on Youtube but without English subs.

6 comments:

abdul666 said...

An intriguing find!

[No nostalgia value for me despite my age: the movie is older than me :) ]

Off-topic, fortuitously found Tarkan Versus the Vikings on YouYube: a gem in its own 'peculiar' way!!!


Do you include 'She' and other movies featuring a 'lost world / lost city' with primitive / ancient culture among 'peplum' movies?

PEPLUM cinema said...

I would consider SHE a PEPLUM because of the Goddess aspects of the story but Lost City as in Jungle adventures or Indiana Jones are usually not PEPLUM films. But Fritz Lang's JOURNEY TO THE LOST CITY is a PEP.

For example, the Doug McClure B Epics LAND THAT TIME FORGOT and PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT are not PEP films BUT I do consider McClure's AT THE EARTH'S CORE and WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS PEP films.

A PEPLUM needs at least one or many of the following elements: mythology (of any kind: greek, egyptian, gods vs man, etc ), sword fights, big battles and beefcake and cheesecake.

S.R.Orsulak said...

I hope you read this, but would you consider ALLAN QUARTERMAIN AND THE LOST CITY OF GOLD ? Film does have PEP elements in it.

PEPLUM cinema said...

Not really. It's like Indiana Jones. A film can have elements of a PEPLUM and still not be one. Allan Quatermain films are, imo, more like Jungle adventures than Sword & Sandal. I haven't seen it in a long time so I might have to revisit it.

Anonymous said...


Here is an english-subtitled version of the film SIKANDAR (1941):

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iRVANKJs7YM&pp=ygUVc2lrYW5kZXIgMTk0MSBlbmdsaXNo

It is shorter by about 18min compared to the one below without subtitles:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MDdrmtjW5F0


Anonymous said...


Here is a playlist of all the song sequences from the original film SIKANDAR (1941). These have been taken out in the english-subtitled version I posted, which explains its shorter run time.

https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA_A9T_Uj7IxJhLNzM9GD_Wq9QRWnFZON