Ray 'Crash' Corrigan in UNDERSEA KINGDOM
Any story that takes place in Atlantis automatically belongs to the PEPLUM genre, no matter what the actual time the story takes in. There are several PEP films that take place in Atlantis, including CONQUEROR OF ATLANTIS starring Kirk Morris, George Pal's ATLANTIS THE LOST CONTINENT, HERCULES CONQUERS ATLANTIS or more known as HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN, etc.
Speaking of old serials, Italian/European PEPLUM films were the genre between vintage serials and current blockbuster films.
"Undersea Kingdom" was Republic's answer to the hyper-successful Universal adaptation of the "Flash Gordon" comic strip. That serial, too, has elements that may suggest it, or the strip from which it derived, was an influence on what wold become Peplum.
ReplyDeleteIf Hollywood had not stopped producing serials a few years before Joseph E. Levine saw "I Fatiche di Ercole", there might have been Peplum chapterplays. The two genres would seem to go together well.