I have to do a Fan Dub of this film. I have a nice Italian copy (screeshot above) but the English version is pretty poor. So I need to add the English track to this copy. From what I saw of the film, it looks like a fun film but with some sloppy editing here and there.
Back on Monday!
Do you know of any (good) Peplum that has fallen in public domain and available through Youtube etc, but which is of decent quality to watch?
ReplyDeleteWe found various films on Archive.org, but the quality makes viewing a chore. Or we found decent quality, but in Italian...
Alternatively, we'd be interested in buying on Amazon, but our budget is minimal. We did enjoy the movies on the "Gladiators and Ancient Warriors" boxset, and were surprised by the quality of "Sins of Rome"...
I guess with so much around, it's difficult as it is to separate the wheat from the chaff as it is - Did you ever do a Top 20 (available) Peplum movies?
Now that's a BIG question. The short answer would be no. There are no places on the internet with decent English copies of PEPLUM films. CINEMAGEDDON has a lot of them (their own fan dubs) but the folks there are jerks so I never got anything from them (even after TWO invitations I got because of the blog).
ReplyDeleteThere are some films like HERCULES which are for sale in widescreen and in English at Amazon but even that copy pales compared to the many they have in Europe. Sinister Cinema has some quasi-legal (or illegal) copies of some PEPLUM films ripped from European DVD which they sell at inflated prices with lesser quality copies. GOLIATH AGAINST THE GIANTS is one example of a copy they took from a European DVD and are selling it.
Some times I wish I could do it with the many Fan Dubs I have but I'm sure with my bad luck that someone somewhere would stop me fast.
The main problem with this is that because these films are often in the public domain, no European company is willing to splurge on stunning transfers for the North American markets when anyone could copy those films and sell them themselves.
Take FABIOLA for instance. I uploaded clips from this classic PEPLUM on some of my YT channels and got extremely severe copyright claims from GAUMONT in France. FABIOLA is in the public domain in North America and there's only one crappy version, in English, that's available here. When GAUMONT made those claims against me at YT they claimed that they own a 'Worldwide' copyright of FABIOLA which is impossible but that's what they're claiming. The irony is that even though, digitally, they claim they own a worldwide copyright of the film they will *never* make it available for sale here because legally they know that the film is in the PD. If you go to the US copyright website and search FABIOLA there are no results showing the film is owned by GAUMONT. So my hands are tied: I can't make a public domain film available on Youtube because a (big) company in France claims they own it, worldwide, even though they will never sell it here because no one owns the rights to it. It's stupid.
I do have some links somewhere of some nice copies I got from the internet and I'll see if I can find 20 links to share with you.
John
Thanks for the reply, John!
ReplyDeleteWe've read about your trouble with YouTube - it appears then that some companies are sitting on the rights of the movies (or at least believe they do), do not actively do anything with them, but lash out when someone else gets close.
It's a shame, because there is a market for these movies, just like there is for '50s/'60s horror (Hammer), musicals etc.
And the current distribution (or lack thereof) is not doing the genre any favours - it's associated with bad plotting and bad acting/dubbing, which are part caused by people watching only the 'dumped' less-than-great movies, or cut up versions with bad sound and image quality. When watching these films as they were meant to, above any issues rise the charm and the spectacle.
We've noticed this also with silent movies, some of which we've first seen through Archive.org/youtube/cheap DVD copies, making them a bit of a chore to watch. But when seeing cleaned up versions, or copies taken from good sources, then suddenly they are capable to stand on their own and suck you in.
Anyway, here's to hoping that the newest crop of Peplum-ish movies in the cinema inspires the Powers That Be to get some of the gems of the past out there!...
It's true that seeing these films as they were meant to be enhances the quality of these movies. I had to change my tune of certain titles after seeing them in a beautiful widescreen copy. These films were colourful, fun and entertaining and yet few people can enjoy them as they were meant to be enjoyed.
ReplyDelete