Kirk Morris, as Hercules, in HERCULES, SAMSON & ULYSSES (1963)
This movie was finally released on DVD by Warner a couple of years ago. The image quality of their DVDs is good but always too dark. THE SON OF SPARTACUS suffers from the same problem, and its even darker than this one. It's annoying that PEPLUM fans wait and wait for 'official' releases of certain titles and when they're finally release, they're too dark or the wrong aspect ratio (the aspect ratio of this Warner DVD is also incorrect). This has nothing to do with the way the movie itself, but how it was transferred to a digital format. Oh well...
3 comments:
How do you figure the aspect ratio of Hercules, Samson and Ulysses is wrong? I was never filmed in 2.35 widescreen and the 1.85 image on the Warner DVD is correct. I saw it when it came out theatrically and it was just the same as the DVD. The Italian DVD is also the 1.85 aspect ratio.
It's easy. You just watch both copies side by side. The US version is cropped. There's missing information on the left, the top and right sides. Also, the image is elongated vertically. I'll add images to post.
The difference is barely noticeable. Considering there are so few good quality English language DVDs of Sword and Sandal films available, we should be grateful for the ones there are rather than nit pick about something this insignificant. The small batch released by Warner are wonderful compared to what used to be shown on television. They were never previously available in any home format in North America until they came out on these DVDs. Colossus of Rhodes just came out on Blu-ray from Warner and hopefully, if sales are good, they will consider releasing the other titles they have on Blu-ray as well.
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