By the Gods!

Alberto Farnese, as Adrasto, and Raf Baldassarre in THE GIANTS OF THESSALY (1960)

In PEPLUM movies, there are villains, like the one Farnese played so well here, and there are the villain's henchman, like the one played here by Baldassarre. I already tried to do a regular series about the genre's best villains but the reaction from readers wasn't stellar so I stopped doing it. Farnese is perfectly evil in this Riccardo Freda film, while Baldassarre is perfect as the henchman. In fact, I'd say that Baldassarre was probably the best henchman of the genre. His presence always elevated the level of the usual one dimensional henchman portrayals. He almost always played bad guy roles, with a couple of exceptions, like the one in GLADIATOR OF ROME (1962). I should do an article on the best henchmen of PEPLUM cinema.