As I mentioned yesterday, TCM will be showing PEPLUM films every Thursday in January (except for Jan 31). This is great and also not so great. The selection is interesting, and yes they included Italian-made films. Yeah. So, what's the bad news? They'll be showing these films in the dead of night.
Now, since I don't have TCM I wold to get some input and maybe some copies of these broadcasts. Not the big films like BEN-HUR and SPARTACUS (they're easily available) but the rarer titles, including ATLAS (in widescreen?), THE TYRANT OF LYDIA AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES (1963; aka GOLIATH & THE REBEL SLAVE), THE TERROR OF ROME AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES (1964; MACISTE - GLADIATOR OF SPARTA), HERCULES AGAINST THE MONGOLS (1963) and HERCULES AGAINST THE BARBARIANS (1964).
I need to see these. If TYRANT and TERRO OR ROME have the SON OF HERCULES music at the beginning (I hope not), will they be shown in widescreen, will they be cut, etc.
My Fan Dub version of HERCULES AGAINST THE MONGOLS, which was the best English version available anywhere and viewed nearly 4 million times at PEPLUM TV, was recently removed by Youtube with no explanation given. Hmm...I wonder if any of this had anything to do with this unexpected removal.
Here are the films scheduled to be shown. Like I said, they start the first film at 8 pm EST and the other films will play up until the early morning. Not really the best time to view these films, except maybe for people on the west coast. The films on January 24 are the ones which interest me the most (and ATLAS).
I have all of these movies and they are all worth watching over and over again. Amazon Prime has a rather interesting film which I added to my watchlist Monday evening. This is a film about the siege of Vienna in the 1600s called DAY OF THE SIEGE starring F. Murray Abrams and is about 300,000 Ottoman soldiers attempting to defeat a small band of fighters. I saw the trailer and is full of action. Produced and directed by Italians. It's about 2hrs in length and Amazon says it's from 2014. Have you heard of this movie??
ReplyDeleteJohn, when the screenings are finished, please get back and write full report about this, I'm also curious like you are, especially about the quality of the films. I got Atlas (1961) for example, in an awful copy (american probably) with washed out colors and 4:3 picture format. I need to know more about this topic, Thanks!
ReplyDeleteRight on ATLAS! My copy of ATLAS is B&W and pan and scan ... it's buried within a multi-disk Roger Corman collection. I was hoping it would have been widescreen in keeping with the archival boxed-set mission, but to no avail.
ReplyDeleteIt's such a weird movie in so many respects ... the sparse "mobs" of soldiers and civilians, recorded in very "tight" shots to imply there are more actors than you see ... the famous papier-mache helmets and shields ... the SPARTACUS-purloined credits with triumphant brass fanfares blaring amidst heroic Greek statues in motion across the screen.
I will be up early tomorrow a.m. to see if TCM miraculously has the WS version ... it's happened before with others!
tgk
P.S. Kino Lorber finally is shipping (weeks late) its Blu Ray of REVOLT OF THE SLAVES ... waiting for arrival
Update: I managed to take a look on TCM (US) myself and I checked on 3 films. First catch was The Colossus of Rhodes (1961) and it was in widescreen as expected. However the next 2 films, Minotaur (1960) and Atlas (1961) was in 4:3 format. I got Minotaur in widescreen and I can say in better quality than TCM's print but TCM beats me in Atlas, much better colors and sharper image than my copy.
ReplyDeleteStergios, thanks for the info.
ReplyDeleteWhy is ATLAS not available in widescreen? It's so odd.
What are the movies in the brief little promo TCM keeps showing on air? There's a longer one that's on-line all over the place, but I haven't seen the very short on-line one anywhere.
ReplyDelete--gpm
Latest update: Again my first catch was the 3rd film from the schedule, The Terror of Rome Against the Son of Hercules (Maciste, gladiatore di Sparta, 1964). The next 2 films aired as scheduled, Hercules Against the Mongols (Maciste contro i Mongoli, 1963) and Hercules Against the Barbarians (Maciste nell'inferno di Gengis Khan, 1964), all with Mark Forest. All films were in widescreen and had nice colors with sharp images. A nice surprise was that right after, at exactly 05.00h (EST-US) 12.00h noon here in Greece, started The Tartars (I tartari, 1961) with Victor Mature.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Stergios!
ReplyDeleteI would like to see these copies. If anyone has them, please let me know.