Saturday, April 13, 2019

Terrifying Masked Hero

The tradition of a hero putting a mask on to hide his identity is nothing new. Mysterious heroes like Zorro, masked and powerful, are supposed to be terrifying to villains and others alike. I won't post any image from the gazillion Zorro movies out there. Instead, here are some other examples of such frightening masked heroes from the PEPLUM genre. 


Above and below: "Goliath" (Steve Reeves) in GOLIATH & THE BARBARIANS (1959) was meant to be a terrifying nemesis played by the story's hero, not villain. There were a couple of films with the same idea. Below, his face may be hidden but his body is easy to spot. 





Above and below: The Red Wolf in REVOLT OF THE PRAETORIANS (1964) was basically the same thing as GOLIATH & THE BARBARIANS. Richard Harrison played the masked nemesis/hero. Below: Harrison is about to put on the mask.




The masked hero in TERROR OF THE RED MASK (1960).


Ed Fury plays an anti-hero in THE SEVEN REVENGES (1961); at one point in the film he starts wearing a mask to conceal his face while he tries to crush his opponent.


A faceless rebel leader jeopardizes the plans of the ten gladiators in TRIUMPH OF THE TEN GLADIATORS (1964); previously we saw the rebel leader destroy some valuable property (a scene lifted from COLOSSUS OF RHODES). I can't tell who that is without spoiling movie.

1 comment:

Scott Ochiltree said...



Excellent compilation of usual, although I do not think any of these films rise above average for the Peplum genre..

I am hoping for a compilation of female slave market scenes. Ideally this would be a lengthy video, but color still photos would also be fine.