Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Peculiar PEPLUM titles

I came across a Youtube channel which uploaded many of my videos to their channel. Amongst the other titles there were titles for movies I never heard of. The distributor, Republic Pictures, acquired these old black & white copies of actual Italian movies, *retitled* them and sold them as different movies from the original ones. Anyway, very odd.

LAND OF GLADIATORS is actually THE INVINCIBLE GLADIATOR (1961). The original English intro was cut and a new credits were created.


ALI BABA AND THE DARK WIZARD is ALI BABA AND THE SACRED CROWN (1962), which is also known as THE SEVEN TASKS OF ALI BABA. The opening English credits were also cut, replaced by the new title and abbreviated credits.


Like the two above, this title doesn't exist. It's actually MACISTE - AVENGER OF THE MAYANS (1965). This Spanish title translates as HERCULES AGAINST THE WILD GOD.


Every video starts with this logo.

6 comments:

  1. Steven SmithNovember 19, 2019 at 6:03 PM

    Which YouTube channel are these from?

    ReplyDelete
  2. PEPLUM TVNovember 19, 2019 at 9:57 PM

    Steven, just do a search for those titles. The channel will show up.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Steven SmithNovember 19, 2019 at 10:34 PM

    Found it! Those titles are fake and anyway Republic Pictures only distributed only one Italian historical movie in the U.S. : DON JUAN'S NIGHT OF LOVE (1952) and they never showed these "fake" titles/movies as TV packages back in the 1960's either.

    ReplyDelete
  4. PEPLUM TVNovember 20, 2019 at 12:42 AM

    Steven, did you actually read my article? The movies are real PEPLUM movies (INVINCIBLE GLADIATOR, etc). They were retitled. So of course they're fake titles of real movies.

    The REPUPLIC PICTURES logo is a new logo, not the one from the 1960s. It states below that it's part of the Spelling Entertainment Group which is a recent company. Spelling Entertainment Group didn't exist in the 1960s.

    It's obvious the titles are fake but the question is did the REPUBLIC PICTURES (Spelling...Paramount...Viacom) repackaged these old movies. REPUBLIC PICTURES have already been caught distributing movies without permission.

    From Wikipedia:

    "In 2012 library holder Richard Feiner & Co. sued Paramount (and Republic Pictures) for the unauthorized exploitation of 17 films from the '40s and '50s originally released by Warner Bros."

    ReplyDelete
  5. Richard SvenssonNovember 21, 2019 at 5:21 AM

    I think Steven is talking about the original Republic Pictures, home of famed serials like Spy Smasher and Captain Marvel. They had a steady outlet of movies, mostly action (westerns, for example) but also did a lot of distribution. This Republic Pictures folded in 1967.

    The company name and logo was revived in the 1980s as a TV re-distribution company. I remember watching Beauty and the Beast on Swedish TV, with the Republic logo at the end, though the show was actually produced by CBS. At this time they also distributed lots of older movies within the syndicated TV system.

    As of now it's a subsidiary of Spelling Entertainment and is still doing distribution, still under the same company name and still using the original Republic logo. I'm guessing they do a fair amount of repackaging, or they still hawk the same repackaged movies they had in their catalog during the 1980s and '90s. That would explain the content on their YouTube channel.

    ReplyDelete
  6. PEPLUM TVNovember 21, 2019 at 6:05 PM

    The issue has nothing to do with the old REPUBLIC PICTURES. Nada. Zilch. It has to do with the new REPUBLIC PICTURES, as part of the Spelling Entertainment group. There's no need to bring up the old REPUBLIC PICTURES in the discussion. That's it. :-)

    ReplyDelete