Searching far and wide for all things PEPLUM! Luciano Marin and Steve Reeves in GOLIATH AND THE BARBARIANS (1959)
The HECULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN Blu-ray review
People are slowly realizing how bad the Blu-ray release is. At the 'Blu-ray.com' forum dedicated to the movies, there's an on-going discussion on this release and a link to this blog's review was posted (thanks). Also, someone posted a review at AMAZON re-iterating the points I've made. It's a bad release. People buying it don't realize the Blu-ray is a fail.
On a side note, I registered to that forum and posted a message months ago but the post was rejected or it wasn't posted. I don't (or can't) post there. So this is not some self-promotion. Someone there doesn't like me.
The future of the PEPLUM genre is in streaming...
Last week, I mentioned how TRIUMPH OF THE TEN GLADIATORS was available for streaming on Spain. The print is beautiful. Well, there are already plenty of PEPLUM movies available on Amazon Prime. Some of the prints look good but most of them (from either Sinister Cinema or something like them) seem to be in poor quality.
The title below is actually PERSEUS THE INVINCIBLE (1964). PERSEUS AGAINST MONSTERS makes it sound like a kids movie...but it's still better than MEDUSA VS THE SON OF HERCULES. The artwork on the poster or cover is from the French DVD release. I guess Amazon is affiliated with them.
Cinematic Confusion
Speaking of streaming services, the old Cinematic Confusion tradition, which has plagued the PEPLUM genre since forever, continues on with streaming services. In this screenshot of the Amazon page for ATLAS AGAINST THE CZAR (1964), the photo of Kirk Morris, who stars in that movie, is actually from HERCULES, SAMSON AND ULYSSES (1963). Then the 'Starring' credits show Michele Mercier, Richard Harrison and Roldano Lupi. None of them are in ATLAS AGAINST THE CZAR. It's truly baffling how these mistakes keep happening. I truly believe the PEPLUM genre is cursed.
Identify the movie!
Can you identify the movie from this screengrab? It's an easy one...
Last week's IDENTIFY THE MOVIE was a screenshot from THE MONGOLS (1961). No one bothered guessing, which is okay. It was an obscure shot.
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The other issue was the misspelling in the credits. Again, no one tried to guess where the error was. The problem was with the Director credit. Pietro Franscici was misspelled as FRANCISICI, which would be a mouthful.
French DVD problem
The Artus DVD of SAMSON AND THE MIGHTY CHALLENGE (1964) has some sort of odd image issue which is brief but very odd. Below are screengrabs of the bizarre issue. The actors look like ghosts. Beware!
I posted about this at BY THE GODS! a few weeks ago and I wanted to share it here.
Recent Acquisitions
I should receive these this week so I'll have a review, or a quick overview, of them soon.
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Last week, I wrote that I'll have the review of the new German Blu-ray of DUEL OF THE TITANS this week but things have been so hectic here that I'll postpone the review for next week.
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Recent Acquisitions
I didn't receive anything in the mail but I did buy the Italian DVD of THE BIG FISHERMAN (1959). The 2 discs pack says the English track is included and it's in widescreen. Yeah! There are two discs and the English one is not in widescreen. Oops...Anyway, at least there's a copy in widescreen. The runtimes between the English and Italian ones are also quite different.
I also bought a newer print of THE AVENGER (1962 ; aka War of the Trojans) starring Steve Reeves. I hope this print will be better than all of the previous ones which have all been disappointing up to now.
I should receive these this week so I'll have a review, or a quick overview, of them soon.
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Last week, I wrote that I'll have the review of the new German Blu-ray of DUEL OF THE TITANS this week but things have been so hectic here that I'll postpone the review for next week.
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I recently joined TikTok and I have to say that the platform is happening. I'm thinking of creating a PEPLUM TV account there. The issue: showing short clips of movies in portrait format.
I wanted to create a Youtube channel with tons of short clips from PEPLUM movies but Youtube sucks. TikTok is so much better (for now) but showing clips in Portrait mode will be a challenge. TCM already does this and it's quite good.
I wanted to create a Youtube channel with tons of short clips from PEPLUM movies but Youtube sucks. TikTok is so much better (for now) but showing clips in Portrait mode will be a challenge. TCM already does this and it's quite good.
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In closing, does this movie really exist? What's the other title it's known as by everyone. Of course, try not to use IMDb or search the internet.
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Future Musings:
- List of PEPLUM books
- List of movies available in HD / Blu-ray
- PEPLUM Museum?
- A new Twitter account for actresses of PEPLUM movies?
3 comments:
I'd love to see a decent print of THE BIG FISHERMAN. The collectors-market DVD-R that I bought a few years ago was the same wretched pan/scan print that TCM has shown. But from the info on the back of that Italian DVD case, the widescreen print on the disc is Italian-language only, but the English-language print is 1.33. I'll have to pass, unfortunately -- unless the widescreen disc has English subtitles.
Oops...you're right.
Well, that sucks. Anyway, at least I'll finally see the movie in widescreen. From previous purchases from Europe, what it says on the packaging is often different from the discs themselves.
Also the widescreen version in this set is the short version. Although longer, the 1.33 version still isn't the full length roadshow version.
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