Friday, June 11, 2021

By the Gods!

Steve Reeves, as Phillipides, in THE GIANT OF MARATHON (1959)

For a movie that not only boasts one of Steve's most memorable roles and that was directed by Jacques Tourneur and co-directed by Mario Bava, one wonders where's the HD release? With such a background, one would think a beautiful Blu-ray release would have been available by now. The movie is in the public domain in North America. This is probably the main reason why it will take time for it to surface, if ever. This was on of the 5 movies Steve made back to back in and around 1959. He was that hot and popular. 

6 comments:

  1. Gene BJune 11, 2021 at 6:57 PM

    May I ask, please; in your expert opinion, what is the best DVD of TGOM currently available, in widescreen and English?

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  2. Scott OchiltreeJune 11, 2021 at 9:05 PM

    Public Domain sounds good, but actually it is a real problem.

    It prevents older movies from getting the expensive restorations and disc releases needed.

    There are literally several hundred sexy pre-Code Hollywood romantic comedies in this category.

    ReplyDelete
  3. PEPLUM TVJune 11, 2021 at 9:53 PM

    Gene, there is none. Even DVDs from Europe for this movie are pretty meh.

    The screenshot above was taken from a French TV broadcast in HD (resolution: 1280x544...not full HD). I recently bought a DVD from Amazon Italy and it has Italian and English audio. The image is good but nothing compared to the French TV Broadcast, which is the best one yet. The only worthwhile DVD to be released in the USA is not available at Amazon. Maybe try eBay. The image is meh but at least the credits are in English and it's in widescreen. It has WAR OF THE TROJANS (or THE AVENGER) in the same DVD set. There are plenty of DVDs of it and none of them are great.

    Amazon

    Scott, yes, it being in the public domain is the main reason this might never show up on Blu-ray.

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    Replies
    1. Gene BJune 12, 2021 at 11:03 AM

      Thanks for your fast and detailed reply.
      Re: the Italian DVD that you mention... Do you have a link please? The few DVD's I could find on Amazon Italy appeared to be 4:3 ratio, rather than widescreen.
      Thanks again.

      Delete
  4. PEPLUM TVJune 12, 2021 at 10:02 PM

    Hi Gene

    The DVD is actually French not Italian. It's from a DVD pack. All movies have the English audio.

    Amazon.fr

    This is a Region 2 DVD set. It won't play in regular DVD players from the US.

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  5. Gene BJune 13, 2021 at 7:45 AM

    Great info. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete