Vladimir Brajovic as Caligula in CALIGULA AND MESSALINA (1981)
A Blu-ray of this movie is now available from Severin. Below is a screenshoot of this HD copy. Above is a scene from the DVD copy. The BD is an extended cut, or longer than the previous version available, and yet the scene above is not included. That scene on the Blu-ray version starts with the screenshot below. I don't know how many different versions there are of this movie but it's hard to keep up. Spoiler: In this scene, Caligula is killed, which happens halfway into the story. The movie sorta looses track and it's not the same without crazy Caligula around. One of many sleazy PEPLUM movies released in the 1980s after the success of the infamous Bob Guccione's CALIGULA (1979).
British lobby cards set of HERCULES AGAINST MOLOCH, retitled as HERCULES ATTACKS, starring Gordon Scott and a host of actors. Great set. I wish it wasn't in black & white. Needless to say, it has many highlights from the action packed movie. Missing is one card with Rosalba Neri.
As posted at BY THE GODS!, the movie will be released on Blu-ray on April 26. Not a big fan of this movie. I'm certain some like it and this tidbit of information will be helpful. I already have an HD copy of this and the audio and image are excellent.
I like this movie even though I can see how kitschy it is, in terms of how very little of it resembles ancient Babylonian culture and history. This set is pretty good and looks great in this publicity photo. Yvonne Furneaux and others can be seen in that photo. The columns seen here are the same used in HERCULES, SAMSON AND ULYSSES (1963) during the brawny confrontation between Hercules and Samson (below). I got a *beautiful* HD print of SLAVE QUEEN OF BABYLON and will be addressing it in the future.
Big Steve Reeves, as Hadji Murad, in THE WHITE WARRIOR (1959)
Solid film directed by Riccardo Freda. This Steve Reeves movie is one of his most serious, one that doesn't rely too much on muscle action. Oddly enough, Steve is mostly clothed for most of the movie which is a shame because Steve was at his biggest in this movie, as one can see in this screenshot. He was HUGE. Steve's muscle mass fluctuated wildly between projects. A full HD copy of this is still not available...yet.
Director Pietro Francisci and Mimmo Palmara have a chat on the set of HERCULES (1958). The setting is the monster scene when Jason retrieves the Golden Fleece. It's nice to see Mimmo decked out in a suit.
Maciste (Marke Forest) gets a beat down from gladiators in COLOSSUS OF THE ARENA (1962). The gladiators are Dan Vadis, Harold Bradley, Alfio Caltabiano, Pietro Ceccarelli, and Umberto Silvestri.
This matte painting is quite elaborate. The camera pans to the left (below), following a Roman litter, before settling on the complete shot (above). The matte work is good but there's a goof. When the Roman litter passes behind the matte painting, the top corner disappears behind the painting. Oops..
Lou Ferrigno makes for a muscular Sinbad in SINBAD OF THE SEVEN SEAS (1989)
This good looking movie has a chaotic production history (it was intended to be a mini-series) and the final product sorta shows it. It has some nice scenery and cinematography, and a lot of unintentionally funny stuff (like most Ferrigno PEPLUM movies) but it's a fun movie for die hard fans of the genre like me. The climax, with the virtual cage, has to be seen to be believed. Also, Sinbad battles himself, which is a copy of the climax of GOLIATH AND THE VAMPIRES (1961).
Paris (Howard Ross) asks where his love, Helen (Christa Linder), was in HELEN, YES...HELEN OF TROY (1973)
Since this is a sex comedy, as most PEPLUM movies from Italy were in the 1970s, Helen here was busy with another man. I'm not that familiar with Christa Linder. I've only seen a couple of her other movies, including NIGHT OF 1000 CATS (1972). As for Howard, he was a regular actor of the PEPLUM genre and it always fun to watch stars from the Golden Era end up is such a raunchy movie. I lost count on how many different versions I have of this. I like it. I have a soft spot for these 1970s Italian sex comedies.
Incomplete lobby cards set of SERPENT OF THE NILE (1953) starring Rhonda Fleming, Raymond Burr. I suspect the missing card is a title card so from these cards, Rhonda is featured prominently, which is a good thing. Also two cards with Julie Newmar. Good set.
The Blu-ray of SON OF SAMSON (1960) is available for pre-order at AMAZON. Release date: May 10. As I posted this last week at BY THE GODS!, this KINO LORBER edition is not available yet at Amazon Canada. The movie stars Mark Forest as Maciste (above). Below is the slipcase and cover. Looks great.
Today is the Ides of March, initially a positive observance in Ancient Roman culture, which is forever known for the assassination of Julius Caesar. Above: Rex Harrison as Julius Caesar from CLEOPATRA (1963).
"The Ides of March is the 74th day in the Roman calendar, corresponding to 15 March. It was marked by several religious observances and was notable for the Romans as a deadline for settling debts. In 44 BC, it became notorious as the date of the assassination of Julius Caesar, which made the Ides of March a turning point in Roman history." Wikipedia.
Caesar's assassination has been filmed many times and below is a compilation of clips from different movies. I didn't create this compilation.
The bloody historical moment was spoofed in CARRY ON CLEO (1964), with Kenneth Williams as Julius Caesar: Infamy, infamy. They've all got it in for me.
Gordon Scott and opera singer Mario Petri in HERO OF BABYLON (1963)
Last Friday, from the MUSINGS! post, I wrote about the website with a lot of PEPLUM movies, many in HD. This one was taken from there. It says it's in full HD and it is but it's not really a new print in HD. They took a nice print at a lower resolution and upscaled it to HD. Now if there was a real HD version of this it would be great. It's one of my favourites. Also from that MUSINGS!, I posted about Mario Petri and this is one of his many PEPLUM movies.
Searching far and wide for all things PEPLUM! Luciano Marin and Steve Reeves in GOLIATH AND THE BARBARIANS (1959)
MARIO PETRI, OPERA SINGER
Mario Petri in THE EXECUTIONER OF VENICE (1963)
I recently discovered that Mario Petri, star of many PEPLUM movies including HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN (1961), was an accomplished opera singer. I had no idea about this even after years covering the PEPLUM genre. I always thought there was something unique about him and when I saw him as an opera singer, I was pleasantly surprised. I accidentally found this tidbit of information on Youtube. I really like his voice. Dude was tall.
CINEMATIC CONFUSION
VHS cover for THE MAGNIFICENT GLADIATOR (1964) starring Mark Forest. Such a strange cover. I really can't make any sense to it. The guy at the bottom is holding the blade. Wouldn't that cut him?
RECENT ACQUISITIONS
Not much to report except for this MESSALINA (1960) Blu-ray edition. It's nearly identical to the French Blu-ray release with different audio tracks.
HAVE YOU SEEN...
EZOP (1970), a Bulgarian - Czech movie on the life of Aesop. The production is pretty good and it has a Felliniesque flair to it. No English subtitles so I can't understand what's going on in the movie but this is a pleasant surprise.
IDENTIFY THE MOVIE
Can you identify this movie from this screenshot? I know it's not much to go on but this scene is unintentionally hilarious so...
From the last musings, someone correctly identified the image was from HERCULES (1983).
MOVIES I WATCHED...
HELEN YES...HELEN OF TROY
I watched it because I just got a couple of nice copies of this, from my excellent source in Europe. I like it. I uploaded a clip from this to my Youtube channel.
ZORIKAN THE BARBARIAN
I had to watch the recently acquired brand new widescreen print. It's a good movie but not with a lot of memorable moments. Dan Vadis is the stars and he has fun as the villain.
SALOME
I watched the HD print. I like it. So much better watching it this way. It looked less like a TV episode. It looked cinematic.
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People often ask me where I get the movies from, when they're not Blu-rays or DVDs. Well, there are tons of places on the internet with many titles. One website I used to frequent often 7 or 8 years ago was ULOZ.TO. It had many titles but the service was unreliable. Downloads would stop and the site was sometimes erratic. I didn't bother visiting the site anymore. I recently visited it, thanks to a tip, and found a boatload of movies, more so then what they had before. I won't link directly to the site or to any specific title. My blog is followed by folks with bad intent so I rarely link anything from my Youtube channels or websites to download movies. Just search for titles, in Italian or English and you'll find many there.
There's a copy of HERCULES UNCHAINED from a RAI TV in HD. It's the same print as the Japanese Blu-ray but that one is in full HD, 1920x1080, while the RAI TV one is 1280x720.
I searched for a lot of titles and even found MORGAN THE PIRATE in full HD. This copy is most likely an upconversion. Most of the movies are not in English.
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Coming soon:
Edmund Purdom: obituary and that book on his life!
Scenes from a new full HD copy of COLOSSUS OF THE ARENA (1962)
Above, from left to right: Umberto Silvestri, Mark Forest, Jon Chevron, Dan Vadis, Harold Bradley and Alfio Caltabiano
So many PEPLUM movies are now available in full HD, not 720p HD but 1920x1080p. The image is crystal clear (click on them to see size and clarity). When you can see different hair strands on actors, you know the image quality is amazing. A big, boisterous action movie directed by Michele Lupo.
I got this copy from the same place the ZORIKAN THE BARBARIAN print came from.
Hey, KINO LORBER, here's another great title you should acquire.
From left to right: Umberto Silvestri, big Dan Vadis, Alfio Caltabiano, and Vittorio Sanipoli.
Two matte paintings from the excellent movie. I already posted about the one below but not the top one, which is quite elaborate. The battle happens during the climax. Artist unknown.
I finally got a watchable copy of this movie after years searching for a decent one. The only copy available in English is dark and murky (it's on Youtube) so this one, taken from a streaming service, is beautiful, not perfect, but so much better than what we had to endure before. I like the movie. Vadis plays the villain again. The score is the same score for THE SARACENS (1963). I never expected to see such a nice copy of this one.
