Musings!

Ursus (Samson Burke) using a man as a weapon in VENGEANCE OF URSUS (1961)

Tuesday, I showed a terrible scene from MACISTE IN KING SOLOMON'S MINES with Reg Park using a dummy instead of a real man in a similar scene. This is the way to do it. The men on the ground were hit by the body of their fellow soldier and the one soldier is about to be hit. It works well. In fact the entire movie is one of my favourite of the overlooked PEPLUM movies. Physically, Samson Burke is fine and does these stunts pretty well even if his acting is pretty limited. But overall, everything about this production works. It's filled with action scenes and Feats of strengths that Ursus has to overcome. It's well filmed. The cast is good. The sets, the costumes, everything clicks...and yet it's not one of the titles people would bring up as a favourite PEPLUM movie. I've watched it many times and will watch again many more times. It's a quintessential PEPLUM title. 

Behind-the-Scenes

John Richardson gets his costume ready on the set of ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. (1966)

Clip of the week: FURY OF HERCULES (1962)

Exiting the palace, Hercules-style.... With Brad Harris, Luisella Boni.

Funnies!

Pietro Ceccarelli in THE ADVENTURER OF TORTUGA (1965)

SPFX DEPT.

Scenes from MACISTE IN KING SOLOMON'S MINES (1964) starring Reg Park 

In this scene, Maciste, played by big muscular Reg Park, is twirling a man as a weapon. It's quite obvious the man is a dummy or a prop made to look like a man. It's unintentionally hilarious. I try to showcase excellent special effects work but this practical effect is not it. The sad part of this scene on this otherwise excellent production is Reg seems to be struggling. I don't know how heavy the dummy was but Big Reg could barely twirl it.

15th anniversary of the blog!

A little self-promotion here.

2025 is the 15th year the blog has been active. This fall, it will be the 15th anniversary but I'll be celebrating it throughout the year. I won't go mushy over this but it's been quite an experience.

Here's a list of the posts I've made during the 15 years, with a couple new features coming soon! 

I'll post the current set of posts. Followed by all of them.


On Mondays - 

Musings! 

PEPLUM Movie Posters (Movie Poster Mondays) 

On Tuesdays -

HD Alert!
SPFX DEPT.

Recent Acquisitions!

Then & Now
Vintage Article
News Articles

Who Wore It Best

Same Prop, Different Films (various posts like this)

Not Coming Soon (New)

Social Media Links! (a few times a year)

On Shot posts like the recent one I did for SIGN OF THE GLADIATOR


On Wednesdays -

Clip of the week!

Portaits

New PEPLUM Imagery! (New)

Funnies!


On Thursdays -

Musings!
Behind-the-Scenes

On Fridays - 

Image of the week!

Lobby Cards Set
VHS Covers
At The Movies...

MUSCLES Inc.

Actors Profile - Example

Wardrobe Malfunctions! Example. These posts have a Permanent Page.

The following posts have appeared on various days. Some still show up from time to time:

Different Titles Example

Different Versions Example
Musings! weekly post Example


There are several types of posts which I created for a long time but have discontinued. There are too many to post here. Such as Featured Film or Tragic Stars. Or articles like this one on The Strange Casting of Genghis Khan.

There are several types of posts which have been renamed. Photo of the Day and By The Gods! posts have been renamed Musings!

A new feature will be SPOTLIGHT. I still don't know if this will be a once a month feature or twice a month. I'll create of a visual spotlight on one specific movie. 

I'll also create a list of all the movies in HD and which ones are the best. It will have its own permanent page. 

Articles of the Week! and Book Reviews were moved to BY THE GODS! magazine that's published in print. 

Don't forget all the permanent pages of the blog, including comic books. The links can be found of the left column.

And finally, those special articles of recently deceased actors.