SPFX DEPT.

Scenes from CAPTAIN SINDBAD (1963)

The Hydra from this movie is difficult to gauge. It's not really believable and yet it's so elaborate and cool looking that it doesn't really matter if it doesn't look real. The entire movie, directed by Byron Haskin, who directed many classics, including THE WAR OF THE WORLD (1953), was used to working with special effects and the entire movie is filled with wildly erratic effects. The entire German - US production, a hit, is clearly shot in movie sets. The film has a fake studio-bound kitschy look and yet it's oddly visually interesting. This scene is definitely the highlight of the movie...well, after that crawling arm!  😂 

The myth of Sappho and Phaon

One of my favourite PEPLUM movies is SAPPHO - THE VENUS OF LESBOS (1960) which an action-packed adventure about...Sappho, the Greek poetess who is also famous for being a lesbian. It's one of the unlikeliest subjects for an action picture but thanks to Pietro Francisci's imagination and direction, it actually works.

Debate on her sexuality persists up to this day but it's pretty much well known that Sappho was attracted to women. But there are many things which point out to more, including the fact that she apparently had a daughter. People who watch the movie think it's totally ridiculous because of this point alone and claim it's trying to hide her true sexuality. It's a sad point which I believe is one of the reasons why this movie is completely neglected today. The movie does address her sexuality, but in a very subtle way, with Sappho's deep friendship with Actis.

But the movie is actually based on the myth of Phaon and Sappho, which is a thing. Most people don't know this myth. Many say that the story of Sappho falling for Phaon was created to erase her sexuality but even so that myth is quite famous. Painters have even made several paintings on the subject (see above; artist: Jacques Louis David). Director Pietro Francisci based his movie on this myth and not the 'Academic' real Sappho. There's a distinction. I hope the movie with be eventually released in HD, uncut, etc. And I hope people won't dismiss it just because of this important distinction. Anyway, I like the movie because it's so entertaining. That should be the only valid reason, really.

 

Above: Phaon (Kerwin Mathews) and Sappho (Tina Louise). Below: Sappho with her close friend Actis (Susy Andersen).

  

 

Musings!

Debra Paget dances up a storm in THE MERCENARIES (1961) 

Sorry about the fuzzy image. It's the best copy of this movie I have in my collection. I have about 5 or 6 different versions (spread out on one hard drive). Debra went from THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1956) to small films in Europe. She was not the only one from THE TEN COMMANDMENTS to end in such a point in their careers. It seems the Cecil B DeMille movie didn't expand the careers of the actors except for Charlton Heston. It's odd because that movie was such a big hit and you'd think anyone from it would be in demand. I believe Paget is billed third behind Daniela Rocca and Yvonne Sanson. The movie was directed by Mario Bonnard, the director of THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII (1959), the Steve Reeves version in which he reportedly had to quit due to health reasons and Sergio Leone took over. He still directed movies after that health scare. Also known as ROME 1585.

PEPLUM Movie Poster

Original Italian poster of VENGEANCE OF URSUS (1961) 

Nice poster but it's not very flattering image of Samson Burke.

Image of the week!

The Queen of Sheba (Gina Lollobrigida) arrives in Isreal and is greeted by King Solomon (Yul Brynner) in SOLOMON AND SHEBA (1959)

MUSCLES Inc.

A very young Arnold Schwarzenegger and Steve Reeves on the cover of Muscular Development (August 67)

Musings!

Jason (Roland Carey), Orpheus (Massimo Girotti) and the Argonauts in THE GIANTS OF THESSALY (1960)

There are some movies I feel I've covered every aspect about here on the blog. And I also feel there are some movies that I haven't really written a lot about because of No 1. Well, THE GIANTS OF THESSALY is one of them. I've written extensively about it, including a review. I love it. It's great but I feel I don't have much to add to the discussion. The one thing I'm waiting is a beautiful HD copy of it. I believe I'll have a lot more to write once a pristine print of this becomes available. For now, since it's not in HD anywhere, I'm like...I'm waiting here. We're the HD print? This is the second film on the Argonauts after HERCULES (1958).

For those who want to read the review I wrote decades ago (lol!), it's at Featured Films listed on the panel on the left side of the blog. Click here. I wrote it a long time ago and re-reading it, I stand by it even though I view it even better now (and could view it differently with an HD version...).

Behind-the-Scenes

Director Emimmo Salvi standing with actors, including two dressed as Lizard Men on the set of VULCAN - SON OF JUPITER (1962)

Clip of the week: COLOSSUS OF THE ARENA (1962)

Mark Forest VS Dan Vadis! 

Portraits

 Annie Gorassini as Venus in VULCAN - SON OF JUPITER (1962)

HD Alert!

The cast of COLOSSUS OF THE ARENA (1962): Center: Mark Forest. Front: Germano Longo, Vittorio Sanipoli. Back: Dan Vadis, Umberto Silvestri, Alfio Caltabiano.

There's a good number of PEPLUM movies in HD. Unfortunately, most of these prints are/were available from streaming services or were shown on TV. The majority of PEPLUM movies are not on Blu-ray for purchases. This makes things complicated when people ask me if such and such title is in HD. 

For example, this movie. It is available in a beautiful HD print but it's not on BD. It's easy for titles to get lost in the shuffle. So, I'm currently compiling all of HD prints and will publish them here, at a permanent page. I'm working on it. It's going to take some time but it should be ready soon enough. 

Same costume, different movies!

Delia D'Alberti in HERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN (1964); Yvonne Furneaux in SLAVE QUEEN OF BABYLON (1963). Who wore it best? I think they both look great!

Musings!

Paulette Goddard as Jezebel in SINS OF JEZEBEL (1953) 

If there's a story from the Bible that needs to be made in a grand scale, it's the one about Jezebel and King Ahab. It's quite the story. This small production barely covers her story or the many interesting and diabolical aspects of it all. It's not bad but it's stilted and slow. It's like a Sunday School production. Everyone is too old as well. Jezebel was supposed to ba a young bride. Paulette was 43 when this was made. Ahab is shown as a very old man. The cast is mainly actors from Westerns.

In this scene, there's a mysterious shadow moving around the Baal statue when they are chanting (1950s a cappela-like) which comes from god knows where. Was it intentional? Was it something else altogether? Did Baal visit the set? No. A few seconds later, a dancer pops out from the flames. Still, the effect is spooky.

PEPLUM Movie Poster

Original Italian poster of THE MAGNIFICENT GLADIATOR (1964) 

Simple photo montage which invariably created some indirect odd image, with extra hand/limbs around Mark Forest. The lady on the poster is not Marilu Tolo so it should be Jolanda Modio. If it's Jolanda, that's a terrible photo. 

Image of the week!

Venus (Rosanna Schiaffino) and Mars (Jean Marais) visit their sleeping son, Romulus (Roger Moore) in ROMULUS AND THE SABINES (1961) (the best scene in the movie)

Actor Profile: Pietro Marascalchi

Continuing with profiling supporting actors of Italian/Euro PEPLUM films. This time the spotlight is on Pietro Marascalchi. You might not now his name but you definitely saw him in one of his many PEPLUM movies. He always played supporting roles, never leading. Originally, Pietro was a wrestler who participated in the 1960 Olympics. He became a professional wrestler and, as many other wrestlers at the time in Italy,  he eventually dabbled in PEPLUM movies. He didn't act a lot. Only 6 PEPLUM movies and half of those were cameos of sorts. But his role in SEVEN SLAVES AGAINST ROME (1964; above) was a stand-out, with his character's tumultuous relationship with the character played by Gordon Mitchell. The Japanese poster of this movie featured Pietro over all other more famous actors of that movie. And they were right. In my opinion he's the best thing in that movie. 

But his best role would be the one in HERCULES AGAINST MOLOCH (1963). Pietro plays Moloch. Even if his face is hidden with ugly masks, Pietro's commanding physique makes him stand-out, even compared to Gordon Scott who plays Hercules in that movie. The former Olympian died in 2019. I wished he had made more movies. His IMDb profile is incomplete.

 

Pietro's first role was in CONQUEST OF THE NORMANS (1962). He played Thor along with Genevieve Grad.

 

Pietro had a small cameo-like appearance, in a fighting scene in FURY OF ACHILLES (1962)

  

Pietro's best role was playing Moloch in HERCULES AGAINST MOLOCH (1963). Even if his face was covered, his presence still commanded attention. Below: the exciting fight between Moloch and Hercules (Gordon Scott). He will always be Moloch in my book.

 

Pietro's other stand-out role was in SEVEN SLAVES AGAINST ROME (1964) with Gordon Mitchell. Even though he's not the main star, he was the best thing in the movie. Gordon Mitchell's character fought constantly with Pietro's character, to the point of it being sadistic. Their fight in the arena (below) is pretty intense...well, as intense as any scene from a Michele Lupo film. He's not listed at IMDb for this movie.

The Japanese poster of SEVEN SLAVES AGAINST ROME featured Pietro over all the other actors.

Pietro with the cast of 'good guys'. 

Pietro's next film, REVENGE OF THE GLADIATORS (1964) also starred Gordon Mitchell and was directed by Michele Lupo. His role is prominent throughout the movie but the two men don't fight like the previous film.

HERCULES AND THE TYRANTS OF BABYLON (1964) was Pietro's last role in a PEPLUM movie. You see him here, with a host of other Italian actors too numerous to mention.

Since his IMDb listing is incomplete, it might be possible Pietro might be in another movie but it has to be one that I haven't seen because I haven't seen him in anything else.

Previous Actor profiles: 

Aldo Bufi Landi

Cristina Gaioni

Luciano Marin

Jacques Berthier

Aldo Pini

Ursula Davis

Philippe Hersent

Elena Zareschi

Benito Stefanelli

Claudio Scarchilli

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. 

Musings!

Rosalba Neri plays the wife of Coriolanus, played by Gordon Scott, in CORIOLANUS - HERO WITHOUT A COUNTRY (1964)

I like this movie. Directed by Giorgio Ferroni, it's a solid movie that's almost a full drama. There are action scenes in it but the focus is more on the drama. I like eveything about it even if, in some scenes, re-used scenes from Ferroni's other films make an appearance. The one part that's disappointing is Rosalba's role. Rosalba is always fun to watch but in this movie, she's barely there and barely used. HERCULES AGAINST MOLOCH (1962), also directed by Ferroni and also starring Scott and Rosalba, is a good film to compare with: Rosalba has a meaty role and she's good in it. I wonder why she would agree to star in this if she was just a wife with nothing to do. She's wasted. Anyone could have played this.

Note: Gordon's uniform differs from all others in the movie: his is much shorter while the majority of others are much longer; most go halfway way down to their knees. This is pretty much the same in all of his movies, or even other actors like Steve Reeves. 

Second note: The screenshot is from a nice HD copy from a streaming service in Italy. The re-used scenes look like second generation clips but the original scenes are crystal clear. It's not available anywhere on Blu-ray. 

PEPLUM Movie Poster

Original Italian poster of HELEN, YES...HELEN OF TROY (1973) 

This raunchy PEPLUM comedy was released during the mini PEPLUM explosion in and around 1973.

Image of the week!

Hulina (Anita Ekberg) pleads to Temugin to help her in the climax of THE MONGOLS (1961)

Lobby Cards Set: HELEN OF TROY (1956)

Italian lobby cards set of HELEN OF TROY (1956) starring Rossana Podesta and Jacques Sernas. Nice set but there's four boring scenes. It could have used better scenes from this epic movie.

Musings!

Gabriele Antonini and Gordon Scott, as Mucius, in COLOSSUS OF ROME (1964; aka Hero of Rome)

It's rare in the PEPLUM universe to see the Hero with a visible disability like Scott's character in this movie. The story is based on actual people in history though it definitely takes liberties  to make the story more PEPLUM-like, such as Mucius being able to lift a tree, which in reality wouldn't happen. I like this movie and there are a lot of truly memorable scenes in it even though I feel the overall impression could have been more impactful. Antonini played Ulysses in the HERCULES movies with Steve Reeves. It's fun to watch him work with Scott. I wonder who he liked more, Reeves or Scott. 

Behind-the-Scenes

Yul Brynner arriving at the premiere of THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1956) in Hollywood.

Clip of the week: HERO OF BABYLON (1963)

Gordon Scott vs Piero Lulli. 

New PEPLUM Imagery!

With a few prompts, new PEPLUM imagery by AI. 

From MEN OF PULP @ X 

RAGE AGAINST THE EAGLE!

HD Alert!

Eddie Cantor and the Goldwyn Girls in ROMAN SCANDALS (1933)

I got a copy of this big hit in HD. As far as I know, it's not available on Blu-ray. How to describe this movie? A comedy/fantasy/musical set in Ancient Rome. Like a lot of PEPLUM comedies, it starts in modern times and the story goes in the past. There are some big musical moments like this one, KEEP YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL, with the Goldwyn girls tricked by Cantor in blackface. It's an impressive number, with Ancient Rome in Art Deco style. Of course, this scene is seen as extremely problematic, not only because of Cantor in blackface but the song's theme. It's definitely pre-code, so the film is naughty in ways rarely seen in post-code Hollywood. 

SIGN OF THE GLADIATOR - US version

SIGN OF THE GLADIATOR (1959) is the US version of SIGN OF ROME. American International Picture (AIP) got hold of the film, re-titled it and added different opening and closing credits. There's a song at the end sung by Bill Lee called Xenobia (or Zenobia). The image quality of the print is fairly poor so it might be hard to see details. 

I hope that this version will be released in pristine HD copy one day. 

We see an altar of sorts with a centre flame and two statues of lions?

The dancer sways her hips around the altar. It's not Chelo Alonso.

The dancer dances around the flame.

We see an abbreviated credits with just the four main actors listed, included its main star, Anita Ekberg.

And Georges Marchal as George.

Remarkably enough, Riccardo Freda is credited for the battle scenes.

 

The script was written and re-written by many, many who are not listed here, including Michelangelo Antonioni. But Sergio Leone is listed as one of the writers.

The credit for the song XENOBIA sung by Bill Lee.