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With PEPLUM movies, HD is revealing things that were not clearly visible in low resolution copies. Take this odd scene in VULCAN – SON OF JUPITER (1962), Bella Cortez, as Aetna, is unaware of the man and his fingers down there. In the old prints, it was hard to see what he was doing (top image) but now with a clearer HD print (bottom image), we see what’s going on.
Again, how did PEPLUM movies got away with these scenes?
There are very few Blu-ray releases these days which explains the lack of articles. Fortunately, a new box set is now available in Germany
CLASH OF STEEL and its sequel, THE GALLANT MUSKETEER (1964), are now available on Blu-ray in Germany. I’m definitely going to get this one. CLASH OF STELL is the US title of THE KNIGHT OF PARDAILLAN.
The first title has a great cast that includes Gerard Barray, Gianna Maria Canale, and Kirk Morris. See photos below.
Here’s a preview of the cover of the new BY THE GODS! magazine. Should be available in a couple of months.
BY THE GODS!
New Issue 4 is currently on special!
Details at the link below:
https://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/3205057
I won’t rewrite what I wrote at the main PEPLUM blog, PEPLUM TV.
If you want to learn more, just visit PEPLUMTV.com
It’s not that major of a problem. It might just delay the availability for a few more days.
John Black left a comment about the new ‘Tales of Adventure’ boxset from Australia which will include THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (1924) starring Douglas Fairbanks, THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (1940) starring Sabu and THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD (1961) starring Steve Reeves. The price at the website says $89 Australian.
This is great news in that it will be the first Blu-ray release of the Reeves THIEF OF BAGHDAD in English. Before, it was only available from Germany (which included the English audio).
Commentary on THIEF is by Adrian Smith. I’m not familiar with him.
There are too many PEPLUM movies released with an English dub version that are still missing. Recently, the English dub of SEVEN SLAVES AGAINST ROME (or Seven Slaves Against the World), one I’ve been looking for for since 2007, surfaced recently. It was quite amazing. The source was a fellow in the UK who works on Fan Dubs and enjoys/is inspired by my work. It shouldn’t be this way but alas, the PEPLUM genre gets very little respect and this is the result.
One movie with big stars, ATTILA (1954), with Anthony Quinn, Sophia Loren, and directed by Pietro Francisci, has an English version but so far there’s only ONE source for it. I have the VHS copy from the UK and that’s it. I got it decades ago from ATLAS VISUALS, a trading website which had so many rare titles but eventually disappeared after some shady goings-on with the site. This copy is the only one out there. The English version of ATTILA hasn’t even been shown on TCM or even included in the Sophia Loren boxset, which I bought, and even though her other movies have the English Dub, ATTILA is in Italian only.
There’s an (unofficial?) DVD (below) from the UK which has the Italian version and it has the English print as extra but the copy on it is from the same source, the VHS one I got from ATLAS VISUALS.
So, hopefully, the English version, in which we hear Quinn’s voice but Sophia was dubbed by someone else, will surface one day…Blu-ray, streaming, whatever. Considering the star power, I’m surprised it hasn’t happened yet.
There’s a new Blu-ray release of THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES (1961). It’s from France. I have to say that the HD prints I’ve seen of other Blu-ray releases haven’t enthralled me. Can this one be better?
The cover art is different.
The release has no French dub. Only in Italian with French subtitles. It’s so odd.
I got the new Blu-rays of HERCULES (1958) and HERCULES UNCHAINED (1959) last week. They are combo Blu-ray and DVD. The packaging for both is stellar and the HERCULES package includes an amazing booklet. The packaging/booklet: 10 out of 10.
With that being said, there’s nothing else worth mentioning. The prints on those Blu-rays are identical to the problematic Japanese Blu-rays. Well, they’re not Japanese but those prints first appeared in Japan and have basically been the same prints recycled ever since. I already wrote extensively about those Japanese BDs and I have nothing else to add. It’s a major disappointment but not unexpected. There were rumours that the Artus Films’ prints were from Britain but this was obviously false.
So, to recap: the Japanese BDs were first with these blah HD prints. Then came copies from a RAI HD streaming service. Then I recently got the Spanish Blu-ray of HERCULES UNCHAINED and now I have these two. They’re all the same. It seems I’m repeating myself. As a collector, I’m ok with having these and I’m aware people in France won’t buy the Japanese BDs but also as a collector, I’m over it. I’m not buying anything related to the two Steve Reeves classics unless they’re clearly different/better prints.
It seems that Artus Films got a hold of better prints than the first time they tried to get HERCULES (1958) and HERCULES UNCHAINED (1959) released a couple of years ago. These prints are from the UK. So a French distributor will release Blu-rays of these films in French and not English from prints from the British Film Institute?
Here’s a screenshot of the information at a movies forum.
