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The fourth issue of BY THE GODS! is now on for sale with 30% off its regular price of $19.75. The special lasts until December 1.
Use code: BF2025 when purchasing BY THE GODS! magazine!
New Issue 4
https://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/3205057
Issue 3
https://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/2963938
Issue 2
https://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/2740217
Issue 1 – First issue!
https://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/2574706
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.
I will need to get a printed copy and once I check it out for mistakes it will be available to purchase.
Old version
New version
4 new titles now streaming in HD in Italy. 3 of them are new but the 4th one was already in HD but it was from a different source so technically it’s new to this current source.
NERO AND THE BURNING OF ROME (1953) starring Gino Cervi. This print is much better than the one I got a couple of years ago from a private collection. The English subtitles are not originally with the streaming service.
REVOLT OF THE PRAETORIANS (1964) starring Richard Harrison (not shown) and Moira Orfei (in image). Nice print but looks like a simple up conversion from the DVD version.
CHALLENGE OF THE GLADIATOR (1965) starring Peter Lupus. This was already shown in HD but on a different streaming service. Beautiful flawless print.
THREE SWORDS FOR ROME (1964) starring Roger Brown, Mario Novelli and Mimmo Palmara. Nice print but it reflects the quality of the movie not the quality of the transfer.
I recently ‘discovered’ three old movies which can fall under the PEPLUM category. Now it remains to be seen if others agree but the movies follow the same style and same storylines as classic PEPLUM movies.
I believe we know the majority of PEPLUM movies but there are some which are grandfathered from the usual bunch. They had mo direct connection with a studio or actors but they are PEPLUM. This is why some still have yet to be discovered. It’s difficult because unless you saw them when they were released back in the day and few of these people are alive. A recent example is I SETTE NANI ALLA RISCOSSA (1951). It’s basically Snow White and the seven dwarfs but PEPLUM style. It stars Rossana Podesta, Georges Marchal and Salvatore Furnani, three familiar stars of the PEPLUM genre. I had heard of it but never gave it a second thought until I came across a poster and it screamed PEPLUM (not the one below but another one…even if this one screams PEPLUM as well…).
I feel like a traveller who has seen every corner of the world and every map of the world and there’s pretty much nothing left to see. But there’s always something unseen, hidden somewhere.
It’s been a long time since I’ve written anything about BY THE GODS! magazine. I have abandoned it or anything. I’ve decided to publish one issue this year so next year everything will fall into place. It was decided that the magazine would be published twice in a year but this year, there will only be one issue.
The upcoming issue, which will cover disasters in PEPLUM movies, will be FALL/WINTER 2025. This means next year, SPRING/SUMMER should be published in March or April 2026. Then the FALL/WINTER issue will comes out around the end of August or September or October 2026. As it was I published issue 3 late last year (Dec 18 to be precise), which covered the beginning of this year. It would have been too soon to publish a new issue in March or April. I would have given me just one or two months to make it. I had to wait until all the fundamentals were in place so everything would eventually work out smoothly.
So, stay tuned. It’s coming soon!
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.
I have literarily over a thousand titles in my collection. I have never sold any movie. I’ve always traded. And I will keep doing so. There are folks on eBay who sell rare PEPLUM movies that have never been released on most available kinds of medical format. Case in point, GODDESS OF LOVE (1957) starring Belinda Lee and Jacques Sernas. As far as I know, this movie was never released on DVD and yet it’s being sold on eBay. Or other websites as in the one at the bottom. Bootlegs have always existed but these days they know they can get away with it pretty much in the open since these old movies have little legal muscle unless they’re backed-up by a major distribution company.
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.
I just got the Blu-ray from Artus Films of THE THREE AVENGERS (1964). Now, after the HERCULES – Artus Films fiasco, I was sorta reluctant to buy this but I thought that I really needed a nice copy of this movie starring Alan Steel, Mimmo Palmara and Lisa Gastoni. And I’m glad I did. It’s a nice print. Much better than the HERCULES ones. Audio tracks are Italian and French only. The print is sharp, if a bit grainy at times. My only big complaint after scanning through it is the audio at the beginning is out of sync. The packaging and the extras make it pretty cool. Well worth it, certainly for that excellent fight scene between Alan Steel and Mimmo Palmara.
The usual excellent packaging from Artus Films.
Mimmo Palmara and Alan Steel in the best scene of the movie.
Lisa Gastoni and Vassili Karis