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Motion Picture Daily was a publication, in the VARIETY kind, which was printed, well, daily. It had tons of advertisements of upcoming and successful movies. Here are a couple of examples of PEPLUM movies.
There’s much more of these. it’s pretty cool to see how PEPLUM movies were sold and seen back in the day.
THE MAGIC SWORD (1962) was recently released on Blu-ray. It’s a fun movie with a good cast. It is very colourful and it’s a borderline kids movie (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Now I won’t review the movie itself (I’ll do that on the main blog), just the Blu-ray release. The quality of the transfer is uneven, to say the least. Some parts of the movie, the image is super clear while during other scenes, the grain is very obvious to the point of being distracting and quite annoying. The mostly studio bound set looks even more like a studio-bound movie. But was the quality of the movie itself meant to be seen in HD or even in 4K. The resolution of 35mm film is super high (15k or so) but I believe the print quality of this movie wasn’t the highest and would explain these inconsistencies.
Gary Lockwood played the hero.
Above & below: the climax with the dragon. I’m always amazed by how good this dragon looked, certainly compared to the Hydra in THE LOVES OF HERCULES (1960). But the image is very dark and can’t see that much. The dragon reminds me of GORGO (1961).
Above is a screen grab taken from the DVD release. Compare it to the images above.
The visible grain in the movie is apparent in many scenes, including this foggy one. The transfer cannot replicate the fog and grain is everywhere. Hard to believe this is a Blu-ray release.
Compared to other recent releases, such as THE GOLDEN ARROW (1962) or the spectacular THIEF OF BAGHDAD (1961) starring Steve Reeves, this one is disappointing.
NERO & POPPEA – AN ORGY OF POWER (1982) is one of many notorious sex / shock movies released in the wake of CALIGULA (1979). Though this Bruno Mattei movie is not on the same scale as the massive Tinto Brass / Bob Guccione sex epic, it’s still has its outrageous moments.
I recently acquired an Italian VHS copy of it and to my surprise many scenes were cut and others were changed to cover up the nudity in some scenes. This version still has nudity and the lurid storyline is the same but when compared to the different releases of this title I already have in my collection shows that these other versions have much more stuff going on. Much more. It’s very odd to see a ‘Sex & Sandal’, in Italian no less, that’s censored.
Above and below: the version showing more nudity and simulated sex (above) while the Italian version (below) has both actors covered.
Discovering these two different copies is a good example of why it’s important to view the majority all versions from different countries or releases. You never know what you’ll find.
Will any of these notorious movies ever be released in HD?
A new Blu-ray release of DEMETRIUS & THE GLADIATORS (1954) is now available in France (and sold on eBay). The cover has the Fox logo. Is it legit? It looks like it is but is it the same dreadful copy from the Twilight Time print released in the US? If so, then I don’t ant it. Unfortunately, there are no reviews, with screen grabs, of this release so there’s no way to know for sure. It has the English track.
Compare this to the Twilight Time Blu-ray which goes for $125.44 on eBay. Who would want to pay that much for a mediocre transfer!
When HERCULES, the Steve Reeves classic, was released in 1958 around the world, the name Joseph E. Levine wasn’t featured on any posters, lobby cards or even during the opening credits. Levine eventually purchased the rights for the movie for distribution in North America and he made a fortune since it became a success in the US. But the movie was also a hit around the world sans Levine’s help.
HERCULES was distributed in Britain (presumably the UK) by Archway Film Distributors. Below are some of the advertising and lobby cards of this release.
This looks like the cover of a press book, and if not then it’s the ad shown in print (newspapers, magazines, etc). It’s really cool since:
1 – Joseph E Levine’s name doesn’t appear anywhere on it.
2 – It states that the movie is making ‘record business’ on its premiere run
3 – It has, in very small print, the name of the original Italian film company
The photos for the lobby cards set are mostly different than the US one. Unfortunately, there are no dates on them.
Stuff from the UK is interesting in that titles released directly to TV in the US were actually released in theatres in the UK. And most often than not their titles differed from the (goofy) ones for the US. In this case though, the title for the US and UK distributions were the same.
Finding dubious stuff for sale on eBay is nothing new. It’s to a point now that one doesn’t really know what’s legit and what are dupes.
The two following DVDs are dupes. I bought them knowing they would be dupes but I was curious to see which versions they were. The DVDs were cheap and shipping was free. So, buying them didn’t break the bank.
The ‘HERCULES VS MOLOCH’ is taken from the Trimark boxset I mentioned in a post below. I had hoped it was a Fan Dub of the widescreen version but no it’s in 4:3 aspect ratio.
As for ‘HERCULES OF THE DESERT’ it’s a Fan Dub that’s available on Youtube. I personally did a Fan Dub of this movie and called it ‘MACISTE IN THE VALLEY OF THE THUNDERING ECHOES’. I don’t have it on my channel but many people have uploaded it to their channels. The ‘HERCULES OF THE DESERT’ copy is in poor quality.
Suffice it to say, avoid buying these.
Update: the scene was from GOLIATH & THE GIANTS. The bulk of the scene wasn’t used, only the first few seconds. This is why it didn’t click in my head.
Can anyone identify the movie from this scene? It was included in the soft-porn LIVIA – UNA VERGINE PER L’IMPERO (1973), directed by Joe D’Amato, which contains scenes from other PEPLUM movies that I was able to identify. This scene has me stumped. It might be a scene that was never used and was left on the cutting room floor. Regardless, it’s odd seeing a scene that I can’t identify. From the looks of it, it seems to be a movie from the late 1950s.
This DVD collection, THE HERCULES COLLECTION, from SHOUT! FACTORY, looks like a good set but then upon closer look, the set is actually just the same as an old and rare DVD set, which I have, repackaged and with Steve Reeves on the cover.
There are 6 titles in the set:
The Loves Of Hercules (aka Hercules Vs. The Hydra) (1960)
The Trojan Horse (1961)
Medusa Against The Son Of Hercules (1962)
Conquest Of Mycene (aka Hercules vs. The Molloch) (1963)
The Triumph Of Hercules (1964)
Hercules Against The Sons Of The Sun (1964)
If you look at the old set (below), THE ADVENTURES OF HERCULES, they are almost the same titles:
THE LION OF THEBES is missing from the new collection.
In the old set released by Trimark, there were 4 different DVD boxes for the 7 titles. The new set, with Steve on the cover, only has two disks for the 6 titles. The packaging of the old set , though nothing stunning, was more fun and elaborate the new one.
All movies are in 4:3 aspect ratio. No widescreen. So, no upgrade in the new set.
It’s very deceptive but then most people don’t have the old set. But the thing is, by putting Steve on the cover they made it look like a collection of Steve Reeves’ Hercules movies but it’s not. There is one movie in the set with Steve, THE TROJAN HORSE, but it’s NOT a Hercules movie. Some people have bought it thinking HERCULES (1958) and HERCULES UNCHAINED (1959) were included. So beware.
SHOUT! FACTORY have also falsely claimed many scenes from HERCULES (1958) on Youtube.
It would be better just to buy to old set, since it has THE LION OF THEBES in it. Of course, the old set might be more expensive but I just don’t see the point of buying the new set, unless it’s super cheap.
Also, don’t confuse this set with another HERCULES DVD set, called HERCULES COLLECTION:
Here’s just a sample of the many intertitles in COLOSSUS & THE AMAZON QUEEN (1960). It’s odd that these weren’t translated in any version. They are only seen in the original Italian version. They are cute and their exclusion from the movie diminishes the spirited goofiness of this PEPLUM comedy.
I recently got hold of a high definition copy of DEMETRIUS & THE GLADIATORS (1954) starring Victor Mature, Susan Hayward, Jay Robinson and a host of other actors. The copy was impressive in that I could finally see details, like faces in a crowd, that were hard to see in previous releases. The problem with it was the image was truly murky or grubby looking, and the audio was not that good. So I decided to purchase an actual release of the movie. The only official Blu-ray release for North America is Out-OF-Print (OOP). Only 3000 copies were printed. And now that release is being sold for big bucks online. Since I wasn’t about to spend $200 on its Blu-ray edition, I decided to see if there were any other official releases in other languages. Mind you, I always prefer buying the version released for the NA market but since it was OOP, the only option was one from Europe. Well, I got hold of a Spanish Blu-ray from an eBayer in Switzerland, for only 5 euros. I got it today and the murky, grubby image with the poor audio is present as well. This tells me one master copy was made for all markets and they got it from the same source. Mind you, I don’t know if the US Blu-ray is as poor as the HD copy I got or this Spanish Blu-ray but both are identical, so I presume the US copy is the same. The Blu-ray has multiple languages available, including English. At 5 euros, I won’t complain too much though.
Images below can be made bigger if opened in new window.
The image is terrible. Too dark or too much contrast going on here.
The arena scenes are spectacular, even if the image is grubby.
Faces of extras are now visible or clearer, which is a plus if one is looking to spot a familiar face.
Spectacular scenes like this one really shine in HD. Even if the image is grubby and grainy, one can really sense the scope here.
The arrow points to a hair stuck at the bottom of the image. The hair is there for the duration of the scene. This tells me this print is an old print and they simply up-converted it.