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Last week, I received the final version of the first BY THE GODS! magazine edition, with barcode and all. I examined it and it’s all fine.
I hope followers of the blog have purchased it. It’s cool to have a magazine dedicated exclusively to the PEPLUM genre.
You can purchase it at MagCloud or click the link below.
https://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/2574706
You can get the new BY THE GODS! magazine at MagCloud.
Go to this link: https://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/2574706
A few things about this:
For now, subscriptions are not available. MagCloud doesn’t offer subscriptions. So the best way to know if there’s a new issue available is to visit this blog or PEPLUM TV on a regular basis.
You can preview the contents of the magazine but personally I would suggest not to. As to keep the element of surprise.
Shipping and handling: MagCloud are the ones who decide how much it will cost to ship to your address.
There’s currently a discount going on until Oct. 8. It’s 15% off the regular price. The code is OCT15. I don’t know if you need to have an account at MagCloud for the discount to work but personally I would create an account regardless as they’ll send emails with discounts that range from 10% to 25%.
Digital copies, or PDFs, will become available in the future, once a good number of editions have been published.
MagCloud is not affiliated with online sellers such as Amazon, which is a bummer. Eventually, I would like the magazine to be available at Amazon but for now the only place you can purchase it is at MagCloud.
You can also donate via the donate button above right, to support the continuation of the blog and this new project.
Enjoy!
SIGN OF THE GLADIATOR (1959), or SIGN OF ROME, is available in English on this German DVD. The only legit DVD release in English of that movie. It’s heavily cut (over 10 minutes of scenes cut…) but it’s in English. The intro credits are in Italian. Not the English intro credits of the US release with SIGN OF THE GLADIATOR, which is a shame. Anyway, for those looking out for an English copy of this movie starring Anita Ekberg (below), this DVD is it.
I already had this version, which had even more cuts. It was broadcast in the UK via MOVIES 4 MEN. The Italian intro credits was removed and SIGN OF THE GLADIATOR title was added to it which faded to black and went straight to the movie. Aside from this, it’s the same print as the German DVD.
The long delayed BY THE GODS! magazine was completed a few weeks ago and I got the first published edition. I examined the printed magazine, which is cool, to see if there were corrections to be made. Here’s a small preview.
Cover of the magazine.
Inside the magazine.
I found a couple of minor errors in the magazine and I’ve corrected them. I’m waiting for a few things to sort out. Once everything is done, the magazine will be available, hopefully in September. The magazine is a print on demand type. There will be a printed version and a digital version. I’m sorting out everything before it goes live.
Anyway, more on this in the near future!
This blog was created in anticipation of a magazine I had been planning for a while but the unexpected events of the last 2 years or so delayed everything. The first edition of BY THE GODS! is completed and I’ve used an online service that publishes magazines on demand. It will soon be available. I’m just making sure everything is right.
More on this in the near future.
A German release of SLAVE QUEEN OF BABYLON is now available. You can choose your store of choice but they have it at Amazon.de
I like this film and I already have a HD copy of it but I wonder how good the new release is. The movie was already available on Blu-ray but the quality was disappointing. Hopefully this new release the transfer is better. Unfortunately, no English track including. Only Italian and German.
There are two different covers to choose from.
The cover above is an amalgamation of poster art taken from SAPPHO THE VENUS OF LESBOS (the fighting men with Kerwin Mathews) and JOURNEY BENEATH THE DESERT aka ANTINEA – L’AMANTE DELLA CITTA.
HELEN OF TROY (1956), directed by Robert Wise, and LAND OF THE PHARAOHS (1955), directed by Howard Hawks, will both be available on Blu-ray in July 2023. This is great news. Both releases are from new restorations and with brand new 4K scans. So, they should look spectacular. LAND OF THE PHARAOHS always looked great but HELEN OF TROY DVD release was murky at best. More on these once I get a hold of them.
July 25
July 18
Bella Cortez was one of the PEPLUM genre’s most beautiful actresses. She made a handful of movies and quietly disappeared from the world of cinema. Years ago, I found her Facebook profile and befriended her, one of her first Facebook friends. Anyway, we kept communicating back and forth for some time. She told me she was woking on a book (above) in which she co-autored with someone else. She wanted access to beautiful prints of herself for the book and saw the many good quality versions I had of her films. Eventually, she ‘ghosted’ me and she never posted anything at my FB account. But I remembered that she was going to publish a book and, lo and behold, it is available at Amazon in Italy. She used a photo from VULCAN – SON OF JUPITER as Aetna. Since the book is in Italian, it’s difficult for me to get it all. If someone has additional info on this, can you leave a comment. Thanks!
Bella in GIANT OF METROPOLIS
The new German Blu-ray of THE SON OF SPARTACUS is excellent. The image is clear and the English audio is actually available which is often not the case with German releases. My only issue, and it might be seen as a small one, are the colours. This print seems to have various colour tones and hues.
The German Blu-ray edition (above) vs the Warner Archive edition (below). The Warner one is terrible: too dark and overly red but the sky and ocean seem more realistic than the overly yellowish one of the German Blu-ray. The bag on the lower right is also more true to nature in the Warner release than the German one. Though there’s more general details in the German release, the Warner one seems to have more definition (the ground and bag…) Which is the correct one?
This image above is sharp, much sharper than the Warner archive release but it’s overly greyish blue.
This cropped screenshot from the new Blu-ray has beautiful colours here. Not the yellowish or too blue. Skin tones look great.
The German Blu-ray is excellent but there are some discrepancies in regards to the colour tone in many scenes.
While examining the new German Blu-ray version of CONSTANTINE AND THE CROSS (1961), I’ve noticed many particularities. The movie was heavily cut not just for the US version but the French and German versions differ greatly from the uncut Italian version. It’s not just missing scenes but same scenes but shot differently. I’ve seen this in other movies such as QUEEN OF BABYLON (1954), in which a US version was filmed and edited that’s different to the Italian (European) version but this one is simply odd. Take the scene at Monte Gelato waterfalls. The new Blu-ray includes the uncut Italian version and also a DVD-quality version that’s in German. The Monte Gelato scene in both versions are basically the same but shot differently. With Fausto Tozzi and Christine Kaufmann.
Same scene, shot differently: notice how the towel is different. How the placement differs. How he hold is clothes. It’s very odd when one notices it. It’s the same scene but it’s also not the same. Even the clarity is different. BTW, this scene is cut from the French version.
The German and US versions are the Irving Rapper directed/edited one while the uncut Italian version was directed by Lionello De Felice. This is the main explanation but if the scene is basically identical why film it twice? Anyway, with QUEEN OF BABYLON, the Italian/European version felt like a rough cut while the US version felt tighter and more direct. The same thing can’t be said with CONSTANTINE AND THE CROSS. It’s more sprawling and has so many different sets and situations but the movie sorta feels, in both the uncut De Felice and Irving Rapper versions, cobbled together.