Category: blu-ray

THE GIANT OF MARATHON German Blu-ray arrived…

I got the German Blu-ray of THE GIANT OF MARATHON (1959) starring Steve Reeves, Mylene Demongeot and Albeto Lupo last week. It’s a beautiful print…with some issues.

The first issue I noticed with the English audio is that it was out of sync in some spots. I noticed this during a quick scan of the HD print. I examined the same scene with the US public domain print and the editing is slightly different so that could explain the out of sync English audio on the German / European print.

The other issue is the movie is cropped. Like HERCULES UNCHAINED (1959) HD print, which is zoomed in or cropped, this copy suffers from the same fate. The Spanish streaming print is more correct. The print is still gorgeous but why can we get perfect prints for PEPLUM movies?

Anyway, great film!

Steve Reeves

Mylène Demongeot

Alberto Lupo and Steve Reeves

A boatload of new HD prints from streaming services…

I recently got at least 29 new HD prints of PEPLUM movies, of all sorts, from two of my sources. The prints are generally stunning and the English dub was added to them. I’m very grateful to have these prints, which, imo, should be made available on Blu-ray. Unfortunately, they’re only available from a couple of streaming services in Europe.

Titles include:

ATTACK OF THE NORMANS (1962) starring Genevieve Grad, Ettore Manni and Philppe Hersent.

THE SARACENS (1963) starring Richard Harrison. This print is so clear it’s stunning.

Other titles: COLUMNA (1968), HERCULES VS MACISTE IN THE VALE OF WOE (1961), PIA OF PTOLEMY (1958), a stunning new print of DUEL OF THE TITANS (1961) that’s much better than the German Blu-ray. HERCULES AGAINST ROME (1964) and GOLIATH AGAINST THE GIANTS (1961) both are stunning. There’s much more. I’ll update the blog with new screenshots from these prints.

How did PEPLUM movies got away with these scenes…

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?

CLASH OF STEEL (1962) now on Blu-ray…

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.

THE TYRANT OF CASTILE Blu-ray…

There aren’t that many Blu-rays on the horizon so there’s very little to look forward to. A Blu-ray of THE TYRANT OF CASTILE was released in January in Germany. It has the English audio subs. But the steep price has made me say no. Unless it goes down in price, I’ll skip this one. The movie is not bad but not that memorable. I have 5 different versions of this film starring Mark Damon and Rada Rassimov (below).

$44 + shipping? Wow!

New small batch of titles in HD…

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.

Are there still PEPLUM movies left to be discovered?

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.

THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD (1961) starring Steve Reeves on Blu in English…

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).

Link

Commentary on THIEF is by Adrian Smith. I’m not familiar with him.