I’ve made an extensive comparison of the new HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN (1961) Blu-ray with two other versions. It’s at the main PEPLUM TV blog.
Read the review here:
Article of the week: HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN (1961) Blu-ray review
Category: hercules
HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN Blu-ray pre-order…
HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN (1961) Blu-ray is now available for pre-order.
The official page includes beautiful screenshots of this upgrade. As stated at the website, the new 4K transfer is from a 35 mm print, not a Technirama print.
They even restored the original US trailer.
This looks like a great release!
HD releases of…HERCULES (1958) and HERCULES UNCHAINED (1959)…(update)
Lo and behold, two new HD releases of HERCULES and HERCULES UNCHAINED by Artus in France.
(The problem, I can’t find these releases anywhere, including at Artus’ website or even Amazon. I’m trying to figure out what’s going on here.)
I just got news that these might be available in May. The ‘sold out’ notice is not an actual current status of the product.
Here are covers of these releases. They both come with booklets, and a Blu-ray disc and a standard DVD. No English tracks though.
HERCULES (1958)
HERCULES UNCHAINED (1959)
Here’s the link to the website.
It says that they’re already sold out for both titles (in red at the bottom left corner).
If anyone out there has more info on these releases please leave a comment.
Happy New Year!
Year in review…
BY THE GODS! shorts
There’s so much to say about 2020…but I’ll spare you all of the bad stuff.
This blog was created in preparation for a new project, mainly a magazine, or zine, named BY THE GODS!. But the pandemic happened and everything was put on hold until further notice. Hopefully 2021 will be better than 2020 in regards to everything, including this much delayed project.
There were other disappointments, including the long announced but still missing Blu-ray of SAMSON AGAINT THE VAMPIRES. There’s no need for me to go over it again now since I wrote a couple of articles on this m.i.a. BR.
The best news for the PEPLUM genre were HD TV broadcast/streaming service of PEPLUM movies from mainly Italy, and some from France. A dozen or so titles have suddenly popped up and most of them are beautiful, certainly CONQUEROR OF CORINTH (1961; aka The Centurion) with Gianna in HD.
But recent announcements of new Blu-ray releases have sorta been disappointing as well, with the delayed release of the German BR of DUEL OF THE TITANS and the inclusion of MST3K in the upcoming US Blu-ray of HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN. I mean, why?
Also, Warner Archives have announced new titles for January, and not one single PEPLUM movie listed, or even action movie.
Oh well…good riddance to 2020.
More Blu-rays…
Four new titles on the Blu-ray front:
First, SODOM AND GOMORRAH (1962) – German release. This is good news in that the regular DVD from Germany for this movie had many issues. So a brand new pristine print, hopefully uncut, is a welcome addition to the ever growing list of PEPLUM titles going BR. For now, there’s no cover or any images from this print. Directed by Robert Aldrich and Sergio Leone, though some dismiss this, saying it’s an Aldrich movie all the way. Starring Daniele Vargas and Scilla Gabel (above), among many other familiar PEPLUM actors.
Second, IRONMASTER (1983), directed by Umberto Lenzi. I’m happy about this BR release. I like this movie and seeing in HD will be cool. One of the better PEPLUM movies of the 1980s starring George Eastman, Sam Pasco, Elvire Audray, and veteran PEPLUM actors Benito Stefanelli, Nello Pazzafini, and Giovanni Cianfriglia. Release date: April 13, 2021.
Third, also from Germany, DUEL ON THE MISSISSIPPI (1955) will be released on Blu-ray. Some say this is not a PEPLUM but there’s Lex Barker, there are sword fights in it, and it was directed by William Castle. That’s enough for me. I hope the print will be better that the photos provided at the website.
It was also announced that HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN (1961) will be released on Blu-ray by The Film Detective. I’m not familiar with that company and from reading about them on forums, the prospect doesn’t seem to be that great. From what I’ve read, the version will be the US theatrical cut which is shorter than the original cut known in English as HERCULES CONQUERS ATLANTIS. It’s seems that the print is from a new 4K restoration, which is great news. STUDIOCANAL, the French distribution/production company owns the movie and they usually have great transfers. Unfortunately, STUDIOCANAL are also very strict and the chances of this new copy uploaded to Youtube without some sort of restrictions seems unlikely.
I’m wondering: does STUDIOCANAL also have the US print of this, which has soundtrack bits from CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON? Anyway, this is welcome news. The sad part of this release is that it won’t contain the original European cut, instead it’ll have the MST3K episode with the movie. Why would they do this?
To be released on April 13, 2021.
New batch of HD prints!
There’s a current batch of PEPLUM titles now available in HD. These titles are not available on Blu-ray but were broadcast in HD or are available for streaming. This bodes well for the genre. Titles long left in obscurity now look absolutely amazing! Looking forward to more titles in the future.
Above and below: CLEOPATRA’S DAUGHTER (1960) starring Debra Paget and Corrado Pani. The most stunning HD print of a PEPLUM title, even surpassing the equally stunning German Blu-ray of THIEF OF BAGHDAD (1961) starring Steve Reeves. I’m just amazed by the clarity of the image. This movie has not been released on BR but is available as a streaming title in Italy.
Above and below (2): Another beautiful print of a favourite movie of mine, ULYSSES AGAINST HERCULES (1962) starring Georges Marchal. Not as stunning as CLEOPATRA’S DAUGHTER or THIEF OF BAGHDAD it’s still great to see.
ULYSSES AGAINST HERCULES was filmed on the Canary Islands. As the image above shows, the image quality is not as perfect as CLEOPATRA’S DAUGHTER.
Above and below: SULEIMAN THE CONQUEROR (1961), starring Giorgia Moll and Alberto Farnese (above) is hard to get movie and previous prints were always disappointing. Not anymore. Though not super pristine as other prints (as the below screengrab shows), is a definite improvement over other releases. Worthy of a Fan Dub.
And last but not least. A recent showing of SON OF SAMSON (1960) on the Italian network, RAI. The image is stunning. Unfortunately, the aspect ratio is not full 1920×1280 HD. It, and Mark, still look great though.
The missing scenes from HERCULES UNCHAINED (1959)
HERCULES UNCHAINED is the popular sequel to the worldwide smash hit HERCULES (1958). It’s as good as the first movie, with some claiming it’s superior to the first one. With the success came a greater scrutiny towards the follow up. And one of the results of this added scrutiny is something HERCULES didn’t really experience: scenes cut from the original vision of Pietro Francisci’s work. HERCULES UNCHAINED was trimmed here and there, and depending on which version you watch, some scenes were removed or shorten. Here are the scenes which usually got the axe.
This cheesecake scene is not in the US version of HERCULES UNCHAINED. It appears when Hercules, Iole and Ulysses are traveling on the wagon and Ulysses happens to see these women just hanging out on the beach. It’s an innocuous moment and the women are all gorgeous but it’s clearly a case of gratuitous cheesecake that doesn’t really add much to the story. I sorta understand why it was removed but then again the scene is so harmless that why not just leave it in? Annie Gorassini is part of this harem.
If you notice, a lot of the scenes cut are scenes with women. In this important scene, Iole learns of Hercules childhood, including the moment he fought with two snakes, as pictured in a wall mural. This scene should have been left uncut. It’s important to the Hercules mythology. In the cut version, we don’t see this and the movie goes straight of Iole and Hercules kissing.
Another scene with Iole. Iole waits impatiently for any word of Hercules. She passes her time weaving while new acquaintances ask her personal questions which upsets her. This scene is either entirely cut or shorten. It’s important in that we see the passage of time while Hercules is a captive of Omphale. Should never have been cut.
In this brief scene, we see Ulysses’ girlfriend, played by Marisa Valenti, listening to a seashell. It’s a nice scene and it establishes Ulysses in a relationship. The scene is so short that it shouldn’t have been cut.
The pyre at the end of the movie for Eteocles (Sergio Fantoni) and Polinices (Mimmo Palmara). The scene is cut from the US, Spanish, French prints I have. The already short scene was shortened in other releases, including the German print. The Italian and the Japanese Blu-ray are uncut.
A word on PEPLUM books…
It’s funny how things work. I’ve been writing and blogging on the PEPLUM genre now over 10 years and I’m always amazed how some things just go under the radar.
I’ve recently discovered two books on the PEPLUM genre and I had never heard of them, from any other place or person lurking around the many websites/social media sites I maintain.
Now I won’t mention these two books since I’m going over one of them at the moment and I’m waiting to receive the other one. Needless to say, these discoveries are fun but also worrisome. What else am I missing?
A recent book I acquired, on the career of Riccardo Freda, which cost over $90.00, is a disappointment. I thought the book would be more on the details of his movies but the writing (which is good…) reads more like a novel than anything else. Personally, I don’t feel the need to read it or even discuss it any further. The PEPLUM ‘community’ is very small and word gets out quickly and I don’t feel I’m in a position to say anything further on that (expensive) book. I like Riccardo Freda and I’m disappointed that the book didn’t live up to my (modest) expectations. I’m also disappointed because it’s so damn expensive.
I’m in the (very long) process of working on a PEPLUM book myself. It takes a lot of time and work to do this. There are things in the work right now, which I hope will come to fruition. A book or two is the logical end result of accumulating so much knowledge on one subject.
This website…
I created this website last summer in anticipation for a new major project. It’s no secret, the new project was to be a magazine. I was working on it for some time and then the whole coronavirus issue occurred which delayed everything since I had to take care of an elderly parent 24/7. I had very little time to do anything aside from the usual posts.
Because of the pandemic and its consequences I have tons of projects I set aside for months. I need to take a break. Next week, I won’t be posting and the weeks after will depend on how I’ve achieved in re-focusing everything as they were before the pandemic. I don’t have any time frame for that but it might take some time. Don’t worry, I’ve recently renewed the hosting service for this website so it’s good for another year. But for now, at least in July, postings for most of the month will be minimal. It’ll be a Herculean effort and hopefully I will be able to post regularly in a couple weeks.
Thanks!