Category: hollywood

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.

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.

The English dub of ATTILA (1954)…

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.

Updates on two things!

First thing: I bought a lot of Blu-rays and DVDs from Amazon.de and expected them a few weeks ago but everything has been delayed. I bought them in early October and I’m supposed to receive them one month later, November 6 (if things go according to plan). I’m not happy about this. It’s one of the reasons for the lack of posts here at BY THE GODS!

Second thing: BY THE GODS! magazine. There’s a slight delay. It’s nearly completed but personal stuff kept me away from completed earlier. It will be available most likely in early November.

BY THE GODS! post goes viral…

Looking at the stats for the blog, I saw that one post was getting tons of clicks. So, I had to look for it. Here’s the source of the many clicks.

What’s highlighted in blue is a link to the article here at BY THE GODS!

Here’s the link to the BTG article!

Of all things from this blog, this is the one post that goes viral. It’s so odd since this information is publicly known for a long time. Oh well…