Category: hollywood

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.

BY THE GODS! magazine news…

The current issue of BY THE GODS! magazine, issue 4, ‘Disaster Hits!’ has sold almost as many as the first issue, which is quite remarkable. This means those who bought previous issues loved it and want to continue reading it. The first issue is usually the biggest issue since many want to see it for themselves out of curiosity with no intentions of buying any future issues. But the sales have pretty remained constant between issues, with this one selling much faster than issues 2 and 3.

You know what that means? There’ll be future issues for sure.

I’ve already completed the cover of issue 5!

You can buy the current issue or all the issues at MagCloud.

New Issue 4

https://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/3205057

Issue 3

https://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/2963938

Issue 2

https://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/2740217

Issue 1

https://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/2574706

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.