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I came across an HD print of HERCULES THE AVENGER (1965) starring Reg Park as Hercules and Giovanni Cianfriglia as Antaeus. Now the clip is short but the quality of the print is jaw dropping. This movie has never been available in a clear print ever…even the Retromedia DVD is in poor quality. In widescreen but a terrible print. Seeing it in HD is amazing. I’ll have more in future posts, either here or at the main blog, once I get more information on it.
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
The new Blu-ray of HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN has some major issues. I mean major. First and foremost the colours are all wrong….
The larger image is from the Blu-ray…the smaller one is from the DVD. The walls are supposed to be red, like the DVD…not orange.
More on this problematic Blu-ray release next week at the main blog…
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!
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.
This review will be to the point: the 3 movie set is great and should be the standard for all PEPLUM movies.
There’s nothing much to review since everything is fine. I’ll describe the few issues but overall this release is excellent.
It contains the original Italian cut (from a German print!). One can view it with English subs. Tim Lucas gives a detailed commentary over this version.
Then there’s the UK version, with the title HERCULES IN THE CENTER OF THE WORLD.
And finally, there’s the US print, with the colourful Filmation opening credits.
The runtime for each versions:
Italian: 86 minutes
UK: 81 minutes
US: 84 minutes. (with Filmation opening credits)
I haven’t watch all three yet to see the differences and which scenes were left out in the UK and US versions.
That’s it.
The addition of the US print is the best thing here. It’s really fun and though I always prefer watching movies in their original, uncut version, the US version really gets you into the action with a pre-credit introduction with Medea setting up the story. I like it.
It’s well worth buying the Blu-ray for the new US print which previously was only available in an unwatchable pan & scan public domain version. Personally, I’m happy with the US version and the Italian one. The UK version is fine and the it’s great that the title differs from the US one but it’s sorta redundant. I think they added this one because the previous official release, by FANTOMA, was this version.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the image quality.
US version
UK version
Italian version (German print)
In the US and UK versions, the print is not a stellar as the Italian one, which has beautiful skin color and no visible scratches or defects. The top two are also slightly cropped.
Now compare this to the FANTOMA copy:
The three copies, certainly the Italian one, are definite improvements over the old FANTOMA release (DVD below)
For the most part though the image quality between the three versions are pretty much identical. See threeway comparison below.
As I stated above, the FANTOMA version, as good as it was back then, looks really bad compared to the new version. Just the size comparison blows the FANTOMA version. I didn’t resize the images’ aspect ratios.
One can see that the FANTOMA version was heavily cropped. In the comparison I made below, I resized the screenshot taken from the FANTOMA copy, aligned it to the KINO LORBER version. You can see what was cropped (in white). In the FANTOMA version, the two cauldrons were gone. The colours in the KINO LORBER version are also much more beautiful.
Overall, the three versions found on this set are excellent. Some have complained about the audio of the US version during the intro and opening credits, and yes the audio is sorta poor but it didn’t really stand-out to me because I’ve watched so many PEPLUM movies with scratchy audio, and I’ve made so many Fan Dubs working with scratchy audio, that it wasn’t much of an issue to me. The audio throughout the film itself is fine.
I watched the US version on my 27″ iMac and widescreen TV. They both looked great.
The swirling opening credits by Filmation. It must have been fun watching this in a big cavernous cinema back in the day. Some scratches are visible during the opening credit (see below, on the far right).
As I said above, the release should be the standard for all future releases of PEPLUM titles: including the original Italian cut and the US print, if there was a major difference between versions of course. If not, then having the original Italian audio as an extra would be good enough. In this case, the US version differed quite a lot from the Italian one so it made sense to include both.
Watching the US print for the very first time made me feel like a little kid. Whichever versions you watch, the film’s immersive qualities truly stand-out in this release and make the movie that much more engaging and fun to watch.