Category: Steve Reeves

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.

Rare movies sold on eBay…

I have literarily over a thousand titles in my collection. I have never sold any movie. I’ve always traded. And I will keep doing so. There are folks on eBay who sell rare PEPLUM movies that have never been released on most available kinds of medical format. Case in point, GODDESS OF LOVE (1957) starring Belinda Lee and Jacques Sernas. As far as I know, this movie was never released on DVD and yet it’s being sold on eBay. Or other websites as in the one at the bottom. Bootlegs have always existed but these days they know they can get away with it pretty much in the open since these old movies have little legal muscle unless they’re backed-up by a major distribution company.

BY THE GODS! magazine no 4…

I’m currently working on the 4th issue of BY THE GODS! magazine. I won’t set a date when it will be available since every time I tried that before something happened and I had to delay the release date. Here’s an incomplete cover preview. This will be issue #1 of 2025 but the 4th overall printed magazine.

 

About those new HERCULES Blu-rays from Artus Films…

I got the new Blu-rays of HERCULES (1958) and HERCULES UNCHAINED (1959) last week. They are combo Blu-ray and DVD. The packaging for both is stellar and the HERCULES package includes an amazing booklet. The packaging/booklet: 10 out of 10.

With that being said, there’s nothing else worth mentioning. The prints on those Blu-rays are identical to the problematic Japanese Blu-rays. Well, they’re not Japanese but those prints first appeared in Japan and have basically been the same prints recycled ever since. I already wrote extensively about those Japanese BDs and I have nothing else to add. It’s a major disappointment but not unexpected. There were rumours that the Artus Films’ prints were from Britain but this was obviously false.

So, to recap: the Japanese BDs were first with these blah HD prints. Then came copies from a RAI HD streaming service. Then I recently got the Spanish Blu-ray of HERCULES UNCHAINED and now I have these two. They’re all the same. It seems I’m repeating myself. As a collector, I’m ok with having these and I’m aware people in France won’t buy the Japanese BDs but also as a collector,  I’m over it. I’m not buying anything related to the two Steve Reeves classics unless they’re clearly different/better prints.

New (old) stuff…

I purchased 2 DVDs and 1 Blu-ray from Spain. 2 very good purchases. One meh.

 

Chelo Alonso and Mark Forest in SON OF SAMSON

The SON OF SAMSON (1960) Blu-ray is excellent and has the English audio. Grainier and slightly darker than the KINO LORBER US Blu-ray release.

Steve Reeves in THE GIANT OF MARATHON

THE GIANT OF MARATHON (1959) DVD is disappointing. It’s in widescreen but 4:3 format, which means those black bars above and below the dark and murky widescreen image. Spanish audio only.

The biggest surprise was the HERO OF BABYLON (1963) DVD, titled as EL SACRIFICIO DE LAS ESCLAVAS. The quality is excellent. Best copy of this movie anywhere and I have a lot of versions of this title. Italian and Spanish audios only.

Geneviève Grad (above) and Gordon Scott (below) in HERO OF BABYLON (1963)

A new HERCULES UNCHAINED Blu-ray…

Someone told me about a new Blu-ray of HERCULES UNCHAINED available in Spain (it’s actually not new…it was released one year ago but never heard of it). And yes it is available. It’s not a hoax. I haven’t heard anything about it and my expectations are pretty low (I expect it to be the same as the Japanese BD) but I bought it anyways. I will have a review of it once I get my hands on it.

AMAZON Spain

Update on the HERCULES / HERCULES UNCHAINED Artus Films Blu-rays…

It seems that Artus Films got a hold of better prints than the first time they tried to get HERCULES (1958) and HERCULES UNCHAINED (1959) released a couple of years ago. These prints are from the UK. So a French distributor will release Blu-rays of these films in French and not English from prints from the British Film Institute?

Here’s a screenshot of the information at a movies forum.