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Post by vegalyra on Apr 5, 2017 17:21:04 GMT
Anyone else out there enjoy the old peplum films of the late 1950's and early 1960's? Steve Reeves, Mark Forest, Gordon Mitchell, etc. I remember watching these films on TV when I was a kid (UHF stations of course). They were lots of fun with super strength heroes and beautiful women. While they weren't big budget affairs like Hollywood epics such as The Robe, the Egyptian, Demetrius and the Gladiators, and of course Cleopatra, they combined the ancient world with lots of action and quite often some very compelling story-lines. I've recently been watching the "free" versions via Amazon Prime and they are still very entertaining and hold up well for the most part. I wish someone would rescue these films from public domain hell and give them some proper restorations. The PQ is pretty bad for most of these films and I know they at one time looked great. My favorites after revisiting some of them are Lion of Thebes, Giant of Marathon, and Mole Men vs. the Son of Hercules.
What are some of your favorites?
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Post by manfromplanetx on Apr 6, 2017 8:36:23 GMT
Anyone else out there enjoy the old peplum films of the late 1950's and early 1960's? Steve Reeves, Mark Forest, Gordon Mitchell, etc. I remember watching these films on TV when I was a kid (UHF stations of course). They were lots of fun with super strength heroes and beautiful women. While they weren't big budget affairs like Hollywood epics such as The Robe, the Egyptian, Demetrius and the Gladiators, and of course Cleopatra, they combined the ancient world with lots of action and quite often some very compelling story-lines. I've recently been watching the "free" versions via Amazon Prime and they are still very entertaining and hold up well for the most part. I wish someone would rescue these films from public domain hell and give them some proper restorations. The PQ is pretty bad for most of these films and I know they at one time looked great. My favorites after revisiting some of them are Lion of Thebes, Giant of Marathon, and Mole Men vs. the Son of Hercules. What are some of your favorites? Well I must admit having to look up, what are Peplum Films. Thanks for your post, I enjoyed reading the good and the bad reviews on your favourites mentioned, they certainly attract varying opinions , I dislike dubbed films but it seems some are actually available with subtitles and an odd one in English. What caught my eye while learning about these films was that Tina Louise appeared in a few in the early 60s, I'll try and track down a couple of those ... |
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Post by BATouttaheck on Apr 6, 2017 12:33:27 GMT
manfromplanetxI looked PEBLUM FILMS up too. I thought at first it was a company name like "Peblum Films Presents" before the title  "The peplum film (pepla plural), also known as sword-and-sandal, is a genre of largely Italian-made historical or Biblical epics (costume dramas) that dominated the Italian film industry from 1958 to 1965, eventually being replaced in 1965 by Eurospy films and Spaghetti Westerns. They can be immediately differentiated from the competing Hollywood product by their use of dubbing. The pepla attempted to emulate the big-budget Hollywood historical epics of the time, such as Spartacus, Samson and Delilah and The Ten Commandments. The terms "peplum" (referring to the tunic-style Greek and Roman garment often worn by characters in the films) and "sword-and-sandal" were used in a condescending way by film critics. Later, the terms were embraced by fans of the films, similar to the terms "spaghetti western" or "shoot-'em-ups". Italian director Vittorio Cottafavi called the genre "Neo-Mythology"." I remember the Steve Reeves ones (vaguely). My favorite part of this wiki-cutting is "Neo-Mythology"
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Post by vegalyra on Apr 6, 2017 17:57:40 GMT
I recommend checking some out if you have an Amazon Prime subscription. A ton of them are available free right now through that site. You can also buy one of those various 50 "Gladiator" film collections on DVD for usually around $10. You will have to put up with some pretty crummy picture quality though unfortunately either way. Most (if not all) of them appear to be dubs of old VHS copies. I believe there are some Italian or French releases out there on DVD that offer restored versions of the film but haven't viewed them, particularly for Hercules and Hercules Unchained with Steve Reeves.
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Post by FilmFlaneur on Apr 7, 2017 11:19:03 GMT
Anyone else out there enjoy the old peplum films of the late 1950's and early 1960's? Steve Reeves, Mark Forest, Gordon Mitchell, etc. I remember watching these films on TV when I was a kid (UHF stations of course). They were lots of fun with super strength heroes and beautiful women. While they weren't big budget affairs like Hollywood epics such as The Robe, the Egyptian, Demetrius and the Gladiators, and of course Cleopatra, they combined the ancient world with lots of action and quite often some very compelling story-lines. I've recently been watching the "free" versions via Amazon Prime and they are still very entertaining and hold up well for the most part. I wish someone would rescue these films from public domain hell and give them some proper restorations. The PQ is pretty bad for most of these films and I know they at one time looked great. My favorites after revisiting some of them are Lion of Thebes, Giant of Marathon, and Mole Men vs. the Son of Hercules. What are some of your favorites? Some of us certainly do! Peplum - sword 'n' sandal epics - was the genre most popular in the Italian cinema until they were largely overtaken by the burgeoning spaghetti western craze. Like the range of films which followed, peplums varied in quality but there are several which really stand out. Although in the past collectors and viewers have been plagued by videos and broadcasts which often featured washed-out, poorly dubbed and pan and scanned versions, in recent years the bad old days seem to have fallen behind us. Personal favourites include the Leone-helmed Colossus of Rhodes and Bava's gaudy Hercules At The Centre of the Earth (both 1961) . Interestingly many, if not most, of the Italian peplums featured a pagan mythology - something in stark contrast to the Hollywood variety of ancient-world epics, often characterised by the matter of Christianity, right up until the landmark appearance of Gladiator. |
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Post by BATouttaheck on Apr 7, 2017 12:19:15 GMT
vegalyra Sort of peblum related : One of the Baker's Dozen Games recently was "film characters who wear shorts". To my surprise, one player posted "Tarzan" and the answer was accepted. I wonder if any peblum wearing characters would have been accepted . 
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Post by petrolino on Apr 7, 2017 21:49:01 GMT
I enjoy some of the 1980s pepla with swords and sorcery. My favourites are Joe D'Amato's 'Ator, The Fighting Eagle' (1983), Franco Prosperi's 'Gunan, The Warrior' (1982), Michele Massimo Tarantini's 'The Sword Of The Barbarians' (1982), Matt Cimber's 'Hundra' (1983) and Umberto Lenzi's 'Ironmaster' (1983). Lucio Fulci's 'Conquest' (1983) is interesting but suffers from foggy lenses.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Apr 7, 2017 23:49:32 GMT
vegalyraI was just in a thrift shop and on the shelf was a DVD set of THE FIFTY GREATEST type. I recognized it immediately as a collection of Peblum films (and their relatives). As it was $30 for a used set and I am not really big on swords or sandals it stayed on the shelf. I was just so pleased with knowing that they were called Peblums !
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Post by politicidal on Jan 24, 2022 2:24:14 GMT
Watched one earlier today called The Loves of Hercules. It starred Jayne Mansfield and her then-husband Mickey Hargitay (Mariska Hargitay's dad).
Pretty silly but Jayne Mansfield had some capital knockers. Some sequences are conceptually interesting like the Hydra fight and a forest of living trees. But they're let down by the poor special effects.
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Post by SuperDevilDoctor on Jan 25, 2022 1:59:22 GMT
Anyone else out there enjoy the old peplum films of the late 1950's and early 1960's? Steve Reeves, Mark Forest, Gordon Mitchell, etc. I remember watching these films on TV when I was a kid (UHF stations of course). They were lots of fun with super strength heroes and beautiful women. While they weren't big budget affairs like Hollywood epics such as The Robe, the Egyptian, Demetrius and the Gladiators, and of course Cleopatra, they combined the ancient world with lots of action and quite often some very compelling story-lines. I've recently been watching the "free" versions via Amazon Prime and they are still very entertaining and hold up well for the most part. I wish someone would rescue these films from public domain hell and give them some proper restorations. The PQ is pretty bad for most of these films and I know they at one time looked great. My favorites after revisiting some of them are Lion of Thebes, Giant of Marathon, and Mole Men vs. the Son of Hercules. What are some of your favorites? HERCULES UNCHAINED HERCULES IN THE HAUNTED WORLD GOLIATH VS. THE VAMPIRES THE SLAVE HERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN
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Post by politicidal on Jan 25, 2022 2:06:18 GMT
Anyone else out there enjoy the old peplum films of the late 1950's and early 1960's? Steve Reeves, Mark Forest, Gordon Mitchell, etc. I remember watching these films on TV when I was a kid (UHF stations of course). They were lots of fun with super strength heroes and beautiful women. While they weren't big budget affairs like Hollywood epics such as The Robe, the Egyptian, Demetrius and the Gladiators, and of course Cleopatra, they combined the ancient world with lots of action and quite often some very compelling story-lines. I've recently been watching the "free" versions via Amazon Prime and they are still very entertaining and hold up well for the most part. I wish someone would rescue these films from public domain hell and give them some proper restorations. The PQ is pretty bad for most of these films and I know they at one time looked great. My favorites after revisiting some of them are Lion of Thebes, Giant of Marathon, and Mole Men vs. the Son of Hercules. What are some of your favorites? HERCULES UNCHAINED HERCULES IN THE HAUNTED WORLD GOLIATH VS. THE VAMPIRES THE SLAVEHERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN A surprisingly good example. I had low expectations.
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Post by SuperDevilDoctor on Jan 25, 2022 2:51:43 GMT
HERCULES UNCHAINED HERCULES IN THE HAUNTED WORLD GOLIATH VS. THE VAMPIRES THE SLAVEHERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN A surprisingly good example. I had low expectations. Partially filmed in Egypt, too, IIRC... Among other factors, the location filming helps elevate it.
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Post by politicidal on Jan 26, 2022 19:59:12 GMT
An entertaining example that is also Sergio Leone's directorial debut.
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Post by timshelboy on Jan 26, 2022 21:50:26 GMT
 a late entry in the cycle = 2 part German 3 hour effort from 1968 telescoped into shorter version for export. Strong cast - (Laurence Harvey, Robert Hoffman, Harriett Andersson, |Orson Welles, Honor Blackman, Sylva Koscina, Michael Dunn... and .. erm... Ingrid Boulting) and much GAME OF THRONES type court intrigue as well as large scale battle scenes...and a great death scene for Blackman... scalded/drowned in the bath by sister Harriett Andersson
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Post by politicidal on Jan 26, 2022 21:53:21 GMT
Gold for the Caesars (1963).
Better written than it should be. However I remember the action being mostly forgettable, except for the opening scene at a quarry.
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Post by politicidal on Feb 7, 2022 21:48:17 GMT
Damon and Pythias (1962). Not bad if a little talky.
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