Italian Sword and Sandal films

[Jobla]

Originally Posted by sa5150

that stink's , which is the best dvd to get ?

Take your pick, they're all pretty bad. Wild East released a DVD of it paired with GOLIATH AND THE BARBARIANS starring STeve Reeves. Their VAMPIRES is passable quality, but that's about it. BARBARIANS is better, but it may have been ripped from a foreign DVD.

[sa5150]

Originally Posted by Jobla

Take your pick, they're all pretty bad. Wild East released a DVD of it paired with GOLIATH AND THE BARBARIANS starring STeve Reeves. Their VAMPIRES is passable quality, but that's about it. BARBARIANS is better, but it may have been ripped from a foreign DVD.

I had that wild east dvd and sold it . Hopefully something comes out next year .

[Beckford]

In an ideal world (at least one crafted to my satisfaction) we'd have sparkling Blu-rays (wide-screen where applicable and preferably offering the original language versions with English subtitles as options) of the following, a baker's dozen all done to a golden turn:

FABIOLA(1949)
A peplum milestone; there's an excellent 2 volume DVD from France but unfortunately sans English subtitles. With Henri Vidal and Michele Morgan, both superb
MESSALINA/THE AFFAIRS OF MESSALINA(1951)
Legendary Mexican star Maria Felix and the marvelous Georges Marchal who's always perfect in peplums
LA REGINA DI SABA/THE QUEEN OF SHEBA(1952)
A magical film from Pietro Francisci, future director of Steve Reeves' Hercules movies. Leonora Ruffo and Gino Leurini ably take center stage
SPARTACO/SINS OF ROME(1953)
A genuine spectacle, albeit in black and white; with Massimo Girotti, ballerina Ludmilla Tcherina and iconic peplum schemer Gianna Maria Canale.
Contains one of my all-time favorite sequences - a rousing shipboard battle beautifully staged in a flooded gladiatorial arena
LA RIVOLTA DEI GLADIATORI/THE WARRIOR AND THE SLAVE GIRL(1958)
Two of peplum's prime protagonists, Ettore Manni and Georges Marchal plus GM Canale, still smouldering
LE LEGIONI DI CLEOPATRA/LEGIONS OF THE NILE(1959)
An all time classic; Linda Cristal enters the peplum world And in great company (Manni and Marschal)
IL SEPOLCRO DEI RE/CLEOPATRA'S DAUGHTER(1960)
Familiar Hollywood faces Debra Paget and Robert Alda (Alan's dad) land in Ancient Egypt. And who doesn't love Ancient Egypt? With Ettore Manni
deftly in charge of the heroics
MACISTE, L'UOMO PIU FORTE DEL MONDO/MOLE MEN AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES(1961)
One of muscleman Mark Forest's best - and he made plenty of good ones
URSUS NELLA VALLE DEI LEONI/VALLEY OF THE LIONS(1962)
Eternally affable Ed Fury gets entangled with one of the first ladies of 60's peplum, the fascinating Moira Orfei
ULISSE CONTRO ERCOLE/ULYSSES AGAINST THE SONS OF HERCULES(1962)
Georges Marchal's a magnificent Ulysses. This is the one where he and Hercules stumble into the Land of the Bird People, ruled by va va voom queen Dominique Boschero
IO SEMIRAMIDE/SLAVE QUEEN OF BABYLON(1962)
Ah! Babylon. The great Yvonne Furneaux smoothly teamed with ex MGM contractee John Ericson
LE SETTE FOLGORI DI ASSUR/WAR GODS OF BABYLON(1962)
Back in the general vicinity of Babylon, noir favorite Howard Duff makes an unexpected (and excellent) peplum appearance And he's definitely not just phoning it in. Plus the story's excellent.
IL LEONE DI TEBA/THE LION OF THEBES(1964)
Stalwart Mark Forest guides beautiful Yvonne Furneaux (as Helen of Troy) through some excellent adventures in Ancient Egypt. Definitely a convergence of irresistible ingredients

[Jobla]

My number one want is THE GIANT OF MARATHON (1959), starring Steve Reeves. It has been preserved in high definition by Titanus.

Other titles I would like:

THE MINOTAUR (from the gorgeous European negative)
MORGAN THE PIRATE (Reeves)
THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES (from uncut, superior European film elements)
GOLIATH AND THE VAMPIRES
ROME AGAINST ROME (aka WAR OF THE ZOMBIES)
HERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN
and the two Tina Louise peplums, THE WARRIOR EMPRESS and THE SIEGE OF SYRACUSE.

[Mikezilla3k]

Anyone know of a good widescreen copy of Hercules that uses the original dub and not the redone one that was on Retromedia's release?

[Jobla]

I don't think there is one. The original dub has generally been replaced by the international version in English.

There is a budgie DVD that has the original 1959 audio track, but it's full-frame and only passable quality. It might have been "mastered" from an old VHS cassette.

[Mikezilla3k]

Originally Posted by Jobla

I don't think there is one. The original dub has generally been replaced by the international version in English.

There is a budgie DVD that has the original 1959 audio track, but it's full-frame and only passable quality. It might have been "mastered" from an old VHS cassette.

Yeah, saw that one. Lousy colors to say the least!

Surprised no one edited/synced the old English dub to the Widescreen transfer at this time.

[Doomhunter]

I like the version of Hercules that has the English sounding dub as opposed to the American sounding dub. The English one sounds more classy

Ah found it, had it in the wrong place in my collection, so the dub I like is on the 2007 A2ZCDS dvd, full frame though unfortunately. As some mentioned would be good to sync up that dub with the wide screen Retromedia dvd. Or better yet, put out a dang blu

[Ky-Fi]

Any new Blu-ray releases coming out anywhere?

Just watched Hercules and the Captive Women again last night, and I'd definitely enjoy some more like that!

[Jobla]

Nothing announced for 2024 as of yet.

[fred25_Ca]

I had seen maybe between 10 and 15 Italian peplum before. It was over a decade ago and they were all in mostly bad quality. I had fun with most of them but I mostly remember the two Hercules with Reeves and the Mario Bava Hercules where he goes to Hell to fight Christopher Lee (probably my favorite of those). Last year during a Kino sale I grab the Bava Hercules but also the two Samson movies with their gorgeous slips. Figured they were no brainers and i've been waiting (and hoping!) for a decade now that these movies would be given the respects they deserves.
Turns out I was absolutely bored out of my mind watching Son of Samson lol. Definitely not the fun I remember having a decade ago, although this was my first watch of this one.
On top of that, why is everything yellow? I don't remember reading any reviews mentioning how yellow the restoration was but it's so strong here. I'm guessing this was not how it originally was?

Also, i'm realizing that all the Peplums I watched back in the days where about monsters and mythology. That's why I dig into them in the first place, something I kind of forgot when I bought the Samson movies. Hopefully i'll enjoy the second movie more. Really wished these Peplums would be released in sets, like Mill Creek does. I could do 12 peplums for like 50$, discover the genre this way. It's such a forgotten genre that I doubt individual releases are that popular. But a cheaper sets might be a good introduction to a lot of people.

[Ky-Fi]

Originally Posted by fred25_Ca

I had seen maybe between 10 and 15 Italian peplum before. It was over a decade ago and they were all in mostly bad quality. I had fun with most of them but I mostly remember the two Hercules with Reeves and the Mario Bava Hercules where he goes to Hell to fight Christopher Lee (probably my favorite of those). Last year during a Kino sale I grab the Bava Hercules but also the two Samson movies with their gorgeous slips. Figured they were no brainers and i've been waiting (and hoping!) for a decade now that these movies would be given the respects they deserves.
Turns out I was absolutely bored out of my mind watching Son of Samson lol. Definitely not the fun I remember having a decade ago, although this was my first watch of this one.
On top of that, why is everything yellow? I don't remember reading any reviews mentioning how yellow the restoration was but it's so strong here. I'm guessing this was not how it originally was?

Also, i'm realizing that all the Peplums I watched back in the days where about monsters and mythology. That's why I dig into them in the first place, something I kind of forgot when I bought the Samson movies. Hopefully i'll enjoy the second movie more. Really wished these Peplums would be released in sets, like Mill Creek does. I could do 12 peplums for like 50$, discover the genre this way. It's such a forgotten genre that I doubt individual releases are that popular. But a cheaper sets might be a good introduction to a lot of people.

I'd love to see box sets of these!

Yeah, exploring the genre a little more these last couple of years, I do see that the genre ranges from fairly serious historical epics to more outlandish fantasy with monsters and the supernatural---and I also favor the latter. At any rate, seeing these with great picture quality and OAR makes them MUCH more enjoyable.

[Doomhunter]

Need the granddaddy of them all, Cabiria (1914) on blu

[elsanto]

Great price drop on the Heroes Never Die book (color edition), down to 44.48

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1936168693/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[sa5150]

Originally Posted by Jobla

My number one want is THE GIANT OF MARATHON (1959), starring Steve Reeves. It has been preserved in high definition by Titanus.

Other titles I would like:

THE MINOTAUR (from the gorgeous European negative)
MORGAN THE PIRATE (Reeves)
THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES (from uncut, superior European film elements)
GOLIATH AND THE VAMPIRES
ROME AGAINST ROME (aka WAR OF THE ZOMBIES)
HERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN
and the two Tina Louise peplums, THE WARRIOR EMPRESS and THE SIEGE OF SYRACUSE.

almost a year since this post , Any hope for these , My fav which Kino was going to do but got dropped GOLIATH AND THE VAMPIRES ?

[Jobla]

No further updates that I've heard.

GIANT OF MARATHON has been preserved in HD according to Titanus, and I was hoping that Colosseo Film or Plaion Pictures would release it on Blu-ray. They've previously released THIEF OF BAGHDAD, THE SLAVE/SON OF SPARTACUS, SODOM AND GOMORRAH, and ROMULUS AND REMUS/DUEL OF THE TITANS.

[mids2ashton]

none of the following are english friendly but I've noticed quite a few blu ray peplum releases over last few months.
France (Artus):
Perseus l'invincible aka Medusa Against the Son of Hercules
Ursus l'invincible aka 3 avengers

Germany (Mediacs)
Hercules against the mongols - Die Höllenhunde des Dschingis Khan
AD 79: The Destruction of Herculaneum - Die letzten Stunden von Pompeji
Fire Over Rome - DIE LETZTEN TAGE DES SÜNDIGEN ROM
Dschingis Khan (1963) 27/9/24 - seems to be another release of Hercules against the mongols with different frame rate and runtime unless it's a mistake in the advanced listings.

EDIT: Dschingis Khan (1963) 27/9/24 - had a closer look at the screenshots on the back of the blu ray cover image. This is Hercules Against the Barbarians (which used some footage and same cast as the mongols film) - so another new one to the list!

So far I've dipped for the Perseus one and translated the french subs into english, so i have italian audio with english subs...

[Mikezilla3k]

Word on the street is that the French Blu-Ray releases of the Steve Reeves Hercules films are back on for next year: https://www.peplumtv.com/2024/12/hd-alert.html

[Jobla]

Originally Posted by Mikezilla3k

Word on the street is that the French Blu-Ray releases of the Steve Reeves Hercules films are back on for next year: https://www.peplumtv.com/2024/12/hd-alert.html

True, but reportedly the Artus Films site doesn't list these yet. Amazon.France lists the "tongue" as being Italian and French. No mention of English audio or subtitles. I hope that changes. The Japanese Blu-ray releases of the two Steve Reeves HERCULES films weren't English-friendly either.

[Mikezilla3k]

Apparently the prints for these will come from the BFI and will be English prints: https://www.peplumtv.com/2024/12/abo...s-blu.html?m=1

So probably no Italian audio and probably won't be the US dub for 1958 here. Still, the quality should easily be better than the Japanese releases.