Maciste kills the ape and carries Saliura back to the aboveground world. Italian Master of Horror Mario Bava got his big start as a cinematographer on both Hercules (1958) and its sequel, and it was his work filling in for the uninterested Jacques Tourner on Giant of Marathon (1959) that got him noticed and lead to his first directoral break - Black Sunday (1960). About this list: The official definition of a peplum film is a sword-and-sandal historical epic produced in Italy in the 1950s and '60s. Actors of steel Steve Reeves Brad Harris Richard Harrison Reg Park Mark Forest Gordon Scott Gordon Mitchell Kirk Morris (Adriano Bellini) Hercules must save his true love from an evil queen. The film was directed by Giorgio Ferroni and starred Steve Reeves as Aeneas and John Drew Barrymore as Odysseus. Acording of the oracle Medea, Dianara's only hope is the Stone of Forgetfulness which lies deep in the realm of Hades. There the two are forced to turn an enormous wheel along with other captives as part of a gold-and-diamonds mining operation. Films 98 Comments 10 Followers 34 pepla = Italian Sword-and-Sandal epics. Even the classic Hercules (1958) and its sequel are poorly treated. Join here. This last point is most notable when comparing the Pepla to many of the later Euro-cult genres, from the Western to the Giallo, in which nihilism and tragic endings were all too common - the Traditional Peplums were almost invariably light in tone and although rarely resorting to all out comedy, comic relief characters were often a feature of the genre and the productions could generally be considered family friendly, at least by modern standards. Based on real historical events, or well known legends such as the Battle of Marathon, these films were often darker and more violent than the Traditional Peplum, although a happy ending would usually be provided. From the very beginning, the Italian cinema industry has been producing Sword and Sandal films with an epic spectacle - Quo Valdis (1912), The Last Days of Pompeii (1913) and Cabria (1914) were among the first and most successful Italian silent films. Set in the shadows of Mt. The way was set for the first of the Italian exploitation booms. The films focus around a central hero, be he Hercules, Maciste, or one of the multitude of heroic figures that the film-makers plucked from both history and the bible for their productions. Steve Reeves stars in a well made historical Peplum with good direction and a solid storyline. Much of the dim view held of the Peplum films these days comes from the acting of these performers - while stars like Steve Reeves and Gordon Scott had been trained as actors, many of the others were simply bodybuilders with no performance training at all and as a result the quality of a number of the films suffers - although script writers were often able to keep speaking parts down to a minimum for the lesser actors. One of the biggest historical epics, boasting some solid direction and a fine central Steve Reeves performance. See list view for ratings and reviews. Maciste then returns to the underground city to save the other captives. A rather generic but certainly enjoyable adventure story starring Richard Harrison. Thus performers like Brad Harris, Gordon Scott, Richard Harrison, Ed Fury, Mark Forest, as well as British born Reg Park all played their parts in the Peplum boom. Probably furthest removed from the normal definition of a Peplum were the small number of historical dramas with a focus much more on dialogue and plot than action scenes, including Messalina (1960) which packed enough court intrigue and murder into its script to make a thespian happy. En route to Thebes for an important diplomatic mission, Hercules drinks from a magic spring and loses his memory. Member. Her father arranges the marriage to Alboino, which he believes will be beneficial to him, only to have Alboino kill him and leave Amalchi, his daughter's real love, beaten and left for dead. Actually, the dancer is the queen Cleopatra who leads a double life using this name. As with The Colossus of Rhodes, the characters show some complexity, which is something very rare in any peplum. Can't find a movie or TV show? Many of those films, released directly to TV in the US actually got theatrical distribution in the UK, like PERSEUS THE INVINCIBLE. Some listless pacing and a cliché plot make this film rather tedious, although it does have some good action scenes. al. 1,213 31. Chronicles the rise and fall of the woman who eventually became known as Queen Nefertiti. Steve Reeves returns as Aeneas in this direct sequel to The Trojan Horse - less effective, it is still enjoyable. The original films themselves would find a home for many years on American television targetted at young audiences, where those films not originally including Hercules would be grouped together as Sons of Hercules films which, in an attempt to explain away the ecclectic mix of character names and settings present in the stories, used a narration explaining that Hercules had a number of children who were continuing his heroic work across the world. While young Ulysses tries to help him regain his memory, political tensions escalate in Thebes, and Hercules' new wife Iole finds herself in mortal danger. Only a couple of native actors appeared in the musclebound lead roles, although they appeared under Anglicised names to help sell the films, the best known being Alan Steel (Sergio Ciani) and Kirk Morris (Adriano Bellini). Carthage in Flames is a 1960 Italian historical drama film directed by Carmine Gallone and starring Pierre Brasseur, Daniel Gélin and Anne Heywood. Cameron Mitchell gives a stand-out performance as the Roman leader in this otherwise average historical Peplum. Italian exploitation producers put out an increasingly perverse series of unofficial sequels and follow ups, including Bruno Mattei's Caligula et Messaline (1981) and Joe D'Amato's Caligula II: The Untold Story (1982) before the genre quickly vanished again in favour of cheaper to produce exploitation. Jojo Lapin X. The genre decays in the late 1960s, but rises again decades later, when a modern classic is released in 2000. Hercules battles to save the population from a giant dragon. His mentor Riccardo Freda worked on several genre entries, including the pre-boom Sins of Rome (1952) and later The Giants of Thessaly (1961) and Maciste in Hell (1963). If Katar can marry her... Gordon Scott plays Glaucus, the prince of Tiryns, a powerful warrior who goes undercover in Mycenae to infiltrate the evil cult of Moloch, which is exacting tribute from neighboring kingdoms in the form of attractive young hostages, both male and female. A bizarre, horror themed Peplum is let down by a poor storyline and inadequate budget. But Esther is a Jewess, and Haman, the king's evil minister, is spreading hatred against the Jews. Upon his return from battle in the previous film, the great warrior Hercules learns that his lover, Daianara, has lost her senses. The subgenre was born with Maciste in 1914 but most influenced by Hercules (1958) and duly, Steve Reeves. Post 9:58 AM - 12 days ago #2 2020-06-02T09:58. Epic battle scenes, a good storyline and strong direction make this historical epic Peplum among the very best. 1,213 31. Sergio Leone's directoral debut is this strong and entertaining historical Peplum that gets going after a rather slow start. A well directed hellbound Traditional Peplum with a top-notch euro-cult cast including Christopher Lee. A majority of these films follow the same basic pattern. An interesting storyline but the heavy reliance on stock footage from earlier films is very distracting. Esther is portrayed by none other than Joan Collins, who would later gain fame as the scheming Alexis Carrington, in the hit TV series Dynasty. From Mario Bava. Thanks to his aggressive promotion, the films proved among the highest grossing of the year, outperforming Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958). The term Peplum (from the Latin for a Robe of State - the 'over-the-shoulder' robe that Hercules et. al. Then, peplums take root at Cinecittà studios, in Rome, where cheap cinema is produced with bodybuilders as heroes. Sword-and-Sandal April 14, 2019. Amalchi recovers to lead a revolt against the murderous Alboino and reclaim his woman. Steve Reeves gives a good acting turn in this not so effective Historical Peplum, partly directed by Sergio Leone. A rather typical Peplum story is bolstered by a solid storyline and some well budgeted direction. A brother is cast out from his family, sold in to slavery and then returns years later as a man of power - but shows forgiveness and compassion to his family through the strength of character given to him by God. Riccardo Freda's large scale pre-Peplum Spartacus film is a rather dull romance with poorly helmed battle scenes. Sorcery and magic could be a major plot aspect or completely ignored, the scale could range from small to near-epic (Hercules Unchained (1959)), there could be whole teams of musclemen (Ercole, Sansone, Maciste e Ursus gli invincibili (1964)) or the musclebound lead could be replaced completely by a band of heroes (Giants of Thessaly (1960)). A well written Egyptian set film with some beautiful scenery starring Mark Forest as Maciste. Not many Giants, but Brad Harris makes good work of this entertaining Traditional Peplum. Generally these stories would be unrelated to the actual legends surrounding the hero, to the extent that the characters often became interchangable and in different dubs of the films Hercules would become Samson and Goliath would become Hercules without any other changes needed to the script. Published 2016-03-02T04:19:42Z Updated 2020-10-12T02:38:57Z. I have watched and rated all the films on this list and reviewed almost all of them. Crowned as the “worst movie ever made” back in the 1980 book The Golden Turkey Awards, this is the movies’ most famous Z-grade clunker.Despite a discernible lack of talent and resources, auteur Ed Wood Jr. staged an alien invasion epic. Most important however, was the relatively small scale Fatiche di Ercole (1958) - a re-telling of the classic tale of the Argonauts (made 5 years before the famous Hollywood version) with American body builder Steve Reeves as the eponymous muscleman. The original and classic film that holds up surprisingly well today despite a rather slow plot. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply.