Your favorite "Peplum" movies ?

[Joszka]

Nope, it's not a thread about body builders, young men in short skirts &
spicy charms of hairy legs
We already have them somewhere on VEF..
Not a thread either to debate of Bob Guccione's Caligula and for porn peplums
We already have them somewhere on VEF..



We have threads for Westerns, War films, Noir films etc but that genre was missing.
And I'm totally addicted to that genre since I was kid.
I even could affirm some peplum movies I've seen on French TV on the late 60's
in a famous show called "Les Dossiers de l'écran" (with a frightening generic music !)
definetly influenced my whole life (hobbies, studies, job)..



Peplum is coming from ancient Greek πέπλος / péplos (aka tunique) and
we can admit, at least for that thread, it's used for films
(also called "Sword and Sandal" movies) with action in
ancient Rome, ancient Greece or ancient Egypt and their mythologies, etc.
Let say mainly ancient Mediterranean world including biblical films based on
the Old or New Testament. Based on real History or legends & pure fictions.
From 1900 to very recent releases, there's an amazing amount of gems !



ps : and to answer the famous question (before u ask) :
Yes ! I like movies about gladiators (but I've never been in a Türkish prison)

***

The Sign Of The Cross, Cecil B. DeMille, 1932.
With Fredric March, Elissa Landi, Claudette Colbert, Charles Laughton.
Let start with a Monument..



Arbitrarily arrested, Mercia, a Christian, is saved from prison by Marcus
Superbus, the Prefect of Rome who falls in love.
Warned of this affair by his favorite Tigellinus, a jealous traitor, Poppea,
Nero's wife, continues his hatred of the girl.
At a clandestine meeting, Mercia is again arrested. She refuses to recant
her faith and is delivered to hungry beasts with her companions.
Won to the faith of his beloved, Marcus accompanies her to the death...

Brrrr... !



Crossing Claudette Colbert in the corridors of Paramount, DeMille asked her :
"Do you want to interpret the most vicious of all women?"
"With happiness-" she answered..

This movie is in fact one of the most "pervert" ones of classic Hollywood.
Not only a pre-Code film (Code Hays that instituted a code of censorship
on Hollywood industry) but a real catalogue of all the perversities admitted,
or not, at that time (sadism, voyeurism, lesbianism, nudities, etc).
And Colette Colbert's milk bath is one of the most famous scenes ever.
For ever.



"In his time Cecil B. DeMille was one of golden-age Hollywood’s most famous,
if not the most famous, film director. “He was,” writes Simon Louvish in
his recent biography, Cecil B. DeMille and The Golden Calf, “the complete
master and auteur of his films.” If DeMille was, as his detractors claimed,
per Louvish, “a vulgarian who mixed sex and God in an unholy brew”
(for a sample, just check out SOTC‘s scene of the naked girl bound with
garlands being approached by a gorilla), he was also a masterly filmmaker.
He could construct a scene cinematically, making his narrative points
from the placement and movement of his camera–he made a movie move."



Peplum movies are a pure joy for what we could reproach on other films :
clichés !
The milk bath scene, the danse scene, the orgy, the sinister face of the
traitor, the fat emperor & the pure heroine..
I love them all



There's even a cult (vintage) fight between midgets and amazons ..
What do u want more ?



IMDB
Trailer
Colette Colbert's bath

[kelio]

The Last Temptation of Christ (1988, dir. Martin Scorsese)



Passion

Movie

Great cast, superb music, and a very creative interpretation by Martin Scorsese - not to mention the fact that it upset most of the Catholic community - make The Last Temptation of Christ a must see peplum

[Joszka]

The Colossus of Rhodes, Sergio Leone, 1961.
With Rory Calhoun, Lea Massari, George Marchal.

After several years as assistant on numerous Italian and American peplum films, Sergio Leone
directs here his first (and last ) movie in the genre.
In the early 1960s, historical epics fell out of favor with audiences, but
Leone
had shifted his attention to a sub-genre which came to be known
as the "spaghetti-western".. He is at the junction.



A very inventive & spectacular movie but at same parodic in some scenes
and with a real dark humour.

If French George Marchal and splendid Lea Massari are solid actors,
Rory Calhoun was only known for his role in a US TV series (The Texan) &
was described by Leone himself as a "cheap Cary Grant"..



But the reference to Cary Grant is not innocent as this movie is in fact
a tribute.. to Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" !

"The basic theme of political conspiracy becomes a nice excuse to Leone
to make fun of his characters, drawn unwillingly into a series of adventures
which they do not grasp the whole meaning. The story is
concluded in an equally ironic when the earthquake that destroys
the island kills at same time the conspirators (the bads), the rebels (the goods)
and the whole population.."



IMDB
Trailer
Complete movie US version, but with Greek subtitles, sry..

[Joszka]

Spartacus, Stanley Kubrick, 1960.
With Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, Jean Simmons.

Another Monument (184 mins !)
and more a Kirk Douglas' movie than a real Kubrick's one.
Douglas was executive producer and controlled the editing..
Anthony Mann, originally choosed to direct the film, was fired by Douglas after the first
week of shooting..

The relationships between Douglas & Kubrick were conflictual & they remain angry after the production.
But Kubrick managed nonetheless to slip a little of himself.
The film probably would have been less violent and less realistic without him:
the images of carnage, murder facing the camera, it's him. The huge final battle is also his idea...



"The development of Spartacus was partly instigated by Kirk Douglas's failure to win
the title role in William Wyler's Ben-Hur.
Douglas was disappointed when Wyler chose Charlton Heston instead.
Shortly after,
Edward (Eddie) Lewis, a vice-president in Douglas's production company, Bryna
(named after Douglas's mother), had Douglas read Howard Fast's novel,
Spartacus, which had a related theme—an individual who challenges the might of
the Roman Empire—and Douglas was impressed enough to purchase an
option on the book from Fast with his own financing.

Originally, Howard Fast was hired to adapt his own novel as a screenplay,
but he had difficulty working in the format. He was replaced by Dalton Trumbo,
who had been blacklisted as one of the Hollywood Ten. He used the pseudonym "Sam Jackson".

Kirk Douglas insisted that Trumbo be given screen credit for his work,
which helped to break the blacklist.
Trumbo had been jailed for contempt of Congress in 1950, after which
he had been surviving by writing screenplays under assumed names.
Douglas' intervention on his behalf was praised as an act of courage.

In his autobiography, Douglas states that this decision was motivated by a meeting that he,
Edward Lewis and Kubrick had regarding whose name/s to put against the screenplay in the movie credits,
given Trumbo's shaky position with Hollywood executives. One idea was to credit Lewis as co-writer
or sole writer, but Lewis vetoed both suggestions. Kubrick then suggested that his own name be used.
Douglas and Lewis found Kubrick's eagerness to take credit for Trumbo's work revolting, and the next day,
Douglas called the gate at Universal saying, "I'd like to leave a pass for Dalton Trumbo."
Douglas writes, "For the first time in ten years, [Trumbo] walked on to a studio lot.
He said, 'Thanks, Kirk, for giving me back my name"..

As often with these superproductions, the "making of & behind the scenes"
are just as interesting as the film itself, if not more.



IMDB
Trailer



The epic score, by genius composer Alex North, is one of the most famous
of Hollywood story and some pieces are now real standards.

Spartacus Love theme
Love theme cover by Carlos Santana
Love theme cover by Ahmad Jamal

[Joszka]

The Giant of Marathon (La bataille de Marathon), Jacques Tourneur, 1959.
With Steve Reeves, Mylène Demongeot, Daniela Rocca.



Jacques Tourneur (Out of the Past, Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie) is
one of my fav directors, but we can't say this movie is one of his best releases
(we all need to pay our taxes sometimes).
In fact all the job was done by Mario Bava, another master of B-movies, first
credited of the cinematography and who achieved the film.

Bava was then the one of the most interesting directors of "Giallo" (Italian
horror movies) or gothic movies (the masterpiece Black Sunday aka La
maschera del demonio, also known as The Mask of Satan with barbara Steele).



Popular sub-genres movies were & still are the perfect places to meet
"second class" but funny interesting or figures.

Steve Reeves "is regarded by many as the greatest bodybuilder of all time
for his legendary symmetrical physique" and "was the undisputed
king of the European produced sword and sandal/mythological muscleman epics."
And on more he's gratified here of delicious homemade panties

French starlette Mylene Demongeot is pretty enough to deserve her own thread on
Vintage Elegance and Beauty.

Italian Daniela Rocca was during a few years regularly casted for dark roles
in many peplum. But at 35 old she is judged insane and committed to an institution for mental patients.



The Giant of Marathon is a very elegant low budget movie, with of course cheap special effects
(the rocks hitting some heads like ping-pong balls), but also (all credits to Bava)
some spectacular and original scenes (especially a perfect underwater battle
wich is still in my mind after so many many many years..).



IMDB
Complete movie

[Joszka]

The Fall of the Roman Empire, Anthony Mann, 1964.
With Sophia Loren, Stephen Boyd, Alec Guinness, James Mason,
Christopher Plummer, Mel Ferrer and Omar Sharif.

Fired by Kirk Douglas from the direction of Spartacus in 1960, Anthony Mann
(best known for his westerns & films noirs) directed 4 years later the best "peplum" ever.
And not only a great movie in the genre, but just a great movie..
that was a total financial disaster, ruined its producer Samuel Bronston,
and certainly was the swan song of this epic genre.
Demanding & crepuscular..



"The film is actually an above-average historical drama, attempting to make
sense of the political intrigues which resulted in the dissolution of the Glory That Was Rome.
And benefits immensely from the sobriety and rigor Anthony Mann brings to a genre usually
governed by mindless spectacle, though Fall hems closer to the director's obsessive theme
of the system collapsing from within, a motif Mann explored in settings as diverse as the noir city (T-Men),
the French Revolution (Reign of Terror), and the American frontier (The Man from Laramie).
In Mann's epic, the seeds of Rome's collapse are planted with the demise of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Alec Guinness),
whose dream of a unified Pax Romana gives way to the bitter conflict between his corrupt son
Commodus (Christopher Plummer) and heroic general Livius (Stephen Boyd).
Their brotherly bond turned to bloody rivalry, Livius seeks refuge in romance with his
beloved Lucilla (Sophia Loren) while Commodus toys with his crown of laurels
and barbarians prepare to cross the frontiers."

Ridley Scott's Gladiator is not only talking about the same era & emperors (Marcus Aurelius, Commodius),
but is directly "inspired" by Mann's movie in many scenes (the final fight, for ex..).



Sophia Loren at her best.. and paid $ 1 million for the role..



IMDB
Trailer
Complete movie in Spanish

Sry for the Spanish dubbing, but at least I recommend (at 0:53:00)
the charriot race, as spectacular as the one of Ben Hur.
And btw all these movies are easy to find on various torrents..



The music score is by Dimitri Tiomkin, best known for his numerous works
with Frank Capra or soundtracks for some of the most famous movies ever :
The Alamo (1960), Dial M for Murder (1954), Duel in the Sun (1946),
Friendly Persuasion (1956), The Guns of Navarone (1961),
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), Rio Bravo (1959) etc, etc.

Hollywood legend and real inspired composer.
Tittle theme

[Joszka]

The 300 Spartans, Rudolph Maté, 1962.
With Richard Egan, Ralph Richardson, Diane Baker, David Farrar.

Rudolph Maté is maybe better known for his work as cinematographer (Gilda, The Lady from Shangai)
than as director but he did with this movie a real great one (and for me unforgettable)..
In fact, closer to the John Wayne's "Alamo" than a traditional peplum.
Filmed in Greece.



"If you enjoy a lot of blood, then watch "300".
But, if you want something closer to what history really tells us happened
at Thermopylae, then "The 300 Spartans" is what you want. I enjoyed the
fact that they showed what both sides had in that time as far as weapons
and tactics were concerned. They also kept the focus on the bravery of
the Spartans, and that all of Greece not only wished them well, but could
help, as with the Athenian fleet, not some CGI generated storm."



IMDB
Trailer
The 300 Spartans Vs 300 Remake Review Video

[Joszka]

Ulysses aka Ulisse (Italian) or Ulysse (French), Mario Camerini, 1954.
With Kirk Douglas, Anthony Queen, Italian star Silvana Mangano and
italian starlette Rossana Podesta.
Simply a splendid movie..



A high budget production by both of the most famous European producers,
Carlo Ponti and Dino de Laurentiis, Camerini as honest & good B-movies film-maker
and not less than 7 scenarists for this very colorful Homer's Odysseus adaptation,
included famous US writer Ben Hecht.

The violent endings, not really heroic or glorious, shocked at its time but was
textually true to the mythic Homer texts.



"The great thing about this film is the production values. If every PEPLUM film looked
like this it would be amazing. But alas, the careful details to the sets, costumes and effects
seen here were mostly skimmed over in future PEPLUM productions. Not with this film.
The cast is amazing; the locations (Italy & Mediteranean Sea) are a triumph and the effects are great."



IMDB
Trailer
Complete movie (US version with Greek subtitles).



Silvana Mangano on VEF
Rossana Podesta on VEF

[Joszka]

The Tunique, Henry Koster, 1953.
With Tim Burton, Victor Mature, Jean Simmons, Jay Robinson.



Henry Koster was a mediocre director and it's not, from far, my favorite peplum,
but that movie is the 1st one in CinemaScope and there's some stunning scenes.
Photographied by Leon Shamroy, who 10 years later is on the famous Cleopatra.



"Based on a 1942 novel by the popular inspirational writer Lloyd C. Douglas,
“The Robe” is the story of Marcellus Gallio (Richard Burton, in his first important American film),
the Roman army officer charged with carrying out the crucifixion.
Driven mad by guilt, he goes in search of the Greek slave Demetrius (Victor Mature) who salvaged
the robe of Jesus. In the process he becomes a devoted Christian himself, much to the apoplectic outrage
of his employer, the emperor Caligula (Jay Robinson).




"On Sept. 16, 1953, “The Robe” had its premiere at the Roxy Theater
in New York.
Trumpeted as “The First Motion Picture in CinemaScope — The Modern Miracle You See Without Glasses!” —
“The Robe” offered audiences an image twice as wide and significantly taller than what
they had become accustomed to.

Licensed from the French inventor Henri Chrétien (aka "Christian" in French, a sign, lol )
CinemaScope offered an experience that was immersive without
being unwieldy.
Where Cinerama and 3-D both required the carefully synchronized projection
of multiple strips of film, CinemaScope used an anamorphic lens to squeeze a wide image
onto standard 35-millimeter film stock.
The results were stunning, and both the public and the industry were hooked."



IMDB
Trailer
Full movie

Jean Simmons on VEF

[Joszka]

Carthage in flames, Carmine Gallone, 1960.

An Italian-french-spanish production from one of the most famous
B-movie & peplum directors, with Claude Brasseur & Daniel Gélin (great
classic actors, here for money only & visibly totally lost in that epic stuff),
Anne Heywood, José Suarez and in a minor role Mario Girotti, best known
a few years later as Terence Hill in tons of cheesy comic spaghettis western.



"Huge scale historical romance set against the backdrop of the Rome/ Carthage wars
in the 2nd century BC. The production is amazing with a scale and a look that few films,
even the Hollywood epics ever matched. As jaw dropping spectacle the film is top of the heap.
However the film suffers from a storyline that is at best soap opera as a wounded soldier
is saved by a priestess who falls in love with him while he has love elsewhere.
Things get complicated as the soldier leaves to rescue his lady love with the priestess in tow,
causing a great deal of friction for everyone. At the same time the Romans attack Carthage…
and then it gets even more complicated."

Complicated, indeed.
Not a sublime movie but in my favs cos based on a novel by Italian writer Emilio Salgari ("the Italian Jules Verne"),
itself inpired by "Salammbô" by French writer Gustave Flaubert.
My favorite book.. Complicated indeed

And in my favs cos of that cult scene with nude Anne Heywood going to be sacrified
to the cruel god Moloch. Damn, she's not really nude, not sacrified finally,
and the scene is too short. But memories are memories, and fantasies are fantasies..



IMDB
Full movie English dubbed.
Full movie French version.

Funny to compare the original voice of the French actors with their English doubles..
PS : Video quaility on French version is much better.



The "sacrifice" scene
Anne Heywood on VEF