No particular relationship to the GENRE per se, but for what it's worth, I obviously appreciate films like SPARTACUS and GLADIATOR.
Less fondness for the exploitation sub-genre you're all talking about here, though.
"....exploitation sub-genre.." Oh come on Thor, put down the dinner napkin and the knife and fork and eat with your fingers like the rest of (some) of us. It's fun!
For a few years in the late 50’s my Mom worked for one of the pioneering legit bodybuilding magazines – and as a result I once met Steve Reeves when he was promoting “Hercules” (and I also met a couple of other filmmuscle guys). I had obsessed over the movie – seeing it 3 or 4 times at our local theater. She had asked the publisher and his wife if I might hang around the office on the day that Mr. Reeves was expected for a photo shoot. I was only 5 or 6 – and he made an overwhelming impression on me.. He came in with a couple of persons who had flown in with him – was wearing casual slacks, knit shirt, and a sports jacket – all cut to emphasize his physique. My mother introduced me as one of his greatest fans (and if I do say so myself I was adorable back then). He picked me up like I was a feather, held me so I was kind of cradled in his right arm so he could look straight at me instead of bending over, and asked a couple of questions which, alas, I’ve forgotten. It was like meeting an authentic superhero. Superman in person. He was just an incredibly overwhelming superhuman physical presence to me back then. For me there is no other superhero – Reeves as Hercules will always be No 1.
Well, I'd venture to say that the Reeves' HERCULES (1958) is probably one of the best peplum films, if not the best, if only because of his presence. At the time, he created a sensation. Which is odd, because Tarzan films had been showing for years, and Tarzan player Gordon Scott had a similar build.
Maybe it had something to do with the Greek mythological angle. There really hadn't been any films from that point of view up to then. To be sure, Hollywood had done some films which sort of skirted around the subject, and, of course, there had been DeMille's SAMSON AND DELILAH. But that was Judeo-Christian, not ancient Greek, mythology. And there had been Italian films, mostly historical. (Strongman Maciste originated in the Italian epic, CABIRIA, back in 'teens..., while Ursus began as a subsidiary bodyguard to the heroine, in the book and various filmed versions, of QUO VADIS. But neither character was more than someone in the background.)
Though Reeves was in several Hollywood films before HERCULES, most notably the MGM ATHENA, where he is little more than set-dressing, he reached almost instant stardom as soon as he donned the peplum. (Although, I've often wondered what his real voice sounded like; all of his Italian films were dubbed, of course, though I suspect it's not with his actual voice.)
As Mr. McMasters points out above, it would appear the peplum films are more popular in Europe. I'd love to see more of them restored to better shape, at least in their original widescreen versions. But they were never very well made to begin with, with only, it appeared, a minimal amount of care to their pictorial quality.
Still, they will remain a not-so-guilty pleasure of mine. Everyone has a childhood, and everyone has elements from that childhood that linger in the memory.
You can do a YouTube search on Reeves and find many clips in which he appears on TV shows with his real voice -- also some dupey clips of the failed TV show he did called "Kimbar" -- a Tarzan type pilot.
There is also a super YouTube video of a panel presentation/interview with an older Reeves -- and with other muscle movie guys, including Gordon Scott -- Hercules, Sampson/Tarzan all on the same stage!
A coincidence maybe, but did anyone ever wonder why you had GEORGE REEVES as the famous Superman on the TV show in the 50's, STEEVE REEVES as a sought of hero HERCULUS, then they got CHRISTOPHER REEVE as SUPERMAN. Don't get me wrong they were all 3 talented guys, but you get the feeling[good old hollywood] the last 2 got in because of their names.
YES INDEED a part of one;s childhood in the 60's early 70's WOR-TV -CHANNEL 9 in NEW YORK bought God knows , how many of those films in film packages and shown them for years, mostly in the afternoon. some reason not to often late at night. As you folks know some of the titles were so long TV guide needed two lines just for the title. Matter of fact a expert in that field of film, was actually a bodyguard i hired for the first film i made in 1984. Nice guy, he knew everything there was to know about those films. He said he was in the process of doing a book on them. I don't know if he ever finished it or got it publish.Those films were a part of New York TV life in that era.
I am a big fan of peplum films which also include epics and gladiator films --- it started with TEN COMMANDMENTS + BEN-HUR and then came HERCULES + its excellent sequel , HERCULES UNCHAINED followed by the reissues of SAMSON AND DELILAH + ULLYSESS and then reissues of HELEN OF TROY + LAND OF THE PHAROAHS and later THE ROBE in '63, GOLIATH AND THE BARBARIANS , THE SILVER CHALICE(R), THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES , REVOLT OF THE SLAVES , THEODORA, SLAVE EMPRESS, LAST DAYS OF POMPEII , DUEL OF THE TITANS , etc. So there is a mix of Biblical and Peplum epics --- a lot of the later peplums never played in my location but I remember many of them started showing on tv in the early - mid 60s - like THE TYRANTS OF BABYLON AGAINST THE SONS OF HERCULES which was pretty silly but some like THE SWORD AND THE CROSS '57(aka SLAVES OF CARTHAGE) with Gianna Maria Canale which was like a low rent version of QUO VADIS - so not bad. These films have dominated all my collecting interests in later life -- movie memorablia, soundtracks, dvds, etc. I have discovered as the two Johns have many of these films in later years in all their widescreen glory - one Mr McMasters mentioned that really looks great is the 70mm HERCULES + THE CONQUEST OF ATLANTIS(aka Hercules and the Captive Woman) - unfortunately many of the great ones have not been released in the US on dvd or BR - hence I had to buy an all codes player -- its amazing what is out there--- ever hear of the film MARY MAGDALENE starring Yvonne Decarlo - a beautiful Technicolor film hardly released in the US and also known as THE SWORD AND THE CROSS '60 -- or PONTIUS PILATE '62 starring Jean Marais and Jeanne Crain -- a companion film to the amazing BARABBAS??
BTW I do have a widescreen , English language version of Steve Reeves' THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD fyi.
Another great peplum/gladiator /epic is FABIOLA from Italy released at nearly 3 hours over there and later cut + reditted extensively for US release -- I have found both of those and even in B+W , it was a remarkable achievement - it was remade many times including REVOLT OF THE SLAVES starring Rhonda Fleming + Lang Jeffries.
Well, the plots of most of them are pretty generic. There's this big muscle guy, see, who hangs out with these other guys, some with muscles but not nearly as much as he is. And there's a villain, usually with some kind of pointy beard, who makes life tough for the muscle guy and his buddies. Then there's this temptress type, who usually wears what looks like a bikini with veils attached here and there, and she invariably tempts Mr. Muscles from the straight and narrow path of helping his friends. Too late, some of his friends are caught by Evil Guy Pointy Beard, and some are tortured, sort of graphically. But it all ends well, because the "people," i.e. the extras, all wearing variations on a burlap bag, revolt at the end, and, with the help of Mr. Muscles, overthrow the Evil Guy, so that some kind of primitive democracy can take over.
(And, there's often a shot of Mr. Muscles pushing over a Big Rock, or throwing a Column, or destroying some fancy Piece of Architecture, which ends up rolling over all 6 of the extras working as soldiers for the villain...)
And then, our hero is joined by his, usually nebulous, girlfriend, who wears a one-piece outfit, to show she's more virtuous than the Temptress, for a kind of clinch at the end, amidst the victorious crowd of "the People," who've just defeated the Villain.
Meanwhile, the sound, not to mention the music, makes one think the whole thing was recorded underwater in a goldfish bowl.
Sound familiar?
(But they're all still a lot of fun, in their way, and never pretentious.)
Didn't Steve Reeves have a dwarf sidekick in a couple of those films?
Anybody besides me remember the hilarious Saturday Night Live take-off on the poorly-dubbed Hercules films, starring Bill Murray as a reluctant and out-of-shape Hercules, complaining as he was called upon to perform some "Herculean" feat in order to save the damsel?
Anybody besides me remember the hilarious Saturday Night Live take-off on the poorly-dubbed Hercules films, starring Bill Murray as a reluctant and out-of-shape Hercules, complaining as he was called upon to perform some "Herculean" feat in order to save the damsel?
You bet I do!
"That boulder is too large." (points outward helpfully) "I can lift a smaller one..."
... Hercules is here!!!... Just tell me which champion you want me to beat, Jason!!
Dave is this another of your gay pride threads??? Just checking before i contribute!
What these cheesy films have to do with 'gay pride' is beyond me. And if you have to ask because you might contribute to the wrong category, well, I just don't know about you Mr. Carson. I better have a talk with your wife.
