Hercules in the Haunted World (1961)

Original title: Ercole al Centro della Terra

Peplum. Italy. Starring Reg Park, Christopher Lee, Leonora Ruffo, George Ardisson, Ida Galli, Rosalba Neri & Raf Baldassarre. Directed by Mario Bava & Franco Prosperi.

EVC (Holland). English dubbed. Letterboxed (slightly). By adjusting your TV settings you could get a pretty good widescreen.

Wonderful, trippy gothic-peplum! Bava demonstrates again his ability to create gold from nothing - this low budget film looks like a mega-budget epic and is hands down THE most visually imaginative peplas around. According to me and many others this is about as good as the genre gets! 5/5

Original title: La Guerra di Troia

Peplum. Italy/France. Starring Steve Reeves, John Drew Barrymore, Edy Vessel, Arturo Dominici, Lidia Alfonsi, Mimmo Palmara & Carlo Tamberlani. Directed by Giorgio Ferroni.

Sunrise Tapes (Holland). English dubbed. Letterboxed. Dig the waltzing Reeves dental work on the (über-gay) cover.

Well-made, above average sword and sandal spectacle with Steve Reeves. 3/5

Duel of the Champions (1961)

Original title: Orazi e Curiazi

Peplum. Italy. Starring Alan Ladd, Robert Keith, Luciano Marin, Andrea Aureli & Franca Bettoia. Directed by Ferdinando Baldi & Terence Young.

EVC (Holland). BETA. English dubbed. Letterboxed.

Fine, medium-budget peplum with fading american moviestar Alan Ladd (who looks way too old for the hero part). 3/5

Hercules in the Haunted World (1961)

Original title: Ercole al Centro della Terra

Peplum. Italy. Starring Reg Park, Christopher Lee, Leonora Ruffo, George Ardisson, Ida Galli, Rosalba Neri & Raf Baldassarre. Directed by Mario Bava & Franco Prosperi.

DVD: Fantoma (USA). English dubbed. Widescreen. Excellent quality!

Wonderful, trippy gothic-peplum! Bava demonstrates again his ability to create gold from nothing - this low budget film looks like a mega-budget epic and is hands down THE most visually imaginative peplas around. According to me and many others this is about as good as the genre gets! 5/5

Ursus (1961)

Peplum. Italy/Spain. Starring Ed Fury, Cristina Gaioni, Moira Orfei, Soledad Miranda & Cris Huerta. Directed by Carlo Campogalliani.

PM Video Galaxy (Greece). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

This has got to be one of the worst video transfers ever: the scratchy pan-and-scan is bad enough in itself, but the whole thing is also drenched in red and green color to the point that it's almost like watching a 2D movie with 3D-glasses on! It seems like a fun flick but I just couldn't get through it in this wretched form...

The Colossus of Rhodes (1961)

Original title: Il Colosso di Rodi

Peplum. Italy/Spain/France. Starring Rory Calhoun, Georges Marchal, Lea Massari, Mimmo Palmara, Ángel Aranda, Carlo Tamberlani & Nello Pazzafini. Directed by Sergio Leone.

DVD: Warner (USA). English dubbed. Widescreen. Excellent quality!

Leone's directional debut is a really good, intriguing peplum with excellent FX and productions values (I suspect that the film was a lot cheaper than it looks though). My only complaint: Calhoun, while a reasonably good lead, is not buff enough to make it as a Hercules-type hero. 4/5

Gordon, the Black Pirate (1961)

Original title: Gordon, il Pirata Nero

Pirate yarn. Italy. Starring Ricardo Montalban, Vincent Price & Liana Orfei. Directed by Mario Costa. Standard Video (Holland). English dubbed. Letterboxed (slightly).

Italian pirate film that plays everything just the right way. And it has Vincent Price as the villian! 4/5

The Prisoner of the Iron Mask (1961)

Original title: La Vendetta della Maschera di Ferro

Sword. Italy/France. Starring Michel Lemoine, Wandisa Guida, Andrea Bosic, Jany Clair & Nando Tamberlani. Directed by Henri Decoin & Francesco De Feo.

Cine Video Distribution (Belgium). French language with dutch subtitles. Letterboxed.

The Trojan War (1961)

Original title: La Guerra di Troia

Peplum. Italy/France. Starring Steve Reeves, John Drew Barrymore, Edy Vessel, Arturo Dominici, Lidia Alfonsi, Mimmo Palmara & Carlo Tamberlani. Directed by Giorgio Ferroni.

DVD: New Entertainment (Germany)English/german language options. Widescreen. Nice quality.

Well-made, above average sword and sandal spectacle with Steve Reeves. 3/5

Erik the Conqueror (1961)

Original title: Gli Invasori

Peplum/Vikings. Italy/France. Cameron Mitchell, George Ardisson, Alice Kessler, Ellen Kessler, Raf Baldassarre & Joe Robinson. Directed by Mario Bava.

DVD: Anchor Bay (USA). English dubbed. Widescreen. Excellent quality.

Excellent, beautifully shot viking epic! Looks much more expensive than it really was. One of Bava's best non-horror films. 4/5

Goliath Against the Giants (1961)

Original title: Goliath Contro i Giganti

Peplum. Italy/Spain. Starring Brad Harris, Gloria Milland, Fernando Rey & Nello Pazzafini. Directed by Guido Malatesta.

DVD: RHV (Italy). English/italian language options. Widescreen. Very good quality.

Silly Malatesta-fun with giants, seamonsters, amazons, an evil king etc. Entertaining! 3/5

Samson (1961)

Original title: Sansone

Peplum. Italy/France. Starring Brad Harris, Alan Steel, Serge Gainsbourg, Luisella Boni, Carlo Tamberlani & Mara Berni. Directed by Gianfranco Parolini.

RHV (Italy). English/italian language options. Widescreen. Very good quality.

Brad Harris hero has no connection to the longhaired biblical except for the name in this pretty entertaining peplum. Watch out for Serge Gainsbourg as the weasly villian! 3/5

Duel of the Titans (1961)

Original title: Romolo e Remo

Peplum. Italy/France. Starring Steve Reeves, Gordon Scott, Virna Lisi, Piero Lulli & Germano Longo. Directed by Sergio Corbucci.

DVD: Koch Media (Germany). English/German language options. Widescreen. Excellent quality!

Excellent, dramatic peplum with a familiar "Cain and Abel" storyline. Two of my favorite peplum stars, Reeves and Scott, are pitted against each other in a manly story of rebellion, sacrifice and brotherly jealousy and betrayal. Apparently the two beefcake actors hated each other in real life which might explain the (negative) chemistry between them. Highly recommended film - Corbucci was not only one of the best directors of spaghetti westerns, he was just as good at cranking out pepla! 4/5

The Trojan War (1961)

Original title: La Guerra di Troia

Peplum. Italy/France. Starring Steve Reeves, John Drew Barrymore, Edy Vessel, Arturo Dominici, Lidia Alfonsi, Mimmo Palmara & Carlo Tamberlani. Directed by Giorgio Ferroni.

Epic Home Video (South Africa). English dubbed. Widescreen. Very good quality. Selltape or possibly a bootleg.

Well-made, above average sword and sandal spectacle with Steve Reeves. 3/5

Vengeance of Ursus (1961)

Original title: La Vendetta di Ursus

Peplum. Italy. Starring Samson Burke, Wandisa Guida, Livio Lorenzon & Nerio Bernardi. Directed by Luigi Capuano.

VTC (Sweden). English dubbed. Widescreen. Very good print.

This time Samson Burke plays the Ursus part instead of the usual suspect Ed Fury and a fine job he does. A very entertaining peplum with a pompeus hero with super strenght, a kid hero sidekick, a cunning and evil king, a princess in distress, treason, traps etc. (i.e the same old stuff we never tire of - it's not orginality we're after, right?). Was there a "funny" midget too? I can't remember. Anyway, real fun stuff, check it out if you get the chance. 4/5

Queen of the Pirates (1961)

Original title: La Venere dei Pirati

Pirate yarn. Italy/West Germany. Starring Gianna Maria Canale, Massimo Serato, Scilla Gabel, Livio Lorenzon, Paul Muller, Moira Orfei & Andrea Aureli. Directed by Mario Costa.

Original Video (Greece). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Gianna Maria Canale is great as the masked female pirate in this fun, colorful pirate swashbuckler. Another Costa winner. I don't know if it's healthy for an adult male to be so exited over this type of pulp adventure film for kids, but I don't care! 4/5

Atlas (1961)

Peplum. USA/Greece. Starrig Michael Forest, Frank Wolff & Barboura Morris. Directed by Roger Corman.

Video For Pleasure (Holland). English language. Letterboxed. The video transfer could be better but it's the only color+lbx print I know of. This appears to be some kind of VFP promo video, tape has no labels but it doesn't appear to be a copy/bootleg. Anybody has a "real" VFP tape of this or know if it was even released?

One of very few american peplum imitations, produced and directed by Corman (who else?) but shot in Greece. A very cheap production (the "spectacular" battle scenes never have more than 4-5 in frame at the same time) but it's entertaining enough and Frank Wolff makes a great villian as Proximates the Tyrant. 3/5

Slave of Rome (1961)

Original title: La Schiava di Roma

Peplum. Italy. Starring Guy Madison, Rossana Podestà, Mario Petri, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart & Raf Baldassarre. Directed by Sergio Grieco & Franco Prosperi.

VPD (UK). English dubbed. Letterboxed.

Erik the Conqueror (1961)

Original title: Gli Invasori

Peplum/Vikings. Italy/France. Cameron Mitchell, George Ardisson, Alice Kessler, Ellen Kessler, Raf Baldassarre & Joe Robinson. Directed by Mario Bava.

All World Video (Greece). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Excellent, beautifully shot viking epic! Looks much more expensive than it really was. One of Bava's best non-horror films. 4/5

The Giant of Metropolis (1961)

Original title: Il Gigante di Metropolis

Peplum. Italy. Starring Gordon Mitchell, Bella Cortez, Liana Orfei, Carlo Tamberlani & Leopoldo Savona. Directed by Umberto Scarpelli.

DVD: Retromedia (USA). English dubbed. Fake "letterbox". Pretty terrible quality.

Somebody here obviously liked the 1930s Flash Gordon serials when they were kids... A wonderful sci-fi peplum! Deserves a much better release than this crap DVD. 4/5