The Secret Seven (1963)

Original title: Gli Invincibili Sette

Peplum. Spain/Italy. Starring Tony Russell, Helga Liné, Massimo Serato, Gérard Tichy, Livio Lorenzon & Cris Huerta. Directed by Alberto De Martino.

Delta Video (Holland). English dubbed. Letterboxed (slightly). 

A simple but entertaining boys' adventure with lots of charm. Watch seven men defeat an whole army! 3/5

Alone Against Rome (1962)

Original title: Solo contro Roma

Peplum. Italy. Starring Lang Jeffries, Rossana Podestà, Philippe Leroy, Gabriele Tinti & Luciana Angiolillo. Directed by Luciano Ricci.

DVD: Odeon (Greece). English dubbed. Widescreen. Good quality.

Fall of Rome (1963)

Original title: Il Crollo di Roma

Peplum. Italy. Starring Carl Möhner, Ida Galli, Andrea Aureli, Loredana Nusciak, Nando Tamberlani & Jim Dolen. Directed by Antonio Margheriti.

DVD: Odeon (Greece). English dubbed. Widescreen. Good quality.

Reasonable entertaining "meet and potatoes" peplum that gets the job without overachieving. Margheriti of course can't help to bring his modelkit along, and thank God for that! 3/5

Colossus and the Headhunters (1963)

Original title: Maciste Contro i Cacciatori di Teste

Peplum. Italy. Starring Kirk Morris. Directed by Guido Malatesta.

NS (Taiwan). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

As many other films starring the ever expressionless (the Michael Myers of the pepla?) Kirk Morris it's cheap, illogical and badly made - but with a certain wild and bizarre quality that has its fascination! 2/5

The Secret Seven (1963)

Original title: Gli Invincibili Sette

Peplum. Spain/Italy. Starring Tony Russell, Helga Liné, Massimo Serato, Gérard Tichy, Livio Lorenzon & Cris Huerta. Directed by Alberto De Martino.

Delta Video (Holland). English dubbed. Widescreen.

This was a nice surprise - what I thought would be yet another copy of the Richard Harrison dud The Invincible Gladiator turned out to be the very rare The Secret Seven - and it's a good one too! A simple but entertaining boys' adventure with lots of charm. Watch seven men defeat an whole army! 3/5

Hercules Against Moloch (1963)

Original title: Ercole Contro Molock

Peplum. Italy/France. Starring Gordon Scott, Alessandra Panaro, Rosalba Neri, Arturo Dominici, Michel Lemoine, Geneviève Grad & Jany Clair. Directed by Giorgio Ferroni.

Sunrise Tapes (Holland). English dubbed. Letterboxed.

Good peplum with some nice gothic horror influences. 3/5

Catherine of Russia (1963)

Original title: Caterina di Russia

Historical/Drama. Italy/France. Starring Hildegard Knef, Sergio Fantoni, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart & Milly Vitale. Directed by Umberto Lenzi.

Worldwide Video (Holland). English dubbed. Widescreen.

Not bad historical drama. 3/5

The Black Duke (1963)

Original title: Il Duca Nero

Sword. Italy/Spain. Starring Cameron Mitchell, Conrado San Martín, Maria Grazia Spina, Gloria Milland, Robert Dean & Franco Fantasia. Directed by Pino Mercanti.

Video Cronos (Greece). German dubbed. Fullscreen.

Sandokan the Great (1963)

Original title: Sandokan, la Tigre di Mompracem

Pirate/Exotic. Italy/France/Spain. Starring Steve Reeves, Geneviève Grad, Andrea Bosic, Rik Battaglia, Adolfo Celi & Mimmo Palmara. Directed by Umberto Lenzi.

DVD: Impulso Records & Films (Spain). English/spanish language options. Widescreen. Good quality, except for a 5-10 minute part in the middle which appears to be sourced from VHS.

Lenzi's first Sandokan flick - 100% classic stuff! My favorite Steve Reeves film. 5/5

Colossus and the Headhunters (1963)

Original title: Maciste Contro i Cacciatori di Teste

Peplum. Italy. Starring Kirk Morris. Directed by Guido Malatesta.

Filmax (Spain). English/spanish language option. Widescreen. Good quality.

As many other films starring the ever expressionless (the Michael Myers of the pepla?) Kirk Morris it's cheap, illogical and badly made - but with a certain wild and bizarre quality that has its fascination! 2/5

Ursus in the Land of Fire (1963)

Original title: Ursus Nella Terra di Fuoco

Peplum. Italy. Starring Ed Fury, Claudia Mori, Nando Tamberlani & Luciana Gilli. Directed by Giorgio Simonelli.

Video Art (Greece). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

A pretty standard peplum. While entertaining enough for a rainy sunday afternoon it could have used a few surprises or a little bit of charm... 2/5

Sandokan the Great (1963)

Original title: Sandokan, la Tigre di Mompracem

Pirate adventure/Exotic. Italy/France/Spain. Starring Steve Reeves, Geneviève Grad, Andrea Bosic, Rik Battaglia, Adolfo Celi & Mimmo Palmara. Directed by Umberto Lenzi.

VTC (Sweden). English dubbed. Letterboxed.

Lenzi's first Sandokan flick - 100% classic stuff! My favorite Steve Reeves film. 5/5

Tor: Mighty Warrior (1963)

Original title: Taur, il Re della Forza Bruta

Peplum. Italy. Starring Joe Robinson, Bella Cortez & Harry Baird. Directed by Antonio Leonviola.

Replay Video (Belgium). French language with dutch subtitles. Letterboxed (slightly). Image is stretched out so if you adjust your TV settings you can get a pretty good full widescreen, but it doesn't help much since the print is horribly bad and dubbed in french... Nice, tacky cover though.

Bizarre and crudely made peplum, but not without its entertainment value. Apparently the project begun as a Tarzan-ripp off, but not much of that was left in the finsihed product (this tacky belgian video release tries to sell it as one though). A blatantly racist movie, poor Harry Baird (Four of the Apocalypse) had to degrade himself as Ubaratutu, the stupid and cowardly black sidekick to his "massa" Taur. 2/5

Brennus, Enemy of Rome (1963)

Original title: Brenno il Nemico di Roma

Peplum. Italy. Starring Gordon Mitchell, Massimo Serato, Tony Kendall ,Ursula Davis, Carla Calò & Andrea Aureli. Directed by Giacomo Gentilomo.

Venus Video (Greece). English dubbed. Widescreen. Nice print!

Wonderful peplum that really showcases Gordon Mitchell strenghts in roles like "ruthless warrior chief"! Very well made, very entertaining... and surprisingly violent and dark in tone for a sword and sandal flick (even the kid hero dies!). One of my personal favorites, highly recommended! 4/5

Hero of Babylon (1963)

Original title: L'eroe di Babilonia

Peplum. Italy/France. Starring Gordon Scott, Geneviève Grad, Andrea Scotti, Moira Orfei, Mario Petri, Piero Lulli & Andrea Aureli. Directed by Siro Marcellini.

Collection Video Films (Greece). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Gordon Scott + the usual peplum bit players star in this mediocre effort. 2/5

Samson Against the Pirates (1963)

Original title: Sansone contro i Pirati

Peplum/Pirate yarn. Italy. Starring Kirk Morris, Margaret Lee, Daniele Vargas & Tullio Altamura. Directed by Tanio Boccia.

Worldwide Video (Holland). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Another slice of Kirk Morris hokum. Yummy! 3/5

Hawk of the Carribean (1963)

Original title: Lo Sparviero dei Caraibi

Pirate yarn. Italy. Starring Johnny Desmond, Yvonne Monlaur, Armando Francioli, Piero Lulli & Luigi Batzella. Directed by Piero Regnoli.

EKO (UK). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Colorful and highly entertaining pirate-swashbuckler with big band singer Johnny Desmond (of all people) . Johnny's not so much an actor as a bundle of charm, he should have starred in more films! One of the best of its kind! 4/5

Zorro and the Three Musketeers (1963)

Original title: Zorro e i Tre Moschettieri

Zorro/Sword. Italy. Starring Gordon Scott, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Livio Lorenzon & Maria Grazia Spina. Directed by Luigi Capuano.

Wahlters Video/Cinehollywood (Sweden). English dubbed. Letterboxed (slightly).

I know I have seen this one, but I can't remember a thing about it... and that's probably not a good sign. 2/5

The Invincible Masked Rider (1963)

Original title: L'invincibile Cavaliere Mascherato

Zorro adventure. Italy/France. Starring Pierre Brice, Daniele Vargas, Hélène Chanel & Massimo Serato. Directed by Umberto Lenzi.

DVD: KSM (Germany). German dubbed. Widescreen.

Women Gladiators (1963)

Original title: Le Gladiatrici

Amazons/Peplum. Italy. Susy Andersen, Joe Robinson, Janine Hendy & Harry Baird. Directed by Antonio Leonviola.

Inter-Ocean Video (UK). English dubbed. Letterboxed.

A band of amazons are enslaving the men of the region, but thankfully the dumb hero Tor steps up to show those "redsocks" their right place! The better follow-up to Tor: Mighty Warrior adding more action and amazons to the mix, thus adding a dose of misogynism to the already strong doses of racism (yes, Ubaratutu is back too...). 3/5