Herod the Great (1959)

Original title: Erode Il Grande

Historical. Italy/France. Starring Edmund Purdom, Sylvia Lopez, Massimo Girotti, Sandra Milo, Ettore Manni, Alberto Lupo & Sylva Koscina. Directed by Viktor Tourjansky.

Video King APS (Denmark). English dubbed. Widescreen.

This historical spectacle is noteworthy for the excellent performance by Purdom as the paranoid and half-mad king Herod. The dramatic ending have an almost Bava-esque gothic horror feel. Above average stuff by a director who've been around since the silent days. Appears to have had pretty high budget for an italian production. This 30 year old danish VHS looks like a blu-ray compared to pan-and-scanned, piss quality UK DVD I had earlier. 3/5

Giant of Marathon (1959)

Original title: La Battaglia di Maratona

Peplum. Italy/France. Starring Steve Reeves, Mylène Demongeot, Daniela Rocca, Philippe Hersent, Alberto Lupo, Daniele Vargas & Alan Steel. Directed by Jacques Tourneur & Mario Bava.

VTC (Sweden). English dubbed. Widescreen.

Brilliant peplum! 4/5

Coriolanus: Hero Without a Country (1964)

Original title: Coriolano: Eroe Senza Patria

Peplum. Italy/France. Starring Gordon Scott, Alberto Lupo, Lilla Brignone, Philippe Hersent, Rosalba Neri & Pierre Cressoy. Directed by Giorgio Ferroni.

VCI (Greece). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Deadly dull peplum. Just a lot of talk, talk, talk in the roman senate. And it's not even good drama. Recommended to insomniacs. 1/5

Zorro at the Spanish Court (1962)

Original title: Zorro alla Corte di Spagna

Zorro adventure. Italy. Starring George Ardisson, Carla Calò, Tullio Altamura, Livio Lorenzon, Alberto Lupo,Carlo Tamberlani & Maria Grazia Spina. Directed by Luigi Capuano.

Wahlters Video/Cinehollywood (Sweden). Letterboxed. Very dark print.

Naive Zorro adventure. It was a long time since I saw it but I remember not thinking too much of it. 2/5

The Lion of Thebes (1964)

Original title: Leone di Tebe

Peplum. Italy/France. Starring Mark Forrest, Yvonne Furneaux, Massimo Serato, Pierre Cressoy, Alberto Lupo, Rosalba Neri & Carlo Tamberlani. Directed by Giorgio Ferroni.

King Movies (Holland). English dubbed. Letterboxed.

Fine peplum. 3/5

Ursus in the Valley of the Lions (1961)

Original title: Ursus nella Valle dei Leoni

Peplum. Italy. Starring Ed Fury, Moira Orfei & Alberto Lupo. Directed by Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia.

Breien Video (Denmark). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Fun Ursus flick which might have inspired the legendary turkish trash-fest Lionman. 3/5