Devil's Cavaliers (1959)

Original title: I Cavalieri del Diavolo

Sword. Italy. Starring Frank Latimore, Gianna Maria Canale, Anthony Steffen & Andrea Aureli. Directed by Siro Marcellini.

Worldwide Video (Holland). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Very dated and stiff costume adventure with lots of jolly (read: annoying) song and dance numbers. 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

Zorro, the Navarra Marquis (1969)

Original title: Zorro Marchese di Navarra

Zorro adventure. Italy. Starring Nino Vingelli, Malisa Longo, Dada Gallotti, Daniele Vargas & Nadir Moretti. Directed by Franco Montemurro.

Video Screen (Holland). BETA. Italian language with dutch subtitles. Letterboxed.

Pretty dull, at least if you don't understand the language. Zorro's alter ego is a gay barberer in this one. 2/5

Original title: Maciste, Gladiatore di Sparta

Peplum. Italy/France. Starring Mark Forest, Marilù Tolo, Elisabetta Fanti, Claudio Undari & Jacques Stany. Directed by Mario Caiano.

EVC (Holland). English dubbed. Widescreen.

The gladiator Maciste, played by Mark Forest, fights a gorilla and saves some christians from the evil and cunning roman emperor. One of the more entertaining christians Vs. Praetorians flicks out there. 3/5

Three Giants for Rome (1971)

Original title: Il Ritorno del Gladiatore Più Forte del Mondo

Peplum. Italy. Starring Brad Harris, Massimo Serato, Raf Baldassarre, Michel Lemoine & Maria Pia Conte. Directed by Bitto Albertini.

Empire (Holland). English dubbed. Fullscreen. Unfortunely the first 5 minutes of this tape are taped over... anybody have a DVD-R? (or even better; a new tape?)

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

Hercules Unchained (1959)

Original title: Ercole e la Regina di Lidia

Peplum. Italy/France/Spain. Starring Steve Reeves, Sylva Koscina, Sylvia Lopez, Gabriele Antonini, Patrizia Della Rovere, Mimmo Palmara & Daniele Varga. Directed by Pietro Francisci.

Standard Video )Holland). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

The follow-up to Francisci's Hercules is even better than the first one. Essential viewing. 4/5

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

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

The Triumph of Robin Hood (1962)

Original title: Il Trionfo di Robin Hood

Robin Hood adventure. Italy. Starring Don Burnett, Samson Burke, Arturo Dominici & Germano Longo. Directed by Umberto Lenzi.

VML (Holland). French language with dutch subtitles. Fullscreen.

You could usually count on Umberto Lenzi to deliver a smashing good time in front of the TV (not counting his awful cannibal films) but this is a terrible Robin Hood film, ridden by inept performances, bland direction and brainmelting attempts at slapstick humour. Only of interest for sad euro-adventure collectors like me. Beware ye who enter here! 1/5

Sinbad and the Caliph of Bagdad (1973)

Original title: Simbad e il Califfo di Bagdad

Arabian fantasy/Comedy (?). Italy. Starring Robert Malcolm, Sonia Wilson & Luigi Bonos. Directed by Pietro Francisci.

Premium Video (Holland). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Arabian fantasy flop from the director of the first two Hercules-films with Steve Reeves, gigantic hits at their time. It's a cheaply made and often boring film in which you're not always sure whether the comedy is intentional or not. This and the sci-fi flop Star Pilot (underrestimated in my opinion) effectively killed Francisci's career... 2/5

Lionman (1975)

Original title: Kiliç Aslan

Biblical bat-crazy adventure. Turkey/Greece. Starring Cüneyt Arkin. Directed by Natuk Baytan.

Video 49 (Holland). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

One of those perfect trash movies that just has to be seen to believed. Nothing you hear or read will prepare you for the wonder that is Lionman! 5/5

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

Caesar the Conqueror (1962)

Original title: Giulio Cesare, il Conquistatore delle Gallie

Peplum/Historical. Italy. Starring Cameron Mitchell, Rik Battaglia, Dominique Wilms, Carlo Tamberlani, Carla Calò & Bruno Tocci. Directed by Tanio Boccia.

Megastar Video (Holland). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

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

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

Maciste Contre la Reine des Amazones (1973)

Jungle adventure/Amazons/Erotica. France. Starring Val Davis, Lina Romay, Robert Woods, Kali Hansa & Alice Arno. Directed by Jesus Franco.

VML (Holland). French language. Letterboxed.

Sexy amazon cheapie by the king of euro-sleaze, Jess Franco. Silly fun. Don't be fooled by the Maciste-title though, it has nothing at all to do with the peplum series - in fact it's more a sleaze film than even an adventure film. 3/5

Conquest (1983)

Fantasy. Italy/Spain/Mexico. Starring Jorge Rivero, Andrea Occhipinti & Sabrina Siani. Directed by Lucio Fulci.

VCL (Holland). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Fulci's unique, fog-filled and freeform contribution to the sword and sorcery genre has it's fair share of detractors even among his hardcore fanbase (and their critique is valid on many points), but personally I love this film! I would recommend approaching in a similiar way you approach a good Jess Franco film instead of your typical Conan ripp off - don't worry about lack of logic, character development or the nonsensical "plot" and just try to enjoy the sinister, fog-filled atmosphere, the spectacular gore, the wonderful Simonetti synth score, the magic crossbows, wolfmen and Sabrina Siani's tits... Okay, so it doesn't make any sense, but neither did City of the Living Dead! 4/5

The Sword of the Barbarians (1982)

Original title: Sangraal, La Spada di Fuoco

Fantasy. Italy. Starring Peter McCoy, Sabrina Siani & Hal Yamanouchi. Directed by Michele Massimo Tarantini.

Video For Pleasure (Holland). English dubbed. Widescreen.

One of the best of the italian low budget Conan-ripp offs (itself a ripp off of the italian peplas of the 1960s). A violent and very entertaining slice of machismo/lunacy! 4/5

When Women Played Ding Dong (1971)

Original title: Quando gli Uomini Armarono la Clava e... Con le Donne Fecero Din-Don

Sex comedy/Fantasy. Italy. Starring Antonio Sabato, Gisela Hahn, Nadia Cassini, Howard Ross, Lucretia Love & Aldo Giuffrè. Directed by Bruno Corbucci (who else?).

Miracle Video (Holland). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

This downright retarded stoneage slapstick sex comedy is like When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth on horse tranquilizers. Proceed with extreme caution! The stoneage rock band and Antonio Sabata's Iron Maiden-wig has got to be seen though... 1/5