Ator, the Fighting Eagle (1982)

Original title: Ator L'invincibile

Fantasy. Italy. Starring Miles O'Keeffe, Sabrina Siani, Edmund Purdom, Dakar, Laura Gemser & Ritza Brown. Directed by Joe D'Amato.

Thorn-Emi (Sweden). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Cheezy low budget sword and sorcery flick by shrewd pornographer/filmmaker D'Amato. I used to loath this film but after repeated viewing it's trash appeal have started to grown on me. It's a fun watch when in the mood for a cheezy b-flick. 3/5

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

Blackie the Pirate (1971)

Original title: Il Corsaro Nero

Pirate/Comedy. Spain/Italy. Starring Terence Hill, Bud Spencer, George Martin, Silvia Monti, Diana Lorys & Edmund Purdom. Directed by Lorenzo Gicca Palli.

VDC (Sweden). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Lightly likable pirate comedy with Bud and Terence. 3/5

Un Capitán de Quince Años (1974)

Adventure. France/Spain. Starring José Manuel Marcos, Edmund Purdom, Howard Vernon, William Berger. Directed by Jesus Franco.

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

This low budget Jules Vernes-adaption is almost universally loathed, even amongst Jess Franco fans, but I like it: a nice, relaxing adventure film with a fun cast. I think same whale harpooning footage is also used in another loathed spanish adaption of the same Jules Verne story, that I also happen to like: Juan Piquer Simón's Sea Devils. 3/5

Invaders of the Lost Gold (1982)

Jungle adventure/Exploitation. Italy. Starring Stuart Whitman, Laura Gemser, Edmund Purdom & Woody Strode. Directed by Alan Birkinshaw.

Breien Video (Sweden). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Trashy jungle adventure about hidden nazi gold, greed and cannibals. Despite a good cast and some gore it never rises above mediocracy. It's like a bad version of René Cardona Jr:s wonderful The Treasure of the Amazon (also starring Whitman). 2/5

The Last of the Vikings (1961)

Original title: L'ultimo dei Vikinghi

Peplum/Vikings. Italy/France. Starring Cameron Mitchell, Edmund Purdom, George Ardison, Andrea Aureli, Piero Lulli. Directed by Giacomo Gentilomo & Mario Bava.

U.S. Videomovies (Sweden). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Very entertaining and nicely shot viking peplum with one of the sickliest and most pathetic screen villians ever - it took me half of the pictures running time to realise he was NOT a hunchback! Maybe not the most historically correct depictions of the life of the vikings, but who cares? 4/5