Ulysses (1954)

Original title: Ulisse

Peplum. Italy. Starring Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, Silvana Mangano, Rossana Podestà, Piero Lulli & Andrea Aureli. Directed by Mario Camerini & Mario Bava.

Alfa-Panorama Film & Video (Finland). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Solid Cinecittà adaption of Homeros epic, with the manly Kirk Douglas as Ulysses. 3/5

Adsiz Cengaver (1970)

Arabian fantasy/peplum. Turkey. Starring Cüneyt Arkin, Nebahat Çehre, Altan Günbay & Behçet Nacar. Directed by Halit Refig.

Kalkavan Video (Germany). Widescreen. Turkish language.

A simpy wonderful arabian fantasy which also borrows heavily from italian pepla like Hercules Unchained and others. Cüneyt is the perfect adventure hero and the film is nicely shot and full of wild action, fantasy and loose women. Loved it - tukish adventure films really are the shit! Turkish genre cinema obviously has a lot more to offer than the Grade Z-turkeys and ripp-off films they are known for. Another big plus is the stunning widescreen print, which reveals that the alleged "primitve" look of turkish cinema in many cases have more to do with battered, poorly stored prints badly transfered to VCD and DVD. Or bootleg copies which are many generations away from the original. 4/5

Malkoçoglu - Akincilar Geliyor (1969)

Peplum. Turkey. Starring Cüneyt Arkin, Esen Puskullu & Nermin Kuran. Directed by Süreyya Duru.

Arsel-Istanbul-film (Germany). Fullscreen. Turkish language.

Wild and highly entertaining historical adventure/peplum. Loved it! 4/5

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. Letterboxed (slightly). 

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

Erik the Viking (1965)

Original title: Erik, Il Vichingo

Peplum/Vikings. Italy. Starring Giuliano Gemma, Gordon Mitchell, Eleonora Bianchi, Eduardo Fajardo & Carla Calò. Directed by Mario Caiano.

Parade (Italy). Italian language. Fullscreen.

This is what happened when the vikings first discovered America according to the folks at Cinecittà. Their guess is as good as anybody's I guess... If you can accept Gemma as a viking chieftain (I have no objections!) this is a fun, minor viking peplum. Gordon Mitchell clearly enjoys himself in another villanois role. One of few italian viking films NOT to star Cameron Mitchell. 3/5

The Legions of Cleopatra (1960)

Original title: Le Legioni di Cleopatra

Peplum/Historical. Italy/France/Spain. Starring Linda Cristal, Ettore Manni, Daniela Rocca & Andrea Aureli. Directed by Vittorio Cottafavi.

NS (Korea). English dubbed. Fullscreen. Poor print - but at least it's in english, unlike the great-looking but french dubbed dutch tape. If I were more technical i'd try to make a composite...

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.

Fine (Korea). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

I'm obviously better at buying new copies of this film than at actually sitting down and watching it...

Two Gladiators (1964)

Original title: I Due Gladiatori

Peplum. Italy. Starring Richard Harrison, Piero Lulli, Moira Orfei, Mimmo Palmara & Giuliano Gemma. Directed by Mario Caiano.

ERA Home Video (Taiwan). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Mediocre gladiator flick which left no permanent place in my memory. 2/5

Gladiators Seven (1962)

Original title: I Sette Gladiatori

Peplum. Italy/Spain. Starring Richard Harrison, Livio Lorenzon, Loredana Nusciak & Gérard Tichy. Directed by Pedro Lazaga.

NS (Taiwan). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Above average gladiator flick, quite fun! 3/5

Hannibal (1960)

Original title: Annibale

Peplum/Historical. Italy. Starring Victor Mature, Gabriele Ferzetti, Milly Vitale, Rik Battaglia, Terence Hill, Andrea Aureli, Bud Spencer. Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer & Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia.

DVD: Minerva (Greece). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Bigscale historical epic on medium budget (somewhere between Cottafavi and Ben Hur). Pretty good film - even though the unnecessary love story drags a lot and the film cheats us out of the stampeding war elephants.! Actor Victor Mature looks like a beefed-up Björn Ranelid, right down to the lips... (only funny for swedes) 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 Invincible Brothers Maciste (1964)

Original title: Gli Invincibili Fratelli Maciste

Peplum. Italy. Starring Richard Lloyd, Tony Freeman, Claudie Lange, Anthony Steffen & Ursula Davis. Directed by Roberto Mauri.

Force Video (USA). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Very cheezy peplum with the dull Maciste brothers fighting an evil witchqueen and her henchmen in her underground dungeons. It works as 90 minutes of dumb/surreal entertainment for a lazy afternoon, I guess... 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

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

In the Shadow of the Eagles (1966)

Original title: All'ombra delle Aquile

Peplum. Italy/West Germany/Yugoslavia. Starring Cameron Mitchell & Beba Loncar. Directed by Ferdinando Baldi.

DVD: Minerva (Greece). English dubbed. Widescreen. Surprisingly good quality for a budget newsstand DVD.

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