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

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

Duel of the Titans (1961)

Original title: Romolo e Remo

Peplum. Italy/France. Starring Steve Reeves, Gordon Scott, Virna Lisi, Piero Lulli & Germano Longo. Directed by Sergio Corbucci.

DVD: Koch Media (Germany). English/German language options. Widescreen. Excellent quality!

Excellent, dramatic peplum with a familiar "Cain and Abel" storyline. Two of my favorite peplum stars, Reeves and Scott, are pitted against each other in a manly story of rebellion, sacrifice and brotherly jealousy and betrayal. Apparently the two beefcake actors hated each other in real life which might explain the (negative) chemistry between them. Highly recommended film - Corbucci was not only one of the best directors of spaghetti westerns, he was just as good at cranking out pepla! 4/5

Revolt of the Praetorians (1964)

Original title: La Rivolta dei Pretoriani

Peplum. Italy. Starring Richard Harrison, Moira Orfei, Piero Lulli & Giuliano Gemma. Directed by Alfonso Brescia.

A*G*M Home Video (Greece). English dubbed. Fullscreen. My tape has bad playback.

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

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

Hercules and the Black Pirate (1964)

Original title: Sansone Contro il Corsaro Nero

Peplum/Pirate yarn. Italy. Starring Alan Steel, Rosalba Neri, Piero Lulli & Andrea Aureli. Directed by Luigi Capuano.

DVD: Retromedia (USA). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Fun mixture of sword and sandal and pirate film. 3/5

Queen of the Tartars (1960)

Original title: La Regina dei Tartari

Peplum. Italy/France. Starring Chelo Alonso, Jacques Sernas, Mario Petri, Piero Lulli, Raf Baldassarre, Philippe Hersent & Andrea Scotti. Directed by Sergio Grieco.

Delta Video (Holland). English dubbed. Letterboxed.

This one was quite a surprise! It's kinda like the first 10 minutes of a sword and sorcery flick, where a bunch of barbarians dressed up as Manowar pillage some village, but for 90 minutes. It even features a man in a bear costume! The tartar queen is really a kick-ass girl, who takes no crap and is a better leader than the men (ps! she's really cute too). I wouldn't go an call it feminist masterpiece, but well... it's about as feminist as the peplum genre gets (remember this is the genre where women with black hair are automatically cunning and evil). Great peplum with lots of charm! 4/5

Goliath at the Conquest of Damascus (1965)

Original title: Golia alla Conquista di Bagdad

Peplum/Arabian adventure. Italy. Starring Rock Stevens, Mario Petri, Helga Liné, Arturo Dominici, Piero Lulli, Andrea Aureli & Daniele Vargas. Directed by Domenico Paolella.

EVC (Holland). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

I prefer the un-PC Goliath Against the Arabs-title, but it seems to restricted to this video release, so... Anyway, a watchable but unexeptional arabian peplum best saved for a rainy day. 2/5

Goliath at the Conquest of Damascus (1965)

Original title: Golia alla Conquista di Bagdad

Peplum/Arabian adventure. Italy. Starring Rock Stevens, Mario Petri, Helga Liné, Arturo Dominici, Piero Lulli, Andrea Aureli & Daniele Vargas. Directed by Domenico Paolella.

EVC (Holland). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

I prefer the un-PC Goliath Against the Arabs-title, but it seems to restricted to this video release, so... Anyway, a watchable but unexeptional arabian peplum best saved for a rainy day. 2/5

Buffalo Bill, Hero of the Far West (1965)

Original title: Buffalo Bill, L'eroe del Far West

Western/Adventure. Italy/France/West Gerany. Starring Gordon Scott,Mario Brega, Piero Lulli, Hans von Borsody & Ingeborg Schöner. Directed by Mario Costa.

Salut (Denmark). Selltape. English dubbed. Fullscreen. Not the best looking print.

Generally considered the first spaghetti western, this plays much more like an adventure film. Not so strange considering the director is adventure expert Mario Costa, the casting of peplum star Gordon Scott and the fact that Leone hadn't hit us with his "dollar" films yet. Some people go into this hoping for something Leone-essque and are dissapointed when they get an innocent adventure film in western settings. But for me who likes adventure it's a surprisingly well-crafted and all around fun film... one of Costa's best! 4/5

Duel of the Titans (1961)

Original title: Romolo e Remo

Peplum. Italy/France. Starring Steve Reeves, Gordon Scott, Virna Lisi, Piero Lulli & Germano Longo. Directed by Sergio Corbucci.

Spectrum Video (Holland). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Excellent, dramatic peplum with a familiar "Cain and Abel" storyline. Two of my favorite peplum stars, Reeves and Scott, are pitted against each other in a manly story of rebellion, sacrifice and brotherly jealousy and betrayal. Apparently the two beefcake actors hated each other in real life which might explain the (negative) chemistry between them. Highly recommended film - Corbucci was not only one of the best directors of spaghetti westerns, he was just as good at cranking out pepla! 4/5

The Scourge of the Barbarians (1962)

Original title: Re Manfredi

Sword. Italy. Starring Ken Clark, Gérard Landry, Moira Orfei & Piero Lulli. Directed by Paolo Lombardo & Piero Regnoli.

Pepikahs Video (Greece). English dubbed. Fullscreen. Not the best print.

Duel at the Rio Grande (1963)

Original title: Il Segno di Zorro

Zorro adventure. Spain/Italy/France. Starring Sean Flynn, Helga Liné, Folco Lulli, Carlo Tamberlani, Mario Petri & Piero Lulli. Directed by Mario Caiano.

Star Video (Finland). English dubbed. Letterboxed.

Fake Zorro film (the hero hardly ever wears the mask) starring Erroll Flynn's son Sean - a better journalist than an actor who died as a Vietcong POW documentaring the war. The movie plays more like an american western with some swordfights: passable entertainment, but not much more. 2/5

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.

PVP (Greece). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

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

Attack of the Normans (1962)

Original title: I Normanni

Peplum/Vikings. Italy. Starring Cameron Mitchell, Geneviève Grad, Ettore Manni, Piero Lulli & Paul Muller. Directed by Giuseppe Vari.

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

Not the best, nor the worst viking peplum, but it's pretty good for what it is. As usual when there's vikings involved, Cameron Mitchell got the lead. How that guy got typecast as a viking i'll never understand... 3/5

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