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

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

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.

DVD: Concorde (Germany). English or german language options. Widescreen. Nice quality.

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

The Son of the Red Pirate (1959)

Original title: Il Figlio del Corsaro Rosso

Pirate yarn. Italy. Starring Lex Barker, Luciano Marin & Sylvia Lopez. Directed by Primo Zeglio.
NK Video (Greece). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Classy pirate film starring adventure hero Lex Barker. Jolly good fun all the way! 4/5