Peplum Populist: Maciste in Hell (The Witch’s Curse)
Although Maciste in Hell isn’t as fantastic as Hercules in the Haunted World, it’s on the top of the pile as far a sword-and-sandal movies go.
Peplum Populist: Hercules, Samson & Ulysses
When it comes to peplum-as-pulp, Hercules, Samson & Ulysses is the real deal. Appearing at the point in the genre’s evolution where sword-and-sandal films either went stale or went silly, HS&U falls solidly on the positive silly side.
Peplum Populist: Colossus of the Stone Age (Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules)
Here’s a pleasing discovery: Amazon Video has a widescreen print of the 1962 sword-and-sandal (peplum) film Colossus of the Stone Age available under its U.S. television syndication title, Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules. And the print is a good one. It’s not the level of a professional 4K restoration like the Phantasm Blu-ray that came out in December, but considering sword-and-sandal movies often look like someone dragged the film along the sidewalk on the way to the telecine…
Peplum Populist: Perseus the Invincible (Perseus Against the Monsters)
An Italian-Spanish co-production, Perseo l’Invincibile was released in Italy in February 1963, just as the sword-and-sandal craze was beginning to wind down and the Western was poised to take over. It reached the U.S. on television as part of the “Sons of Hercules” Embassy Pictures syndication package, where it was retitled Medusa against the Son of Hercules.
Peplum Populist: Hercules in the Haunted World
Among the most popular articles I’ve written for Black Gate is a look at one the goofiest fantasy films of the ‘80s, the Lou Ferrigno Hercules. Two-and-a-half years later, I feel I should give the on-screen Hercules another shot with one of the better films to carry his name. Plus, I just pondered the news that a new Hercules film is on the way. Or maybe I’m just trying to repeat the search-engine magic of the name “Hercules.” So let’s leap back…
Neverwhens: Hannibals’ Ghost(s) roams a City of Marble and Blood and a Genre is Reborn
The Chronicles of Hanuvar: Lord of a Shattered Land and The City of Marble and Blood by Howard Andrew Jones (Baen, August 1, 2023 and October 3, 2023). Covers by Dave Seeley Friends, Carthaginians, Dog-Brothers, I come to praise Howard Andrew Jones, not to bury him… That was a lot of mixed-metaphors, but Howard’s mixed a lot of themes, tropes and reached back into the very roots of early heroic fantasy in his Chronicles of Hanuvar to breathe new life…
Lawrence Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords Arrives Next Week
Cinema of Swords by Lawrence Ellsworth (Applause, June 15, 2023) Next Thursday is a big day in the Black Gate offices, as the most anticipated book of the year finally arrives: the hardcover edition of Lawrence Ellsworth’s monumental Cinema of Swords. What’s in this great beast of a book? Every one of Lawrence’s informative and entertaining Cinema of Swords columns from Black Gate — Over four hundred movies and television shows featuring swashbucklers: knights, pirates, samurai, Vikings, gladiators, outlaw heroes…
Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords: Banditti!
The Bandits of Corsica (USA, 1953) After the turkeys we covered in the previous Cinema of Swords article, it’s good to get back to something fun, in this case three films about bandits and brigands. We watch these, of course, because bandits are basically land pirates, and everybody loves a good pirate movie! Sword-swinging, wise-cracking outlaw heroes are always welcome, especially when played by Richard Greene, the 1950s Robin Hood, learning the outlaw ropes here in two films that preceded…
Cinema of Swords Book Announcement!
Cinema of Swords by Lawrence Ellsworth (Applause, June 15, 2023) Hellooooo, Black Gate! If you’re a regular reader, you’ve seen my circa-weekly Cinema of Swords articles about swordplay adventure films, but this week we’re here to talk about the full Cinema of Swords volume coming your way this summer, 2023, from Applause Books. This happy event is thanks in large measure to your support and that of Black Gate’s esteemed editor John O’Neill, so thank you! For an author, every…
Cinema of Swords: For the Horde!
The Golden Horde (USA, 1951) Huns and Mongols, the mounted hordes who swept out of Central Asia into eastern and central Europe in the Middle Ages, made a lasting impact on the psyche of the folk of the lands they invaded, all the way down the 20th century—as shown by the fact that Allied propaganda during World War I successfully branded their German opponents as “the Huns.” Invoking the Mongol Horde was a reliable source of terror in mid-century movies…