Sword-and-sandal

The Peplum (or pepla plural), also known as Sword-and-Sandal, is a genre of largely Italian-made Historical or Biblical Epics that dominated the Italian film industry from 1957 to 1965, eventually being replaced in 1965 by the "Spaghetti Western". The pepla attempted to emulate, or compete with, the big budget Hollywood Historical Epics of the time, such as Spartacus, Samson and Delilah and The Ten Commandments, just as the Spaghetti westerns were low-budget imitations of the Hollywood Western. The terms "peplum" (referring to the togas or robes which the ancient Romans wore) and "sword-and-sandal" were used in a condescending way by film critics. The peplum genre does not include Hollywood or British films such as "Clash of the Titans" or "King of Kings" (just as the "Spaghetti Western" genre obviously does not include Hollywood westerns such as "High Noon" or "The Outlaw Josey Wales").

While Hollywood filmmakers, such as D. W. Griffith with his 1916 "Intolerance", peopled their historical epics with dramatic conflicts and realistic protagonists, the Peplum merely took a real historical or Biblical event and used it as a backdrop for a simplistic (albeit engrossing), comic book-like heroic adventure. The pepla are a specific class of Italian adventure or fantasy films that have subjects set in biblical, medieval or classical antiquity, often with contrived plots based very loosely on mythology, legendary Greco-Roman history, or the contemporary cultures of the time, (Egyptians, Assyrians, Etruscans, Minoans, etc.).

Most of the pepla featured a supernaturally strong muscleman type as the protagonist, such as Hercules, Samson, Goliath, or Italy's own popular folk hero Maciste. These supermen often rescued captive princesses from tyrannical despots and fought mythological creatures. Not all of the films were fantasy-based however. Many of these films featured actual historical personalities (such as Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Hannibal, etc.), although great liberties were taken with the storylines. Gladiators, pirates, Vikings, and slaves rebelling against tyrannical kings were also popular subjects.

The 1914 Italian silent film Cabiria was one of the first sword-and-sandal films to make use of a massively muscled character, Maciste (played by actor Bartolomeo Pagano) who served in this film as the hero's loyal sidekick. Maciste became the public's favorite character in the film however, and Pagano was called back to reprise the role. The Maciste character appeared in at least two dozen Italian silent films from 1915 to 1926, all of which featured a protagonist named Maciste although the films were set in many different time periods and geographical locations. When the peplum genre became popular again in 1957 due to the release of Steve Reeves' HERCULES, Italian filmmakers resurrected the 1920's Maciste character in a brand new 1960's sound film series (1960-1964), followed by Ursus, Samson, Goliath and various other mighty-muscled heroes.

Although Italy had always produced pepla through the decades (such as 1954's classic "Ulysses"), the peplum mania really began with the 1957 release of Hercules, starring American bodybuilder Steve Reeves. This spawned the 1959 sequel Hercules Unchained, and literally dozens of low-budget imitations followed, starring similar bodybuilder stars such as Reg Park, Gordon Scott, Mark Forest, Brad Harris, Dan Vadis, and Alan Steel. European audiences tended to prefer an Anglo-American in the lead, and Italian bodybuilders would adopt English pseudonyms for the screen (Sergio Ciani became Alan Steel, for example).

In the formulaic plots common to many of the films, two women vied for the affection of the bodybuilder hero: the good love interest (a damsel in distress needing rescue), and an evil queen who served as a femme fatale. The films often featured an ambitious ruler who would ascend the throne by murdering whoever stood in his way, and often it was only the muscular hero who could stop him. Most of the films involved an impending clash between two warring populations, one civilized and the other evilly barbaric, thus many pepla begin with an opening scene of a peaceful, defenseless village being razed to the ground by a wild barbarian horde. For their musical content, most films contained a well-choreographed belly-dancing scene or some colorful ballet, meant to underline the pagan decadence of the villains. The contrived plots, poorly overdubbed dialogue, novice acting skills of the bodybuilder leads, and primitive special effects that were often inadequate to depict the legendary creatures on screen all conspire to give these films a certain camp appeal now.

To be sure, however, many of the films enjoyed widespread popularity among very general audiences, and had production values that were typical for popular films of the day. Although many of the bigger budget pepla were released theatrically in the USA, fourteen of them were released directly to American International Pictures television in a syndicated TV package called The Sons of Hercules. The movies were turned into a series of sorts by splicing on the same opening title song and newly-designed narration that desperately attempted to link whoever the hero of the film was to the Hercules Mythos, as few American viewers had a familiarity with Italian film heroes such as Maciste or Ursus, etc. These films ran on Saturday afternoons in the 1960s. Often ridiculed for their low budgets and bad English dubbing, several of these films have been subjects of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment.

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Hercules series (1957–1965)

A series of 19 Italian Hercules movies were made in the late 50's and early 60's. The films were all sequels to the fantastically successful Steve Reeves peplum "Hercules" (1957). The actors who played Hercules in these films were Steve Reeves, Gordon Scott, Kirk Morris, Mickey Hargitay, Mark Forest, Alan Steel, Dan Vadis, Brad Harris, Reg Park, Peter Lupus (billed as Rock Stevens) and Michael Lane. The films are listed below by their American release titles, and the titles in parentheses are the original Italian titles with English translation. (Dates shown are actual production dates, not theatrical release dates.)

A number of English-dubbed Italian films that featured the Hercules name in their title were never intended to be Hercules movies by their Italian creators.

None of these films in their original Italian versions involved the Hercules character in any way. Likewise, most of the Sons of Hercules movies shown on American TV in the 1960s had nothing to do with Hercules in their original Italian incarnations. (See also "THE THREE STOOGES MEET HERCULES" (1962) an American-made genre parody starring peplum star Samson Burke as Hercules.)

Maciste series (1960–1965)

Main article: Maciste

There were a total of 25 Maciste films from the 1960s peplum craze (not counting the two dozen silent Maciste films made in Italy pre-1930). When the 2 Steve Reeves HERCULES films were so successful, Italian producers decided to revive the old silent film character of Maciste in a new series of sound movies. The first title listed for each film is the film's original Italian title along with its English translation, while the U.S. release title follows in parentheses. (Note how many times Maciste's name in the Italian title is altered to an entirely different name in the American title):

Sidenote - In 1973, the Spanish cult film director Jesus Franco directed two low-budget "Maciste films" for French producers: Maciste contre la Reine des Amazones (Maciste vs the Queen of the Amazons) and Les exploits érotiques de Maciste dans l'Atlantide (The Erotic Exploits of Maciste in Atlantis). The films had almost identical casts, both starring one Val Davis as Maciste, and appear to have been shot back-to-back. The former was distributed in Italy as a "Karzan" movie (a cheap Tarzan imitation), while the latter film was apparently released only in France with hardcore inserts as Les Gloutonnes ("The Gobblers"). These 2 films were totally unrelated to the 1960s Italian Maciste series, and may be lost today.

Ursus series (1961–1964)

Main article: Ursus (film character)

Ursus was a super-human Roman era character who was used as the protagonist in a series of Italian adventure films made in the early 1960s. The character was obviously inspired by the mightily-muscled Roman slave Ursus (played by Buddy Baer) who slays a bull with his bare hards in a Roman gladiatorial arena in the 1951 Hollywood classic "QUO VADIS?". When the "Hercules" film craze hit in 1959, Italian filmmakers were looking for other muscleman characters similar to Hercules whom they could exploit. Ursus was referred to as a "Son of Hercules" in two of the films when they were dubbed in English (in an attempt to cash in on the then-popular Hercules craze), although in the original Italian films, Ursus had no connection to Hercules whatsoever. In the English-dubbed version of one Ursus film (retitled Hercules, Prisoner of Evil), Ursus was actually referred to throughout the entire film as "Hercules". There were a total of 9 Italian films that featured Ursus as the main character, listed below as follows: Italian title/ English translation of the Italian title (American release title);

Samson series (1961–1964)

A Samson character was featured in a series of 5 sword-and-sandal adventure films made in Italy in the 1960s. The character was similar to the Biblical Samson in the 3rd and 5th films only; in the other three, he just appears to be a very strong adventurer/ pirate-type character named Samson (not related to the Biblical figure). The titles are listed as follows: the Italian title & its English translation followed by the U.S. release title in parentheses)

The name Samson was later inserted into the titles of six other Italian movies when they were dubbed in English for distribution in the USA, although these films actually featured the adventures of the famed Italian folk hero Maciste. Samson Against the Sheik (1962), Son of Samson (1960), Samson and the Slave Queen (1963), Samson and the Seven Miracles of the World (1961), Samson Vs. The Giant King (1964), and Samson in King Solomon's Mines (1964) were all retitled Maciste movies, because the American distributors didn't feel the name Maciste was marketable to U.S. filmgoers. Samson and the Treasure of the Incas (a.k.a. Hercules and the Treasure of the Incas) (1965) is listed in some reference books as a peplum, but the film was actually an Italian western.

Goliath series (1959–1964)

The Italians used Goliath as an action superhero in a series of adventure films (pepla) in the early 1960s. He was a man possessed of amazing strength, and the films were similar in theme to the Hercules and Maciste movies. After the classic Hercules (1957) became a blockbuster sensation in the film industry, a 1959 Steve Reeves film Terrore dei Barbari (Terror of the Barbarians) was retitled Goliath and the Barbarians in the USA. The film was so successful at the box office, it inspired Italian filmmakers to do a series of four more films featuring a generic beefcake hero named Goliath, although the films were not related to each other in any way. (The 1960 Italian peplum David and Goliath starring Orson Welles was not part of this series, since that movie was just a historical retelling of the Biblical story). The titles in the Italian Goliath adventure series were as follows:

The name Goliath was later inserted into the English titles of 3 other Italian pepla that were retitled for distribution in the USA in an attempt to cash in on the Goliath craze, but these films were not originally made as Goliath movies in Italy. Both Goliath and the Vampires (1961) and Goliath and the Sins of Babylon (1963) actually featured the famed superhero Maciste in the original Italian versions, but American distributors didn't feel the name Maciste had any meaning to American audiences. Goliath and the Dragon (1960) was originally an Italian Hercules movie called The Revenge of Hercules, but it was retitled to "Goliath and the Dragon" in the USA since at the time, the distributors may have believed the name "Hercules" was trademarked by distributor Joseph E. Levine.

The Sons of Hercules (TV syndication package)

Main article: The Sons of Hercules

The Sons of Hercules was a syndicated television show that aired in the United States in the 1960s. The series repackaged 14 randomly-chosen Italian sword-and-sandal films by unifying them with memorable title and end title theme songs and a standard voice-over intro relating the main hero in each film to Hercules any way they could. In some areas, each film was split into two one-hour episodes, so the 14 films were shown as 28 weekly episodes. The films are not listed in chronological order, since they were not really related to each other in any way. The first title listed below for each film was its American broadcast television title, followed by the English translation of the original Italian theatrical title in parentheses:

Italian gladiator movies, 1948–1965

There were a number of Italian peplums that heavily emphasized the gladiatorial arena in their plots, with it becoming almost a peplum sub-genre in itself; One group of supermen known as "The Ten Gladiators" appeared in a trilogy, all three films starring Dan Vadis in the lead role.

Steve Reeves Pepla (in chronological order of production)

Steve Reeves appeared in 14 peplums made in Italy from 1957 to 1964, and most of his films are highly regarded examples of the sword and sandal genre. The films are listed by their American release titles, followed by the translation of the original Italian title in parentheses:

Other (non-series) Italian pepla

There were many 1960's Italian pepla that did not feature a major superhero (such as Hercules, Maciste or Samson), and as such they fall into a sort of miscellaneous category. (They do however feature well-known characters such as Ali Baba, Julius Caesar, Ulysses, Cleopatra, The Three Musketeers, Theseus, Perseus, Achilles, Robin Hood, Sandokan, El Cid, etc.). Although the Kirk Douglas epic Ulysses (1954) was the first of the big peplum films of the 1950's, it was Steve Reeves' "Hercules" (1957) that sparked the genre's instantaneous growth.

Here is a list of the best-known titles:

Sword-and-sandal films from the 1980's

After the peplum gave way to the Spaghetti Western and imitation James Bond films in 1965, the genre lay dormant for close to 20 years. Then in 1982, the box-office success of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Conan the Barbarian spurred a second renaissance of Italian pepla in the five years immediately following. Most notable among them were the four "Ator" films, starring Miles O'Keefe in the lead role. Most of these films were of lower quality due to painfully reduced budgets (focusing more on barbarians than Romans, so as to avoid the need for expensive sets) and the filmmakers tried to compensate for their shortcomings with the addition of some graphic gore and nudity. Many of these 1980's entries were helmed by noted Italian horror film directors, and many featured Lou Ferrigno or Sabrina Siani . Here is a list of the 1980s peplums:

The Maciste silent film series (1914–1927)

Bibliography

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