Check out my book review of Vilioti Vintage by Jimmy Vargas and Lady Medusa, which can be read here. he book contains an interview with Ken Holewczynski, the dude behind Exotica Moderne, a magazine I’ve contributed to many times. So, definitely check out the review and the book proper.
Fan2Fan Podcast Appearance
My first podcast guest appearance for 2024 is over at the Fan2Fan Podcast!
In this episode we talk about the classic Italian gothic horror film, Castle of Blood. This was a lot of fun to revisit as it has been years – I dived deep into this movie over a decade ago when writing my thesis and since then I’ve grown to appreciate it more.
The episode can be streamed at the Fan2Fan Libsyn website, via the embedded player below, or through your favorite podcast app.
And, of course, I’d be remiss without showing our copy of Castle of Blood, autographed to Michele and I from both Barbara Steele and Edoardo Margheriti, son of director Antonio Margheriti:
I’ve also started annotating Emmanuelle scholarship and posting it here at my website so other scholars have a nice bibliographic resource. The bibliography and annotations can be found here and it’s a major WIP.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
New Edge Sword and Sorcery Issues 3 & 4
At the tail end of 2023 issues 1 and 2 of New Edge Sword and Sorcery, which has been previously Kickstarted, was unleashed upon the world. I received my copies:
The Fall 2023 issue has an advert for H. P. Lovecast, how cool is that! Also, a reminder, I did a write up about issue 0, which can be read here.
On February 15th there will be a new crowdfunding campaign to publish issues 3 and 4. You can sign up for when the campaign goes live at this link. There’s details there of what to expect from the new two issues. Check it out!
Recent Pepla Acquisitions
Recently plucked up copies of Gold for the Caesars and The Tartars, both from Warner’s Archive Collection. If it’s a peplum film Warner had a hand in back in the day, they kept decent prints of them over the years and give them decent releases:
The Tartars star pepla starlet Bella Cortez. Michele and I are probably going to do a retrospective of her pepla appearances, talking about different movies of the next few episodes of Scholars from the Edge of Time. I’ll be turning those discussions into articles for my Peplum Ponderings series which has been severely neglected.
Rest in Peplum Jesse Jane
This past week erotic actress Jesse Jane passed away. Jane appeared in many adult movies, including two pirate porno pepla: Pirates 1 and Pirates II: Stagnetti’s Revenge. Had the honor, way back in the late aughts, to meet not only Jesse Jane, but co-stars Stoya and Riley Steele at a meet and greet: won a raffle and received copies of both of the Pirates films in which the actresses autographed. Here is a mini-slideshow (NSFW images):
I have a polaroid somewhere as well documenting the meet and greet, soon as I find it I’ll add that to the gallery.
Autographed Stuff
Here is a summary of some of the autographed stuff from my library over the past two weeks on social media.
Robot Jox
Actor Gary Graham passed away on the 22nd. He didn’t star in anything I’d consider peplum, but he starred in lots of sci-fi movies and shows. Michele and I met him at a Hollywood Collectors show way back in the day. I had him sign my copy of Robot Jox:
As you can see, I’ve had quite a few people autograph Robot Jox over the years: Graham, director Stuart Gordon (RIP), producer Charles Band, and writer Joe Haldeman. It’s a fun mecha film. We see lots of mechs in anime and video games, but live action, not so much (but the ones we get, like Pacific Rim, turn out to be cult hits later on).
The Plain Janes
Here are copies of The Plain Janes and Janes in Love signed by author extraordinaire Cecil Castellucci.
And:
When we lived in Orange we would see Castellucci at many of the local cons and she was always awesome to say hi to. Michele moderated a panel on Star Wars at a Long Beach Comic Con that Castellucci was a panelist on.
There’s been an uptick in work being cited lately and I am here for it!
Firstly, my essay “Lost Nights and Dangerous Days: Unraveling the Relationship Between Stranger Things and Synthwave” from Uncovering Stranger Things has been cited in the essay “‘Dad, every serial killer is somebody’s neighbor!’ The Problem of White Supremacy in Summer of ’84” by Erika Tiburcio Moreno and published in the edited collection The ’80s Resurrected: Essays on the Decade in Popular Culture Then and Now.
The book was published by McFarland in March earlier this year. More info can be found on the book’s product page at the McFarland website.
Next, Hannah Mueller’s essay “Male Nudity, Violence and the Disruption of Voyeuristic Pleasure in Starz’s Spartacus” from The New Peplum has been cited by James K. Beggan in his essay “Why is he there? Male presence in a sexually explicit magazine geared towards heterosexual men” that was published in the Porn Studies journal.
Cover art for The New Peplum
If you have access the essay can be read at the journal’s page at Taylor and Francis.
New Episode of HP Lovecast
A new episode of our monthly Transmission program is now online.
For July we interviewed Chelsea Pumpkins, editor of the horror anthology AHH! That’s What I Call Horror: An Anthology of ’90s Horror. The episode can be streamed via our Buzzsprout page, the embedded player below, or through your podcast app of preference.
The schedule for CoKoCon 2023 is starting to take shape! You can find Michele and I on the following panels:
Saturday Sept 2 9pm – Fiesta Ballroom 2: From EC Comics to Shudder: Horror Comics That Excite and Scare Us
Sunday Sept 3 6pm – Coronado: Creepy, Crawly, Otherworldly Bumps in the Night, or Cosmic Horror Films
Monday Sept 4 1pm – Coronado: 1pm: Weird West in Popular Culture
I’ll be on premises the entire con, so feel free to hunt me down to say hi! Michele and I will also have a table we were sill be selling and signing books.
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2023.
Published in February, this collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.”
Published in late March, the first issue of the zine Footage Fiends, contains my essay “Analisi Della Cosa: Found Footage in Caltiki and Italian Theater Going Practices.”
Kino Lorber just had a summer sale on their Blu-rays so I took the opportunity to pluck up some Italian films for the library.
The Last Hunter I already had on DVD, from Dark Sky Films. In fact, here is my copy autographed by Antonio Margheriti’s son, Edoardo Margheriti:
I did a presentation on The Last Hunter at the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association conference waaaaaaay back in 2010. Not my best presentation and still very green at being an academic, but the text of it can be read at my Academia.edu account.
Ironmaster I have not seen. It sounds like an Italian sword and sorcery flick, but in a prehistoric age. I am a fan of Umberto Lenzi’s work so this should be a fun watch.
Lastly is Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, which I also have not seen. I’ve seen the iconic image of Sophia Loren slipping off her stockings that I feel like I’ve seen the film. I always think of Mastroianni from Divorce, Italian Style.
Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew Commentary
Matt Page, author of 100 Bible Films, has recorded a commentary for Paolini’s 1964 Biblical peplum, The Gospel According to St. Matthew. The commentary and be streamed from YouTube. Criterion Collection recently released a Pasolini boxset that contains this film.
Call for Papers
Michael Torregrossa has a few CFPs out there. I’m sharing them here to help get the word out. Check them out and consider submitting!
Beowulfs Beyond Beowulf: Transformations of Beowulf in Popular Culture (Panel)
Sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture and the Monsters & the Monstrous Area of the Northeast Popular Culture Association
Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, Richard Fahey, Carl Sell, and Benjamin Hoover
Call for Papers – Please Submit Proposals by 30 September 2023
55th Annual Convention of Northeast Modern Language Association
Sheraton Boston Hotel (Boston, MA)
On-site event: 7-10 March 2024
The Old English epic Beowulf remains an important touchstone for connecting us to the medieval past, yet it also has continued relevance today through its various transformations in cultural texts (especially works of popular culture). Our hope with this session is to expand our knowledge of these works and assess their potential for research and teaching.
Please visit our website Beowulf Transformed: Adaptations and Appropriations of the Beowulf Story (available at https://beowulf-transformed.blogspot.com/) for resources and ideas.
Over a millennium old, the story of Beowulf is disseminated primarily through its editions and translations and its transformations. These three types of Beowulfiana represent a massive corpus of over 1000 works according to the Beowulf’s Afterlives Bibliographic Database; though, as medievalists, we tend to focus on the first two categories rather than the last concentrating on scholastic pursuits rather than entertainments. Consequently, many are often surprised by the variety and vitality of this corpus and its vast potential for research and teaching.
New versions of the Beowulf story feature in all forms of modern mediævalisms, yet (as is true with most medieval texts) research continues to focus primarily on depictions of Beowulf on screen (about 100 examples according to the Internet Movie Database). We hope in this session to expand our view of Beowulf’s reception by creators and look more deeply at the text’s wider use.
We are particularly interested in explorations of the adaptation and/or appropriation of the text, its characters, and its themes in works of fiction (at least 250 examples according to the Internet Speculative Fiction Database and much more recorded by the Beowulf’s Afterlives Bibliographic Database) and comics (at least 380 examples according to the Grand Comics Database), as well as their representations in new and neglected works on screen (including film, television, entertainment consoles, and the Internet). Additional versions of Beowulf can be found in works of creative, performative, and visual arts that also need more attention.
We hope to make our conversation productive. Therefore, we request that submissions highlight the ways the new text transforms the old (for example as interpretations or appropriations of the poem or as an intertext for another work) as well as its value in furthering the Beowulf tradition rather than focusing solely on any perceived defects.
Please see our website Beowulf Transformed: Adaptations and Appropriations of the Beowulf Story (at https://beowulf-transformed.blogspot.com/) for a growing list of ideas, resources, and support.
All proposals will also be considered for a themed issue of the open-access journal The Heroic Age: A Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe.
All proposals must be submitted into the CFPList system at https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/20596 by 30 September 2023. You will be prompted to create an account with NeMLA (if you do not already have one) and, then, to complete sections on Title, Abstract, and Media Needs.
Notification on the fate of your submission will be made prior to 16 October 2023. If favorable, please confirm your participation with chairs by accepting their invitations and by registering for the event. The deadline for Registration/Membership is 9 December 2023.
Be advised of the following policies of the Convention: All participants must be members of NeMLA for the year of the conference. Participants may present on up to two sessions of different types (panels/seminars are considered of the same type). Submitters to the CFP site cannot upload the same abstract twice.(See the NeMLA Presenter Policies page, at https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention/policies.html, for further details,)
For more information on the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, please visit our website at https://MedievalinPopularCulture.blogspot.com/.
The classic era of sword and sandal films is an unappreciated genre and nowhere is this more illustrated than its lack of representation in Criterion-esque physical releases.
Cover art of Fury of Achilles from Gold Ninja Video. Used with permission from Justin Decloux.
During the aughts and early 2010s, as the battle of between Blu-ray and HD DVD raged on, standard DVDs reigned king. It was a golden age of physical media as big studios, boutique publishers, and even low budget companies saturated the market with releases, re-releases, special editions, limited releases, and so on. This was also an era of when budget publishers, such as Mill Creek Entertainment and Brentwood Home Video, took a quantity over quality approach and flooded the market with megapack DVD boxset releases that contained a buffet of mostly public domain and low budget films. Though the overall quality was poor, American edits of sword and sandal films flourished on these releases.
Budget releases of pepla. Photo from my own collection.
Further into the 2010s, Blu-ray won the format battle, but over all lost the war to streaming services. Each year there are fewer and fewer physical film releases, though there is an uptick in boutique publishers such as Vinegar Syndrome, Severin Films, and others filling the niche market for consumers who still cherish physical releases, especially those with assorted bonus material, such as essays, deleted scenes, and commentaries.
Pepla, though considered cult cinema, has fallen through the Blu-ray cracks. Most peplum films that received the Blu-ray treatment have been American involved productions that already had high quality surviving prints that merit suchreleases. The vast majority of English-edited peplum exists as low quality, full screen, saturated colour versions that bypassed the Blu-ray format and went directly to YouTube.
Today, physical releases of old school pepla are drying up. Budget companies, such as Synergy Entertainment and Something Weird Video, that used to churn out these releases have halted the practice. Only a smattering of the more prestigious peplum are honoured with Blu-ray releases, and even those are mostly bare bones. For example, the recently released Twilight Time version of Messalina contains only a booklet. Nary a commentary track or video essay to be found (for my thoughts on Messalina, click here).
Twilight Time release of Messalina. Photo from my own private collection.
For such an important and influential genre, the lack of supplemental laden physical releases is a sad state of affairs.
Enter Justin Decloux’s Gold Ninja Video label, an independent boutique label that strives to give the Criterion treatment to forgotten, obscure, and public domain films. Per Decloux’s Indiegogo campaign:
My original intent was to release public domain films on Blu-ray, ones that are treated like crap and that you could easily find floating around in a hundred different places on the internet, with the respect they had never before received. I created lavish deluxe editions that featured commentaries, video essays, and bonus films that would provide context and a deeper appreciation of productions that most of the world had dismissed.
Justin Decloux
Gold Ninja Video has released special editions of films such as Joy N. Houck Jr.’s Creature from Black Lake (1976), Hwa I Hung’s Kung Fu Zombie (1981), and Antonio Margheriti’s And God Said to Cain (1970). Gold Ninja Video has released films encompassing a variety of niche subgenres: from spaghetti westerns to Brucesploitation films to kaiju films. While perhaps not as renown as other exploitation labels, such as the aforementioned Vinegar Syndrome and Severin Films, Decloux makes up with it with pure gusto:
I love those companies, as my sagging Blu-ray/DVD shelves indicate. Still, I can’t come close to competing with the resources they have at their disposal when it comes to finding elements and remastering films. So I try to make up for it with a sheer force of passion and the hope that a GNV disc will serve as a starting resource to explore different worlds of cinema.
Justin Decloux
Earlier in 2021 Gold Ninja Video took their first plunge into the peplum genre by releasing a supplemental-laden edition of Marino Girolami’s Fury of Achilles (1962). Contrasting against their current catalog, a mythological sword and sandal film may initially seem out of place for a Gold Ninja Video release. Decloux elaborates on the genesis of publishing Fury of Achilles:
The peplum has always been on my list for a release through Gold Ninja Video for two reasons:
1. They are almost all considered in the public domain. 2. There have been very few discs that have explored the genre in-depth.
Through GNV, I always loved to tackle genres that many people are familiar with but haven’t really sat down and considered. The opportunity to provide context to something like peplums was something that was always appealing to me, even if I was a little nervous because it wasn’t a subject I had off-the-cuff expertise about, beyond passing familiarity with films like Steve Reeve’s Hercules and Mario Bava’s Hercules in the Haunted World. The Fury of Achilles disc was probably one of the projects that took me the longest to put together because I wanted to make sure I had done enough research to talk confidently about the subject. It took me ages to pick Fury of Achilles, but I finally landed on the title because I liked the fantastic elements, its a mixture of personal and grand, and the gravelly face of Gordon Mitchell.
Justin Decloux
There’s been a few releases of Fury of Achilles prior, typically by low budget publishers such as Alpha Video, Synergy, and Inspired (whom released it as a double feature with Lion of Thebes [1964]).
Inspired’s release of Fury of Achilles. Photo from my own private collection.
While the print used in the Gold Ninja Video release of Fury of Achilles may be on par with these other editions, Decloux elevates his version with a variety of supplements:
Short introduction to the film
A black and white essay booklet spotlighting peplum directors
A commentary track with Decloux’s insights and observations
A 15 minute short feature that acts as a primer to the peplum genre
Another short feature that spotlights fantastique peplum
An extended battle sequence (see below)
And a version of Perseus Against the Monsters (1963) making this release a double feature
There’s certainly a variety of features on the Blu-ray disc. Decloux had a Herculean task ahead of him putting this edition together:
I didn’t realize until I started recording the commentary that the movie was two hours long! But I somehow got through it by breaking it down over a few days.
I tinkered with the main presentation more than I usually do. The audio had a noticeable hum to it, so I performed some noise reduction surgery, and I had to subtitle some footage that wasn’t in English.
I also noticed that one of the battle scenes had some extra violence in it not present in the primary transfer used on the disc. Unfortunately, the additional battle footage was only present in a much lesser quality copy, so I had to decide if I cut it into the main feature or not. After many sleepless nights, I decided to include it as an extra – because it felt like an entirely different version of the scene – instead of shots that were cut out.”
Justin Decloux
The disc begins with a short, introduction on why Decloux chose to release Fury of Achilles as he felt it was a good introduction to the genre. Decloux has an infectious enthusiasm that is present on all the supplements of the Blu-ray. This enthusiasm is much needed because, as stated above, there is not much love for the peplum genre, so it is a welcome sight to see excitement for sword and sandal fare. Decloux offers some insight at to why pepla isn’t as revered as other cult Euro genres:
I feel like it has a lot to do with peplums having an old-fashioned structure and execution, throwing back to a type of cinema that modern audiences only have a passing familiarity within their media diets. The Giallos and Spaghetti Westerns are twists on genres that have been burned into our cultural consciousness – the slasher and the classic American western. Those types of movies also offer direct thrills – violence and action – which resonate universally. Peplums are frankly tamer than most European exploitation cinema because of their model and the “Golden Period” of the genre was before Giallos and Spaghetti Westerns.
Justin Decloux
The most important special feature on the Blu-ray is Decloux’s “A Beginner’s Guide to Peplum: A Video Essay.” The feature is about fifteen minutes in length and begins with a brief overview of the genre. With over 300 titles in the sword and sandal canon, Decloux states that finding an entry point into the genre can be problematic. He proffers eight peplum titles and explains what makes each of them a stand out film:
Ulysses (1954)
Hercules (1958)
Hercules Conquers Atlantis (1961)
Duel of the Titans (1961)
Fury of Achilles (1962)
The Trojan Horse (1961)
Revenge of Spartacus (1964)
Giants of Rome (1964)
It must be underscored the importance of such a primer in order to regain interest and attract new fans to the genre. It is strongly recommended to watch the primer and listen to Decloux’s musings.
The next feature, “Weird Swords and Sandals: A Video Essay” has Decloux disclosing a few noteworthy peplum films that has weird or fantastique elements, such as giant monsters and magic. His list includes:
Hercules in the Haunted World (1961)
Maciste in Hell (1925)
Goliath and the Vampires (1961)
Goliath Against the Giants (1961)
Conqueror of Atlantis (1965)
The Triumph of Hercules (1964)
War of the Zombies (1964)
Hercules and the Black Pirates (1963)
The Terror of Rome Against the Son of Hercules (1964)
The essay inserted includes in the Blu-ray sleeve contains information on noteworthy peplum directors Gianfranco Parolini, Alberto De Martino, Mario Caiano, Michele Lupo, Giorgio Ferroni, and Vittorio Cottafavi, along with notes about the film transfer.
The last major supplement on the Fury of Achilles release is Decloux own commentary track. Decloux is up front in the various supplements that he is not an expert on the sword and sandal genre, but he doesn’t give himself enough credit as his commentary track is quite insightful. For example, early in the commentary he brings up the importance of non-Italian (mostly American) productions to the peplum canon. This is usually an overlooked facet of Italian genre filmmaking by other scholars or enthusiasts. During the prosperous years of the 1960s, Italy had a robust and prolific film industry, cranking out films from A-list directors such as Fellini, Antonioni, Visconti, and others. However, in order for Italy to financially support the risky ventures of its auteurs, it needed a foundational genre industry that churned out profitable pepla, spaghetti westerns, macaroni combat, gothic horror, gialli, Eurospy, and other genre fare. This genre industry was not restricted to national cinema as other countries (America, England, Spain, France, and so on) took advantage of the same studios, crew, and actors that made up these films. This is a key component to understanding the Italian filmmaking industry and Decloux is right in the ballpark talking about it.
Fury of Achilles is an ambitious release by a small label, but it certainly accomplishes what it sets out to do: give the film the respect it deserve via a plethora of supplemental material that underscores its importance. Since publishing Fury of Achilles, Decloux has been satisfied with how well the edition is faring:
I’ll be candid and say I’ve received very little feedback about the disc [..but..] it has surprisingly been one that has been a pretty big seller. I stock copies at a local store in Toronto called Bay Street Video, and it’s the one that regularly sells out the most.”
Justin Decloux
Photo of Justin Decloux provided by Decloux.
Fury of Achilles may currently be Gold Ninja Video’s sole peplum release, hopefully it is not the last. While Decloux has other immediate plans for his label, there is the open possibility for more sword and sandal action:
A few months ago, I did a crowdfunding campaign to scan some film prints that had come into my possession. Thanks to a surprisingly positive reaction, I received enough contributions to purchase a film scanner. So, Gold Ninja Video is moving into the world of new scans! The first release with a brand new scan will be a Taiwanese film called Thrilling Bloody Sword which is currently available for preorder at goldninjavideo.com. And if I stumble upon a 16MM or 35MM print of an intriguing peplum film that doesn’t exist in any decent home release, I can assure you I’ll jump on it!”
Justin Decloux
A sincere thank you to Justin Decloux for answering these interview questions. Please see the links below to find out more about Gold Ninja Video:
