(1963) Pierre Brice, Daniele Vargas, Hélène Chanel, Massimo Serato, directed by Umberto Lenzi.  This great Euro-adventure thriller is set in 17^th Century Spain. A mysterious masked daredevil sets out to defend the local citizens from their evil ruler, who just happens to be the daredevil’s stepfather.  

(1963) Gordon Mitchell, Tony Kendall, Ursula Davis, Massimo Serato.  In what may be the best portrayal of his career, Mitchell plays Brennus, a savage warrior who’s out to conquer Rome.  This is a superb sword & sandal movie, with lots of fierce action and terrific performances by all.  

(1959) Anita Ekberg, Georges Marchal, Folco Lulli, Jacques Sernas, Gino Cervi.  Ekberg (who is gorgeous!) plays the Queen of Palmira.  Her kingdom revolts against Rome and defeats Marchal’s Roman troops.  Marchal ends up eventually falling for Ekberg, which makes things extremely complicated as he is torn between his devotion for Rome and his love for Anita...

(1961) Mark Forest, Moira Orfei, Paul Wynter, Gianni Garko, Enrico Glori.  The son of Hercules—this time Maciste—aids survivors of a murderous raid by a war party of weird albinos that live inside Earth...

(1961) Kirk Morris, Frank Gordon, Bice Valori, Liana Orfei.  A couple of boxing promoters use a time machine to travel back to ancient times.  They end up needing Hercules to save them from Genghis Khan and his Hordes...

(1962) Roland Carey, Chantal Deberg, Daniela Bianchi, Jose Pellicina.  El Cid’s daughters find themselves eyeball to eyeball with their new enemies—their own husbands!   Lots of engaging intrigue subplots lace this film...

MESSALINA, IMPERIAL VENUS—Widescreen Edition (1960 Belinda Lee, Spiros Focás, Carlo Giustini, Arturo Dominici. The corrupt Roman Empress, Messalina (well-played by Lee), transforms from a Vestal Virgin to a power mad, sex-crazed killer. This film does a pretty good job portraying her depravity.  One memorable scene has a young would-be assassin ending up in Messalina’s bed...  

MINOTAUR, WILD BEAST OF CRETE—Widescreen Edition (1960) Bob Mathias, Rosanna Schiaffino, Alberto Lupo, Rik Battaglia.  King Minos sacrifices the 'required' number of virgins to the monstrous Minotaur.  But as his wife is dying, she confesses that their daughter has a twin whom she has hidden away to avoid giving one of the girls to the Minotaur... 

PERSEUS THE INVINCIBLE—Widescreen Edition (1962) Richard Harrison, Anna Renal, Arturo Dominici.  Harrison, as Perseus, finds himself battling Medusa, her evil stone men, and an ugly dragon.  The scenes with the dragon are well-done.  Watch for the cool scene when Medusa’s stone victims return to life...  

SWORD OF THE EMPIRE (1964) Lang Jeffries, Jose Greci, Angela Angelucci, Enzo Tarascio, Howard Ross.  This never-before-on-DVD sword and sandal title deals with the Roman Emperor Commodus, who falls for a gorgeous Roman babe who’s in love with one of his soldiers.  When she denies him her affections, he sentences her to be burned at the stake...

MARIA MAGDALENE (1958) Yvonne De Carlo, Jorge Mistral, Terrence Hill, Rossana Podestà, Massimo Serato. This Peplum epic tells the story of Mary Magdalene (De Carlo) and the twisted paths between her Jewish and Roman lovers.  Hill plays the Jewish noble who befriends the rebel Barrabas; while Mistral is the dashing Roman officer who captures De Carlo’s heart...  

AVENGER OF THE SEVEN SEAS—Widescreen Edition (1962) Richard Harrison, Michelle Mercier, Roldano Lupi, Paul Muller, Marisa Belli.  Harrison, a seasoned British navy officer, goes toe to toe with his own captain, who has thrown Richard’s brother in the brig.  After freeing his brother, Harrison joins up with a band of pirates to take down his corrupt commanding officer...

JULIUS CAESAR AGAINST THE PIRATES—Widescreen Edition (1962) Gustavo Rojo, Abbe Lane, Gordon Mitchell.  Julius Caesar flees Rome because of a conspiracy against him.  When he’s out to sea he’s taken prisoner by pirates headed by Mitchell, who is at his snarling bad guy best and nearly steals the show.  Later comes the big faceoff between young Julius and the pirate hordes... 

HERCULES AND THE TREASURE OF THE INCAS—Widescreen Edition (1964) Alan Steel, Mario Petri, Toni Sailer, Wolfgang Lukschy. This film was originally supposed to be a peplum film, but because of the success of A Fistful of Dollars, the script was changed to a mostly western setting, though there are still definitely moments of peplum action, especially toward the end when Steel yanks his shirt off...

(1961) Kirk Morris, Cathia Caro, Ljubica Otasevic, Cesare Fantoni.  Sword and sandal movies are kind of like B-westerns, there were a gazillion of them made, all using the same half dozen scripts.  In this one, an evil queen suppresses her subjects and steals young virgins to be sacrificed to an evil god of a volcano.  Naturally, Maciste intercedes.  However, he soon falls under the magic spell of the queen, who lusts for his finely chiseled body... 

(1961, WIDESCREEN) Taina Elg, Pierre Brice, Alberto Lupo, Akim Tamiroff.  A Peplum classic, filled with many moments of magic and mysticism.  Thebes is suffering from a horrible drought.  To ward off this dry spell, the evil king is willing to sacrifice a young virgin to the god, Demeter. But the god Dionysus has different ideas, bringing to Thebes an onslaught of rain and sparing the girl’s life seconds before she is to be sacrificed...

(1963) Vladimir Medar, Jean-François Poron, George Reich, Hugo Santana, Lorella De Luca. Cossack chief Taras Bulba plans to subdue Poland and its Tartar allies.  He sends his sons to study in the Polish city of Dubno to learn as much as possible about the Polish people and their military strength. One of the sons, however, falls for the daughter of a Polish governor. When the Cossacks lay siege to Dubno, the son is imprisoned...