Spurred on by the HERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN thread, I thought I'd post some details about an interesting recent series of releases. Video Mercury Films, S.A. has released 12 sword 'n' sandal movies in a series called "Grandes Clasicos Del CINE EPICOS." (Ten are from the the first Italian muscleman wave of the late 50s/early 60s, and two are from the early 70s.) All are Spanish, Region 2 discs, and the line is distributed by Warner Brothers, which, so far, looks to be the first time a major studio has been involved with releasing vintage Italian sword 'n' sandal films to DVD. Unfortunately, out of the 12, only GOLIATH AND THE BARBARIANS has an English language option; the others are apparently Spanish language only. Besides being a colorful, scope transfer, the GOLIATH disc comes with a great bonus of two completely different soundtracks: the Spanish language option has the original Italian score by Carlo Innocenzi; the English language option has AIP's dub with Lex Baxter's score. The disc also has great-looking scope trailers for URSUS and LAST DAYS OF POMPEII (both in Spanish). I was stunned to see colorful, widescreen scenes from URSUS for the first time, after having only washed-out pan & scan prints around for years on video. GOLIATH AND THE BARBARIANS is an entertaining film. It was Steve Reeves first movie to be released following the big box office success of HERCULES, and it also stars the sword 'n' sandal spitfire, Chelo Alonso, who performs a couple of trademark exotic dance routines. The other 11 titles in the CINE EPICOS series are:
LAST DAYS OF POMPEII (Reeves)*
COLOSSUS OF RHODES
SON OF SPARTACUS
GOLIATH AGAINST THE GIANTS*
GIANT OF MARATHON
ROMULUS AND REMUS/DUEL OF THE TITANS*
URSUS
URSUS IN THE VALLEY OF FIRE
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA (1972)
SCIPIO THE AFRICAN (1971)
SODOM AND GOMORRAH* (a cut print)
(Titles marked with "*" have been released in PAL format by other companies that do offer English language options.)
On a somewhat related note, there is a German PAL DVD of KING RICHARD AND THE CRUSADERS, under the title DER TALISMAN, that offers the film in English, stereo, and an aspect ratio of 2:20-1. Although the film should be letterboxed at 2:55-1, this release offers its only known widescreen transfer.
This title was one of the last titles announced for laserdisc by Warner, so Warner probably has a widescreen master of their own (I think that the German PAL has Warner's emblem included in the box art). THE SILVER CHALICE was released on laserdisc in the late 1990s, but KING RICHARD didn't come out.
Does anyone know how the quality of Suevia Films Spanish DVD release of Hercules and the Captive Women? Is it comparable to Retromedia's Hercules and the Captive Women or does it looks better?
I've only seen the Retromedia version of HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN, but it looks very good. I believe that it is an anamorphic disc.