Editing Cinema of Italy (section)

====Sword-and-sandal (a.k.a. Peplum) (1950s–1960s)====
{{Main|Sword-and-sandal}}
[[File:Le fatiche di Ercole - Reeves.png|thumb|300px|''[[Hercules (1958 film)|Hercules]]'' by [[Pietro Francisci]] (1958)]]

[[Sword-and-sandal]], also known as ''peplum'' (''pepla'' plural), is a [[subgenre]] of largely [[Italy|Italian]]-made historical, mythological, or Biblical epics mostly set in the [[Greco-Roman antiquity]] or the [[Middle Ages]]. These films attempted to emulate the big-budget Hollywood historical epics of the time.<ref>{{cite book|first=Patrick|last=Lucanio|title=With Fire and Sword: Italian Spectacles on American Screens, 1958–1968|publisher=Scarecrow Press|year=1994|isbn=0810828162}}</ref>

With the release of 1958's ''[[Hercules (1958 film)|Hercules]]'', starring American bodybuilder [[Steve Reeves]], the Italian film industry gained entree to the American film market. These films were low-budget costume/adventure dramas, and had immediate appeal with both European and American audiences. Besides the many films starring a variety of muscle men as Hercules, heroes such as [[Samson]] and Italian fictional hero [[Maciste]] were common.

Sometimes dismissed as low-quality escapist fare, the sword-and-sandal allowed newer directors such as [[Sergio Leone]] and [[Mario Bava]] a means of breaking into the film industry. Some, such as Mario Bava's ''[[Hercules in the Haunted World]]'' (Italian: Ercole Al Centro Della Terra) are considered seminal works in their own right.

As the genre matured, budgets sometimes increased, as evidenced in 1962's ''[[I sette gladiatori]]'' (''The Seven Gladiators'' in 1964 US release), a wide-screen epic with impressive sets and matte-painting work. Most sword-and-sandal films were in [[Color motion picture film| colour]], whereas previous Italian efforts had often been black and white.

<gallery widths="200px" heights="165px">
File:Douglas Mangano.jpg|[[Kirk Douglas]] and [[Silvana Mangano]] in a pause during the shootings of ''[[Ulysses (1954 film)|Ulysses]]'' by [[Mario Camerini]] (1954)
File:Arrivano i titani (film).JPG| ''[[My Son, the Hero]]'' by [[Duccio Tessari]] (1962)
</gallery>
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