What 3-word term is given to the genre of kitschy Italian films of the mid 20th century that sought to emulate the historic epics of Hollywood like Spartacus?
Peplum (film genre) Peplum (film genre) The peplum film (pepla plural), also known as sword-and-sandal, is a genre of largely Italian-made historical or Biblical epics (costume dramas) that dominated the Italian film industry from 1958 to 1965, eventually being replaced in 1965 by Eurospy films and Spaghetti Westerns. They can be immediately differentiated from the competing Hollywood product by their use of dubbing. The pepla attempted to emulate the big-budget Hollywood historical epics of the time, such as "Spartacus", "Samson and Delilah" and "The Ten Commandments". The terms "peplum" (referring to the tunic-style Greek and Roman garment often worn by characters in the
Peplum (film genre) successful Italian films of that kind were "Black Eagle" from 1946, and "Fabiola" from 1949. Inspired by the success of "Spartacus", there were a number of Italian peplums that heavily emphasized the gladiatorial arena in their plots, with it becoming almost a peplum subgenre 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. With the interest in the Elizabeth Taylor "Cleopatra" film shot in Rome, several Italian films sought to ride its wave of publicity. 20th Century Fox bought the rights for two of