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Il Testamento di Maciste ("Maciste's Will", 1919).La Rivincita di Maciste ("The Revenge of Maciste", 1919).Maciste sonnambulo ("Maciste the Sleepwalker", 1918).Maciste turista ("Maciste the Tourist", 1917).Maciste poliziotto ("Maciste the Detective", 1917).Maciste medium ("Maciste the Clairvoyant", 1917).Maciste atleta ("Maciste the Athlete", 1917).Maciste alpino ("Maciste The Warrior", 1916).Maciste bersagliere ("Maciste the Ranger", 1916).Cabiria (1914) introduced the Maciste character.Here is a complete list of the silent Maciste films in chronological order: The Maciste character appeared in at least two dozen Italian silent films from 1914 through 1926, all of which featured a protagonist named Maciste although the films were set in many different time periods and geographical locations. Maciste became the public's favorite character in the film however, and Pagano was called back many times to reprise the role. The 1914 Italian silent film Cabiria was one of the first sword-and-sandal films to make use of a massively muscled character, Maciste (played by actor Bartolomeo Pagano) who served in this premiere film as the hero's slavishly loyal sidekick.
Sword and sandals movies series#
The Maciste silent film series (1914–1927)
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Gladiators, pirates, knights, Vikings, and slaves rebelling against tyrannical kings were also popular subjects. Many of these films featured actual historical personalities (such as Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Hannibal, etc.), although great liberties were taken with the storylines. Not all of the films were fantasy-based however. These supermen often rescued captive princesses from tyrannical despots and fought mythological creatures. Most pepla featured a supernaturally strong muscleman as the protagonist, such as Hercules, Samson, Goliath, Ursus or Italy's own popular folk hero Maciste. The pepla are a specific class of Italian adventure or fantasy films that have subjects set in Biblical, medieval or classical antiquity, often with contrived plots based very loosely on mythology, legendary Greco-Roman history, or the other contemporary cultures of the time, such as the Egyptians, Assyrians, Etruscans, etc. Griffith with his 1916 Intolerance, peopled their historical epics with dramatic conflicts and realistic protagonists, many of the Pepla merely took a real historical or Biblical event and used it as a backdrop for a simplistic (albeit engrossing), comic book-like heroic adventure tale.