LLOYD'S BEWARE THE BLOG

Any fan of Richard O'Brien's "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" knows the line from the song "Sweet Transvestite" about Steve Reevers, BUT do they know who Steve Reeves was? This is a look at not only Reeves, but the whole worldwide phenomena during the first half of the 1960's known as the "Sword and Sandal" movie.

CLARIFICATION OF AN URBAN LEGEND:

Body Builder/Actor Steve Reeves is not related in any way to Actor George Reeves who played "Superman" on early 1950's television. Nor are either of these two actors related to Actor Christopher Reeve who played "Superman" in a 1978 movie EXCEPT for the similarities in their last names.

PROLOGUE:

When Joseph E. Levine released the English language dub of "Hercules" in 1959 it seemed that suddenly a whole new form of entertainment was created. It had not been. What could qualify as "Sword and Sandal" films had been around since the motion picture industry be…

I first became acquainted with the work of Richard Matheson without knowing I was back in 1957. At the time I was sitting in the front row, always liked to look up at the screen, of the Ritz Theater in Van Nuys, California a suburb of Los Angeles. Don't look for the Ritz as many decades ago the theater became part of the City Hall Plaza. Anyway the movie 9 year old Lloyd was watching was entitled "The Incredible Shrinking Man". I have a DVD copy of this little gem with Swedish subtitles at home. Three years later I would discover it was from a novel "The Shrinking Man" by Richard Matheson who also wrote the screenplay. The film about an average man being exposed to possible nuclear radiation and shrinking continuously into nothingness, into eternity, or a meeting with God still works today. Even the elemental special effects from 1957 can still hold you, because you don't notice the crudeness of them by today's standards. The viewer is wrapped into the …