La venganza de Hércules

I had previously watched this in Italian during a pretty disastrous screening at the B-movie retrospective at the 2004 Venice Film Festival where the whole audience howled with laughter; in hindsight, I have to say that watching it on the big screen certainly magnifies its inherent faults tenfold. Actually, now that I've given it another look, it's not worse than most other peplums - though certainly not up to Cottafavi's best work, THE 100 HORSEMEN (1964) but his offbeat framing and vivid sense of color enlivens several sequences to be sure. For the record, Cottafavi also made that which is arguably the best Hercules film of all, HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN (1961), whose shortened US version (alas) has just been released on R1 DVD.

Anyway, the plot kicks into action immediately as Mark Forest (playing the titular he-man, named Hercules in the original Italian-language version) goes to recover a diamond from a monster-infested cave which includes a hilarious large cat creature with bat wings which I clearly recall sending the Venice Film Festival audience in hysterics! The villain of the piece is Broderick Crawford who naturally chews up the scenery and approaches the role as if he were playing a gangster; at one point he even puts down his equally crooked, if actually brighter, henchman by calling him a "moron"...after which Crawford is apparently revitalized and inspired into devising newer and more ingenious traps to spring for Hercules...er...Goliath! The busy plot line, of course, involves several action set-pieces, court intrigues, much invoking of the Greek gods, women threatened with torture...and more laughable monsters (the dragon of the English title is so cheap that only its head ever makes any significant appearance). There is the usual coterie of maidens in these mythological epics who, thankfully, are very easy on the eyes here especially Leonora Ruffo (as Goliath's wife; she went on to repeat the role in Mario Bava's HERCLUES IN THE HAUNTED WORLD [1961]) and Gaby Andre' (as a duplicitous slave who also falls for Goliath).

The version I watched this time around, via Alpha's DVD, was the AIP English-dubbed and rescored one (by the ubiquitous Les Baxter); surprisingly, it was a widescreen print - but the colors were way too much on the red side so that I had to tone down the colors on my TV set to make the whole thing viewable!

P.S. Amusingly, my father and I attended a multi-part course on film appreciation some 10 years ago and when the lecturer mentioned such peplums in a positive light, my father, knowing the man to be a University professor, exclaimed loudly: "Don't tell me you appreciate that stuff?"

"Goliath and the Dragon" was one of two peplum films featuring Hercules (the other being "The Loves of Hercules') released in 1960, following the success of "Hercules" and its sequel both starring Steve Reeves. The original Italian title for this film is "La vendetta di Ercole" ("The Revenge of Hercules"), but U.S. distributor AIP changed the hero to Goliath for the American release, and added a stop-motion animation dragon not included in the Italian cut. Italian-American (Brooklyn-born) bodybuilder Lou Degni, billed as Mark Forest, takes over the role from Reeves. Forest starred in a dozen or so peplum films including "Maciste in the Valley of the Kings" released this same year and played Hercules again in 1964's "Hercules Against the Sons of the Sun." He is a more than passable stand-in for Reeves, impressively built if not quite as classically handsome or well-proportioned and able to pull off the macho arrogance of the character. The oddest thing about this film is the casting of American actor Broderick Crawford, with an enormous and distracting scar across his face, as Hercules's (or Goliath's ... whatever) nemesis. Crawford growls his way through the movie and generally seems like a grumpy old man. At least he gets to use his name, which neither the film nor the writers nor the lead actor nor the hero do -- co-writer Nicolo Ferrari is credited with the bizarre pseudonym Archibald Zounds Jr.! (Apologies to anyone actually named Archibald Zounds, Jr. or Sr.)

The story is particularly baroque, involving forbidden romance, double-crossing courtiers, an over-large cast of characters that becomes cumbersome to keep straight, and some vague plans to defeat Hercules and conquer Thebes, but the overall motif (in keeping with the Italian title) is revenge, with Hercules at one point destroying the statue of the God of Vengeance after it falls on him -- twice! The real attraction here, though, is not the complicated plot but the dizzying array of cheesy monsters Hercules gets to fight, beginning with a sequence in the "cave of horrors" where the big man defeats a three-headed beast that is probably supposed to be Cerebus, though not identified as such (another pseudonymous indignity) and a very strange man-sized bat-like creature that at first I thought was a unique take on the dragon, but as it turns out a more conventional (though, frankly, pretty hilarious) dragon turns up later. Along the way, Hercules also defeats a giant bear-like monster and spears a centaur, who is the most convincing and strangely affecting of all the creatures that populate the film. The bat-thing and the bear-thing are clearly stuntmen in silly costumes, but the dragon (aside from the brief stop-motion sequence) is a giant puppet that Forest does a great job trying to battle convincingly. Other peplum tropes include the obligatory dancing girls and Hercules practically tearing down a city with his bare hands. Though much cheaper looking and cheesier than the two Reeves films that preceded it, this is actually pretty fun and peppy peplum entry helmed by director Vittorio Cottafavi.

After the amazing success of "Goliath and the Barbarians" with Steve Reeves, American International pictures decided to go "Goliath" again and picked up the option on "Goliath and the Dragon".....Reeves was offered the role but due to conflicts with another film, American muscleman Mark Forrest took the role of Goliath. Talk about a goofy film.....Forrest certainly has the muscles for the role, but the cardboard sets, bats and monsters flying in on a wire you can see....and a man in a bear suit fighting Goliath....geez!!! Broderick Crawford dropped his Highway Patrol microphone and played Eurytus, a maniac despot with a penciled in scar on his face who tries to get rid of Goliath anyway he can, including sicking his pet dragon on Goliath. Goliath fights elephants, centaurs, bats, bears and manages to pull down two giant trees with a rope to the ground!! On well, if Steve Reeves could pull a tree out of the ground in "Hercules" I guess Goliath could pull down a couple too...... Absolute silly scene with Forrest as Goliath fighting a rubber dragon with a plastic knife breathing fire.....phoniest dragon up close you have ever seen!! Producers even used the same musical sound track for this film as "Goliath and the Barbarians" to save a few bucks I guess. Forrest went on to star in a number of muscleman flicks that Reeves apparently wasn't interested in making. Forrest appeared as Goliath again in "Goliath and the Sins of Babylon" again for American International pictures......guess they tried to milk the Goliath role for all they could get!!!

Broderick Crawford is a slimy politician in a toga and Mark Forest (bodybuilder Lou Degni) is muscleman Goliath in this kitsch epic from Italy, exploited to the max in the U.S. by American International pictures during the drive-in heydays of the late 50's and early 60's. This one's quite a potboiler, with a various assortment of cheesy monster creations (including some very brief stop-motion footage by Jim Danforth), the usual buxom babes with big Roman hairdos and, of course, the solid and stiff muscleman hero performing various feats of strength (like wrestling a bear suit and, rather impressively, genuinely warding off a real elephant!). It's all a lot of nostalgic fun and the new DVD release is a revelation in quality, bringing back the bright color and widescreen TotalScope ratio of the original theatrical presentation. The DVD is also packed with campy tributes to the whole muscleman, sword-and-sandal genre, including a gallery of trailers, shorts and even an entire second strongman feature, the truly ridiculous CONQUERER OF ATLANTIS! Get ready for a great late-night schlockfest with this package!

This myth-opera Peplum deals about Hercules , he finishes the seven works going to inferno in the center of earth , a hell plenty of craters , volcano , yellow fume and red foggy in gaudy colors and groundbreaking atmosphere . There he battles can Cerbero with various heads spitting fire and a flying monster similar a large bat (creatures made by Carlo Rambaldi : ET) . Later on , there takes place a palace intrigue with a tyrant named Euristeo (a scarface Broderick Crawford , in the U.S. version, it's not his voice, but a voice actor impersonating him) attempting to rule over the city of Tebas and our hero unhesitatingly goes into action and must use his strength to save his wife and son of a cruel torture with elephants ; plus , he confronts Zeus represented by a great sculpture . Here Hercules is married to Deianira (Leonora Ruffo) and has a rebel and angry son (Moretti) facing off his father , but he's impeded on relationship with Thea and even he's tied a tree by Hércules . Finally , it takes place an exciting final confrontation into a snakes pit .

This muscle-man epic displays action , adventures , mythology, bizarre and luxurious scenarios and results to be quite amusing . The movie has not mythological accuracy , neither expectation historical . This film is listed among the 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made in Golden Raspberry Awards . Stunningly cheap special effects like the shots and close-ups of a giant bear that's a man suited struggling against Hércules . Besides , it appears usual Eurotrash babes such as Wandisa Guisa and Leonora Ruffo and a habitual Spaghetti Western : Robert Hundar as a centaur . Mark Forest is good and strong playing the mythical hunk who finds several risks while attempting to defeat his enemies and fighting monsters and numerous odds . Forest played the hero in great number of movies and was randomly assigned the identity of Hércules , Goliath , Samsom for US version . Bouncing and robust Forest was a muscle-man who allegedly left the Gladiators genre for the Opera and he currently teaches in the L.A. zone . He was one along with the biggest chests like are Gordon Scott , Alan Steel , Reg Park , Ed Fury , Dan Vadis , all of them to seek fortune acting absurdly mythological figures but nobody topped Steve Reeves in popularity .

This motion picture is an enjoyable sword and sandals story , being compellingly directed by Vittorio Cottafavi (1914-1998), he was a complete artist , painter and Peplum expert , as he directed : ¨Conquest of Atlántida¨ , ¨Legions of Cleopatra¨ , ¨Mesallina¨ and ¨Rebellion of gladiators¨ . Originally titled "Hercule's Revenge", but since Universal owned the rights to Hercules at the time, the title was changed and the name of the main character was changed to Goliath.