Goliath contre les géants

An interesting overlap of various Mediterranean storylines that are initially confusing (no spoilers) but combine for an interesting film. It's one of several "Goliath" films of its time, though not all with Brad Harris or following the same plot. They're all about "Goliath the Conqueror" (who at times is portrayed as a dark Grecian type and at other times is portrayed as a fair Visigoth type) saving tribes in Greece, Damascus and other areas. Take a look and see which is your favorite storyline. This is one of mine.

This was a movie that I had never heard of until I was looking through Letterboxd for horror from Italy from 1961. This was the last one from this country and year that I hadn't seen so I decided to watch it. It helped that I had seen a couple other of these 'sword and sandal/sorcery' movies recently as well.

Synopsis: muscleman fights sea monsters, a horde of giants and a tribe of Amazonian warriors.

For this movie, we start at the end of a war that has been waging for 5 years. Goliath's (Brad Harris) army has finally won and is looking forward to returning home. The problem is that the king they were fighting for has died. In his place, Bokan (Fernando Rey) has usurped the throne. Goliath goes into his tent that night and is attacked by assassins. He defeats them and learns they were sent by Bokan. They realized they sent back word of the victory and Namathos (Fernando Sancho) is worried by returning to their city, they will be met by guards. Goliath decides to take men and a ship to get there before word reaches the city.

During this journey they discover a boy who has pledge his loyalty to Goliath when his family was wiped out during the war. They also stop off at an island to fetch water and find a woman left as a sacrifice to Poseidon. Her name is Elea (Gloria Milland) and she knows more than what she is letting on. The journey doesn't get any easier. As the synopsis states, they face a sea creature and run into a tribe of Amazon warriors. One of them is named Daina (Barbara Carroll).

All the while, back in the city we have Bokan trying to do what he can to rule and to end his greatest threat. He is helped by Diamira (Carmen de Lirio). He also has the giants under his rule that were banished by Goliath. They are used as a punishment to those that defy the king. Goliath thought the fighting was over, but he has more that needs to be taken care of before there can be peace.

That's going to be where I'll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I'll start is some brief information about these movies. I learned that Goliath is interchangeable with Hercules and even Samson. It is just a name that people can recognize and get them into the seats. I don't know if any of them are even connected as well.

With that out of the way, we have an interesting story here. I think this captures the world of this time well. There weren't long stretches of peace and a lot of wars going on. From everything I gathered, this is a fictional world we are set in. The name Spartan is thrown out there, so these could be ancient cities that I don't recognize. It doesn't seem like it though. This would be a scary time to be alive. Goliath was fighting for his king and doing what he thought was right. While he's gone, the king dies and we have Bokan who takes the throne. He's evil in the sense that he is power hungry. I can't be fully on Goliath's side though here. It does seem they are using imperialistic beliefs for the war. It does make me wonder, being that this is from Italy and Spain, since they had the history of the Roman and Ottoman Empires. It makes me wonder if the intended audience is holding the admiration of the power they had in the past.

Moving from that, this movie on the Internet Movie Database is listed only as adventure. On Letterboxd, they've included horror. For the latter, this is in the loosest sense. It only falls in there due to the sea creature we see. I guess the giants as well, but I'll get back to them. The effects for the creature are great. It is a normal sized lizard that is superimposed. It doesn't look great, but I have a soft spot for this technique. In a sense, this could be considered a kaiju film. Getting back to the giants, they are guys that are about the same size as Goliath. They make for a formidable foe for him, but the term giant here is loose. We do also get another 'giant lizard' in their valley as well. I don't mind this though, especially for the period. They seem to be borrowing from mythology of a few different places, but just taking story elements to use here.

The rest of the effects are fine. The fight scenes aren't that elaborate, but they look real enough. I do have that slight issue where people are waiting since the choreography wasn't that great. This doesn't ruin it as we are still early enough in cinema and there is a safety issue. Aside from that though, I thought the cinematography was done well enough in capturing the time they are trying to set this for me as well as how they fought then.

Then the last thing to go into here would be the acting. Harris has a good look for Goliath. He doesn't need to do a lot with the performance so I'd say he was fine. Milland is quite attractive. There is depth to her character that worked for me. Rey is good as our main villain. He is aided by de Lirio who is manipulating him as well. Carroll was good along with Pepe Rubio and Sancho. Overall, the acting is fine. No one stood out as great, but this is more about the adventure we are on than the characters themselves.

In conclusion, this is a solid and fun movie. I enjoy these 'sword and sandal/sorcery' films. They are using ideas that are still relevant today and I'd say that this one is even more grounded than the other two I've seen at this time. The issues they are facing are a bit more realistic. The acting we get is fine. No one stands out, but no one has a bad performance either. I like the effects they use for early cinema. The choreography in the fight scenes aren't great, but it isn't an issue necessarily either. The soundtrack also fit for what was needed. For me, I'd say this is over average for me and hovering just going above that stance.

My Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

This Peplum was well starred by Brad Harris , he is nice as the mythical hero who finds several dangerous situations while attempting save his lover (Gloria Milland) and recover the throne . After a long time , Goliath (Brad Harris) goes back home to reclaim his legitimate throne , being helped by Briseo (Pepe Rubio) and Namathos (Fernando Sancho) but tyrant Bokam will try to avoid it . Meanwhile , Briseo is kidnapped and Goliath has to free him . Muscleman Goliath (Brad Harris) fights sea monsters , a tribe of Amazonian warriors commanded by Hypolita , a gorilla , lions and a horde of giants . At the end takes place a revolution again a nasty tyrant (an overacted Fernando Rey) of city of Veira .

Italian/Spanish epic with struggles, intrigues, luxurious scenarios and quite entertaining . This is an agreeable Sword and Sandals movie with noisy action , extraordinary adventures , arena struggles , usual dancing scenes and spectacular final attack . Being plenty of battles and fights , decently choreographed by Nello Pazzofini as fencing director and also as a secondary actor . In addition , there appears the dancing choreography , usual in Peplum genre . The film hasn't historic reference , it results to be a simple adventure movie with monsters , gladiator fights , betrayal , pursuits and many other things . This film takes images and stock shots from other movies and especially ¨Colossus of Rhodes¨ . Brad Harris is cool as the mythical hero who becomes involved into numerous risked incidents while trying to free his lover and achieve the kingdom . Brad Harris was a hunk man who made lots of roman epic films also called ¨Musclemen movies¨. Luck's Harris changed when an Italian producer persuaded him to go overseas to star lots of swords and sandals film . Brad was an American bouncing who emigrated Italy and created a true star-system based on pumped-up heroes. He along with Steve Reeves and Gordon Scott paved the way for others actors to seek their fame and fortune in Italy playing muscular adventurers . He acted as a big hero in great number of films and was randomly assigned the identity of Hercules, Goliath, Samsom for US viewers . In the US he worked as a and secured employment as a stunt man . In the late 1950s he traveled to Europe as the stunt co-ordinator for a German-Italian co-production . Soon he found himself working as a second-unit director, and that led to a starring role . Harris received a special achievement award along with other "Legends of Hercules" . Harris usually playing historic characters , such as "Han el Barbaro" , ¨Fury of Heracles¨ , ¨Samson¨, "Three Giants of the Roman Empire¨ , ¨Rocha¨ , "79 A.D. The Destruction of Herculaneum" , ¨The Old Testament¨ . His good looks and muscular build kept him in demand during the era of "sword and sandal" movies, and when this genre began to fade away, he moved into "spaghetti westerns" and a spate of action movies with an emphasis on spy thrillers . He was one along with Ed Fury, Dan Vadis, Alain Steel, Peter Lupus , Reg Lewis , Mark Forest, Mickey Hargitay , Reg Park, among others, whom the seek fame and fortune acting absurdly muscle mythological figures, but nobody topped Steve Reeves and Gordon Scott in popularity . In the film appears several familiar faces from Peplum and Spaghetti such as Fernando Rey , Fernando Sancho , Angel Aranda and Alvaro De Luna as a gladiator .

Atmospheric and evocative musical score by Carlo Innocenzi . Colorful cinematography by expert cameraman Alejandro Ulloa (Horror express) , but a perfect remastering is necessary ; being shot on location in Manzanares Del Real , Colmenar Viejo (Madrid) and Almeria , Andalucia , the latter , a known place where in the 60s and 70s was filmed lots of Spaghetti/Tortilla Westerns . The motion picture was regularly directed by Guido Malatesta . He's a writer and director of various Sword and Sandals movies , sometimes credited as James Read , such as, ¨Colossus and the headhunter¨ , ¨Fire over Rome¨ , ¨Colossus the Stone age¨ and ¨Revolt of the Barbarians¨. Rating : Acceptable and passable . The picture will appeal to Peplum buffs .

The question I'm asked is why do I watch movies like this with any frequency? The answer has to do with the monsters and the fact that many of these things throw everything at you except for the kitchen sink, and that's only left out because it wasn't invented yet.

After a war ends Goliath prepares to head home, except that Bokan, the regent of his country has sent assassins to kill Goliath since he is the only one who could take the place of the dead king, a fact that would put Bokan out of a job. Bokan is not standing for any opposition to his rue and he pitches anyone who doesn't like him into a valley where giants live, Giants who were put there by Goliath years before.

Trying to get home faster Goliath and his friends try to go by sea but get waylaid on the voyage.

Its at this point that the movie throws in everything except the kitchen sink, and perhaps aliens, as Goliath has to face a storm at sea, sea monsters, assassins, Amazons, a gorilla, lions, weird torture devices, gladiators, cave men and giants. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but I don't know what. Best of all the whole thing is told spectacularly and with a decent budget, something that is missing from most movies of this sort.

My only complaint is that it gets a bit draggy in the middle for a couple of minutes, but other than that this is a really good mindless adventure.

If you want to see a movie with everything give this a try.

Muscleman fights sea monsters and Amazon warriors, then returns home to find a race of giants living in a valley, into which fellow countrymen are being thrown as punishment for opposing a usurper king and his consort.

Goliath against the Giants is another of those typical peplums bolstered by pace, good production values, Brad Harris, fine cinematography and superb location work - there's a beautiful sequence where our heroes walk across a desert and the valley of Janopah where the giants live is an impressive mixture of bleak crags and volcanic ash. However, its downsides is its tendency to languidness and having muddled elements. The red-head appearing from nowhere was confusing. There's a lack of sharpness in the plot, but overall not a bad entry in the world of peplum. Things liven up in the last thirty minutes with a lady placed on a rack, gladiator spectacles, Goliath appearing and facing a lion, giants, lizards. Fernando Rey as the usurper King Bokan is a right sadistic cretin who likes to have citizens tossed down a cliff into the smoky lair of the giants and dragons. His character is played with some hammyness.

As for the monsters, the giant sea lizard (an iguana superimposed on the image, and quite a lethargic one who didn't do much accept stare at the hero and wait to be killed) in the fog was well done, in terms of the atmospheric fog and its build-up, and the "giants", who are guys 10 centimeters taller than the protagonist, is a disappointment, though. They look like cavemen with daddy bods.