The production had to shut down when the money ran out. American-International Pictures' executives James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff were shown rushes from the film and agreed to buy the US distribution rights, which gave the film's producers the money to continue production. With their own Steve Reeves movie (retitled Golias Contra os Bárbaros (1959)) in theaters only five months after the box-office sensation Hércules (1958), American-International had one of its biggest hits up to that time.
When Igor (Livio Lorenzon) slapped Landa (Chelo Alonso), the fiery Cuban actress couldn't help herself, and slapped him back. After ruining a couple of takes this way, the old director lost his patience and had Chelo's hands tied off screen. She took it as the script demanded, but after the scene cut, she walked to her colleague, slapped him, and told him, "Here's the change!"
For American International's trailer for their U.S. release under the title "Goliath and the Barbarians" (1959), beneath Steve Reeves' name was "(Mr. Hercules, himself)" to insure that audiences knew that it was the same actor from the blockbuster "Hercules" (1959) that was released earlier that year.
American International Pictures would frequently make use of frozen dollars and cheaper European facilities by sending composers Les Baxter and Ronald Stein to record their scores in London, Munich and Rome. Baxter recounted in a 1981 interview for Soundtrack! that he was sent to London in 1959 to score Goliath and the Barbarians and struck up a friendship with conductor Muir Mathieson ("because he was Scottish and I am Scottish"). The orchestra they used was not credited in the AIP end title, but the Soundtrack LP issued by AI Records named the "London Symphonia Orchestra," a fictitious orchestra made up of invited musicians from both the London Symphony Orchestra and the Sinfonia of London.
The original music score by Carlo Innocenzi was finally released on CD by Digitmovies in 2008, some 46 years after the composer's death. Remarkably, for a composer who scored over 130 films during a 27-year career, this was Innocenzi's only soundtrack album. The alternative score by Les Baxter was also released on CD by Intrada in 2009. Despite rumours to the contrary, the two scores were completely different, with neither composer plagiarizing the other.