La vengeance d'Hercule

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!

Broderick Crawford plays his role of a corrupt would-be emperor like he were still playing a 20th century gangster. Watch him bark orders to soldiers like he were plotting a gangland rubout. Meanwhile Mark Forest is the hero called "Emilius" who is nicknamed Goliath because he is so strong and (apparently) immortal. He also has a younger brother is is neither superstrong nor immortal and a mortal wife who is not bothered by the fact that she will eventually grow old and die but he won't. Go figure. Most of us watch these movies for the monsters and oft-times the cheesier the better. After a mechanical 3 headed fire breathing dog (ahem, that is NOT Cerberus!), a man in suit giant bat and a centaur (which had to have been the most uncomfortable costume in the bunch) seeing a dragon that is partially stop motion animated was a real treat. Oh yeah, in closeups it is a giant rubber prop but those few moments of animation make it worthwhile. There is enough plot here for 2 movies and it does not always make perfect sense but the action will keep your attention. Oh and look closely at that dragon. David Hewitt borrowed some of the stop-motion scenes for his no budget thriller THE MIGHTY GORGA.

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!!!

GOLIATH AND THE DRAGON is another Hercules movie with the hero's name altered for American audiences. It stars Mark Forest as the enormous hero.

The action starts right away, with Hercu-liath battling a three-headed, fire-breathing dog monster! This takes about ten seconds, as it's more of a big, three-headed sausage.

Golia-cles is seeking the fabled "blood diamond", and must face the dreaded bat-man beast! It lasts for almost five seconds before being crushed

Meanwhile, the devilish King Eurystheus (Broderick Crawford) plots destruction and doom. He's sort of the Al Capone of the ancient world, and will do anything to stay in power.

For his part, our hero, after returning the aforementioned gem to its rightful owner, only wants some rest and relaxation. This is cut short when Eurystheus abducts his brother! Now, Her-goliath-cles must save his sibling, as well as everyone else.

A decent entry in the genre, with plenty of action, monsters, and battle sequences. Forest is, as always, larger than life. The "elephant" scene is fun, though it seems likely that the poor creature was either sleep deprived or heavily drugged prior to filming!

As for the dragon, it's fairly well-realized, utilizing both stop-motion and a large, animatronic head. It takes an entire twenty seconds for it to meet its maker!

Of course, there's a huge, "battle royal" finale, where Gol-herc-iath-cles gets his chance to toss his opponents around like meatballs!

An entertaining romp...

I saw the poster for GOLIATH AND THE DRAGON outside a theater when I was a kid and was dying to see it. Unfortunately I had to wait over thirty years until just the other day when I found a cheap VHS copy in a video store. Was it worth the wait? Absolutely --- but not for the reasons I'd expected. In addition to the cool poster what intrigued me about the film were the Jim Danforth stop motion sequences added for the American release. Pictures of the dragon made it look pretty good. Unfortunately the model is poorly used in the film itself, and nowhere is it shown off to such good advantage as in the publicity stills. Animation-wise the film was a major disappointment.

And other-wise? Well, you gotta give this movie a big A for Ambition. Hercules (excuse me, GOLIATH) doesn't just duke it out with soldiers, he battles a three headed dog, a bat monster, a centaur, a bear, and at one point even wrestles an elephant to the ground! Unfortunately none of these conflicts is handled with anything like the skill needed to really bring them off, but you've gotta love them for trying. And the movie, goofy and slipshod as it is, never bores. Peplum fans should check it out.