Maciste contre le fantôme

Due to the potential horror elements inherent in the title, I had been intrigued since childhood by a one-page still from this film in a large book about "Epics" owned by my father's showing Gordon Scott grappling with an unseen assailant; only in hindsight do I realize he was battling 'himself' (22 years before SUPERMAN III!) by way of some amusingly modern wrestling tactics! Therefore, I was glad to finally get to watch this via a faded, English-dubbed print available on a "You Tube" channel dedicated to peplums...since, strangely enough, the film has never been shown on Italian TV or available on VHS in my neck of the woods! After donning Tarzan's loincloth 6 times, it was a natural step, I suppose, for American muscleman Scott to go to Italy and incarnate their household mythological hero Maciste (although Mark Forrest had already done so before him) – albeit ludicrously redubbed with the Biblical moniker of Goliath for U.S. export! – a role he would officially repeat twice more later on in the decade.

Speaking of the film's title, the American one also misleadingly hyped up the number of horrific villains in it by going for the plural word "vampires" rather than the more accurate singular one of the original; in fact, the vampire attacks here are nothing more than the collection of blood from sword or claw wounds suffered by the victims of the vampire's acolytes, which is then apparently used to revive the master villain Kobrak's desiccated wax-like warriors (described as "robots with blood"!) stored in his red-lit (netherworld?) cave; disappointingly, Kobrak's true skeletal visage is only really ever seen towards the film's closing moments! Maciste starts out as a village farmer but he is soon pelting soldiers with uprooted trees and stone columns or piles of chains! The biggest laugh-out loud moments are when Maciste slaps an assailant and literally sends him flying to the roof and when he is shown standing around whirling his arms into people like one of those gladiatorial training contraptions!

Thankfully, however, the film delivers aplenty in the atmosphere department and, all in all, this is yet another satisfying work from prolific and versatile Italian director Gentilomo – assisted here by future Spaghetti Western expert Corbucci. Indeed, GOLIATH AND THE VAMPIRES emerges as one of the most bizarre and entertaining peplums ever, punctuated as it is by lively action sequences (a protracted market place scuffle early on is a particular highlight) but also an atypically grim countenance (not only are there no dwarfish comic relief figures but the characters of Maciste's mother and the little brother of Maciste's fiancée end up dead! But, wait, there is more: the prerequisite Arabian-style dance routine is anachronistically accompanied by modern-day jazzy sounds and goofy crab-like creatures lurk in the villain's pit! Besides, it turns out to be surprisingly blood-thirsty for what is traditionally kiddie fare with an arrow shot at point-blank range right into a villager's eye during the initial attack, another slides off a pole and ends up impaled on spikes, Kobrak's ominous threat of torturing Maciste by the use of sound-waves is nothing more ingenious than slipping him inside a giant bell and having his men clang the hell out of it(!) and, hilariously enough, old women are thrown to the sharks off of a slave ship (so what was the point of abducting them in the first place?). Actually, with all of this going on, the film still manages to lose some momentum in the build-up to the climactic attack on Kobrak's cave!

Apart from Scott, the cast includes genre stalwarts like Gianna Maria Canale (as Astra, ostensibly The King's favorite slave but truly Kobrak's servant), Leonora Ruffo (as Maciste's girl) and Jacques Sernas (rather than playing the obligatory romantic second lead, he plays an ambiguous alchemist leading a rebel army of Blue Men)! While I could tell the female lead here was an attractive blonde. I did not associate her with the stunning brunette from THE QUEEN OF SHEBA (1952); looking over her filmography, I realize that I have already seen her in 5 other movies and have another one (her last, Fernando Di Leo's BURN, BOY, BURN released in 1969) in my unwatched pile!

1961's "Goliath and the Vampires" marked the transitional period when Gordon Scott left the Tarzan series (six films) for the Italian 'peplum' series, which began with the 1957 "Hercules," featuring Steve Reeves in the title role. The connection is made even clearer by the sultry presence of "Hercules" actress Gianna Maria Canale, here cast as the evil one's consort, quite an edge over Leonora Ruffo, just as lifeless in similar hapless heroine mode in Mario Bava's "Hercules in the Haunted World," which followed this release in Italy by three months, boasting a villain essayed by Christopher Lee. While not as fanciful as the masterful Bava's take, this remains one of the finest examples of the muscleman entries, the barrel chested Scott already a veteran actor capable of greater emotion than most, and an excellent man of action performing his own stunts (called 'Maciste' in the original Italian version). The opening raid on Goliath's village features an arrow through the eye, and the women kidnapped to supply blood for a fiendish creature known as Kobrak, the sole 'vampire' on display, more a hideous sorcerer who appears transparent at will, at other times corporeal when slashing its victims' throats. In fact, there are no guarantees for any of the good guys save Goliath, and no obvious comic relief (unlike one painful character in Bava's feature), making for a stronger dramatic take filled with plentiful action. Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater aired this title on three occasions, offering up other peplums like Gordon Mitchell's "The Giant of Metropolis" and John Drew Barrymore's "War of the Zombies."

Introducing non-traditional elements into the standard sword-and-sandal formula can be risky. The results often collapse into confusion and absurdity. Here, however, the merging of horror-movie with mythic- strongman motifs results in a "peplum" which stands a notch or two above its competitors. There are, of course, the standard but always-welcome virtues: a lively brawl in a town square and again in a tavern, a hoochy-koochy dance number inside the Sultan's palace, a beefcake-bondage scene in which our sweaty, bare-chested hero struggles with a wooden yoke bound across his brawny shoulders and outstretched arms, etc. Then there are the spooky, supernatural vampire elements -- not as hokey as you'd fear -- and a memorable fight which pits our hero against none other than his clone. Thrown in for good measure is an ear-drum torture scene carried out inside a giant bell which conjures up memories of similar moments in MGM's "The Mask of Fu Manchu" and Rory Calhoun's "Colossus of Rhodes." Finally, a word of approval must be given to this movie's refusal to use the boy, Ciro, for the comic relief usually provided by those annoying Italian midgets.

There are, not surprisingly, weaknesses. Leonora Ruffo isn't given much to do as the heroine and, as a result, seems pale, lifeless, and forgettable, especially when compared to the vibrant, dark-haired "bad girl," Gianna Maria Canale. Secondly, the role of the Sultan is so poorly developed that the political situation inside Salmanak remains needlessly muddled. What's more, not enough is done with the character played by Jacques Sernas -- somewhat surprising considering Sernas' star-power.

Assets clearly outweigh detriments, however, and towering over everything is the impressive figure of Gordon Scott, an underrated screen presence who was somehow more than just a glorious physique.

This is probably the first "Peplum" movie I ever saw, so I'm pretty biased about it, but even considering that, it's very entertaining. As one reviewer on another site points out, it's a revenge story (an unusual thing for this category of film), and one that's surprisingly violent at the beginning. And also that the requisite little kid sidekick isn't squeezed edgewise into scenes, but used in a pretty clever way. Along with that, it has plenty of good "formula" things - the harem girls, a pretty good supernatural monster, a "villainess" (albeit the kind who changes sides - I prefer the "unrepentant" kind), and (as many posters have pointed out) the "Blue Man Group." Gordon Scott always fit so easily into these movies (I might be the only one on earth who thinks that "Danger : Deathray" is okay, thanks largely to him), as did the Italian actors in this one.

Leave your brain at home and give this a chance! Sheer fun, and how can you not love a film where in just the first three minutes a guy gets (very bogusly) nailed in the eye with an arrow? Yes, most of these sword and sandal "epics" really bit the big one, but this one has Gordon Scott kicking ass on all manner of monsters and bad guys. CHECK IT OUT!