Le retour des titans

(1963) Maciste, the World's Greatest Hero/ Maciste, l'eroe più grande del mondo/ Goliath And the Sins of Babylon DUBBED MYTHICAL HISTORICAL FICTION

Saw this movie as the alternative title "Goliath And the Sins of Babylon" that has Mark Forest as Goliath joining rebels against a tyrant king King Rukus (Paul Muller) and his right hand man Morakeg (Erno Crisa) kidnapping young women (supposedly virgins) to be used as pawns.

I don't quite remember why I liked this movie for it has been awhile since I last saw this. All I know is that it was better than the average Italian/ Spanish co production sword and sandals movie. It was on one of those cheapo sword and sandals DVD sets cramming so many movies onto a single disc with no bonus features.

Goliath returns to his home land to help stop the flow of 30 virgins a year to Babylon.

As Sword and Sandal films go this is pretty good. Its not the worst its not the best. Its just a good, light entertaining film that makes you smile as things go along. Filled with interesting set pieces, a chariot race, a sea battle, dungeon torture, this movie attempts to give you more than the usual film of this nature.

The trouble is that the film seems to have been done before. Its not even so much that the film has the same plot as the vast majority of this type of film, its that the sets, the tortures and perhaps whole sequences show up elsewhere. Even allowing for the fact that the trailer has shown up on various other taps and DVDs, this film seems overly familiar, especially to anyone who has ever watched more than a handful of these films.

Still as these things go its not a bad movie. See it.

Technically, this is at the better end of the genre as both the production standards and - mercifully - the dubbing hold up quite well. Mark Forest could hardly be described as versatile, or good - really - but here, he is also quite decent as the eponymous hero who steps in to stop the annual tribute of thirty young virgins being sent from his Nefer homeland to Babylon. Certainly, the plot offers nothing new - we have seen the same story time and time again with the hero being "Hercules" or "Maciste", but the costumes and sets are colourful and vibrant, there is plenty of strong-man action and although it is a bit heavy on the dialogue side from time to-time, it's still quite an entertaining sword and sandals caper full of the usual court intrigues, gladiatorial sword fights and quite a fun contribution from Arnaldo Fabrizio ("Ninneto") too. You won't remember it afterwards, but it passes eighty-odd minutes amiably enough.

Named as Sword & Sandal genre is one my favorite ones, my DVD copy has a Italian original language, therefore in the Italian version Mark forest is Maciste, arriving at Nefer he gathered with 41 revolutionary gladiators to put a close over send 40 virgins girls a year to Babylon to be sacrificed, it's was a price to maintain the peace, they hijack a ship to sink Babylon's ship that is coming to takes all girls to there, the picture has another highlight, a chariots race, likes Ben Hur, the love between the princess with Xandros (Gemma) however the most exiting sequence certainly was the Maciste was chained on a table with several spurs hold by ropes from the celing, their friends have to cut the rope that release the spur toward Maciste's body, many them reach closest, a true breathtaking haunting scene, by the way a true unique, many battles, betrays, lavish giant sets, among others things, has a Midge called Goliath on this version, a true amusing guy, bringing humor to small group, valuable and enjoyable adventure, unfortunately it already didn't come out officially in Brazil, my DVD-R copy is came from internet download!!!

Resume:

First watch: 2012 / How many: 2 / Source: DVD-R / Rating: 6.5

Pretty good sword and sandal "epic" if you will with using that term. Mark Forrest, who played second fiddle to the immortal Steve Reeves in most of the Hercules type films coming out of Italy, plays the legendary so called "Maciste" in the Italian version and is given the name "Goliath" in the American release of this film. Forrest as usual comes to the rescue of the populace in Babylon, where according to a peace treaty signed with warring Nephyr that 30 virgin girls a year must be either sent or sacrificed whatever as tribute. Naturally a secret band of rebels, led by the ever sword and sandal favorite, Livio Lorenzon with that patented bald head leads a revolt to stop the sacrifice. Forrest joins in with those bulging biceps on display throughout the film and leads the slaves to victory....pretty good chariot race, ala "Ben Hur" in the film with Goliath winning out over the Queen of Babylon, who by terms of the race must marry the winner. Goliath realizes that the queen is in love with another man, one of the slaves leading the revolt and he promises to get them back together at all costs. Plenty of action with fighting ships, and lions on the loose after being led out of dungeons in the city. Forrest displays some bulging pecs and biceps in one scene where he is pinned down on a table with dangling spears falling down one by one intent on keeping him guessing which one will inevitably kill him. Guess what, the biceps rip off the shackles and Goliath escapes...!! One of the better sword and sandal films. All it was missing was Steve Reeves or Gordon Scott to round out the cast.