GOLIATH DOUBLE FEATURE
GOLIATH AND THE BARBARIANS 1959
GOLIATH AND THE VAMPIRES 1961
WILD EAST DVD
Is there any better legal entertainment on a Saturday afternoon than a good peplum? Probably, but that doesn't mean this Steve Reeves flick isn't great, so prepare to blast your quads and wake up the Minotaur with Carlo Campogaliani's IL TERRORE DEI BARBARI or GOLIATH AND THE BARBARIANS to us Yanks. This one's a bit different than your average peplum as it's not about a demi-god like Hercules and it's takes place around 568 A.D., at least according to the narrator. Big Steve plays Emiliano. a hugely muscled guy whose village is raided and his father killed by barbarians. This does not sit well with Steve so he strikes back by attacking the barbarians guerilla style as they occupy the land. He wears a werewolf type mask during his attacks to strike more fear into the barbarians. To be honest, it's a slightly fruity mask but the bad guys are convinced he is a monster and begin calling him "The Goliath". One attack he bursts into camp with a big caveman club and starts pounding skull Pusser style. About this time, Steve meets the barbarian chieftan's firecracker hot daughter Londa, played by the spicy Cuban, Chelo Alonso. Obviously, they seem to take a liking to each other. On the barbarian side of things, there is a bit of a power play going on by lead villain Igor to take over and get Londa too. The barbarian's base reminded me a lot of a Conan themed Playboy Club. They even have Londa as the featured dancer. Eventually, they catch Steve but are not sure if he is The Goliath or just a woodcutter and for some reason they have a "benefit of the doubt law" that requires the "Test of Truth". They subject Steve to a bizarre spear based test and then to an old fashioned attempt at pulling his arms off with horses. Really it's just an opportunity for Reeves to flex. You know, I bet Kenneth Anger really liked this movie. Anyway, he passes the challenge and is freed. The barbarians are tired of the bullshit and massacre a whole bunch of people in various barbaric ways. Lots of screaming women getting speared, guys getting speared and set on fire, horse trampling, and other hijinks. Steve takes the highroad and attempts to bargain for the release of his people but an attempted takeover by treacherous Igor gets in the way. Obviously, Steve is gonna come out on top and he does after a climatic battle with Igor. Steve Reeves never got much credit for his acting but he is just great in these pictures and this may be his best one. Wild East came up with a great looking letterboxed print with bright color and great sound. The film has the Les Baxter score that was reused on other Goliath films and is also excellent.
In GOLIATH AND THE VAMPIRES Goliath is played by Gordon Scott who made nearly forty flicks in Italy after his run as Tarzan. Goliath spends his days plowing and occasionally saving kids from sea monsters. But his tranquility is disturbed when his village is raided by some bad guys under the spell of Kobrak. It's a fairly rigorous attack with a great shot of a guy getting an arrow in the eye from three feet away. They take all the women, including Goliath's and sail away. Of course this aggression will be addressed as Goliath swears revenge. On the way back to their own village, the raiders feed all the old ladies to the sharks which kinda makes you wonder why they brought them in the first place. They also feed a goblet of blood to Kobrak, although we only see his scaly hand take the goblet as the rest of him is hidden. Back at the city, the Sultan who is controlled by Kobrak, resents that he is forced to torture his people and basically that he is Kobrak's bitch. For fun they have guys climb up a pole and then knock them off to be impaled by iron spikes. There's your requisite veiled dance number and some gongs but eventually Goliath shows up and beats the crap out of a lot of guys. Kobrak learns of Goliath and wants to use his "magnificent body as a model for his slave army" to conquer the world. Kobrak appears occasionally out of a red cloud but wears a mask so we don't see his face, mainly he appears to his lovely female assistant. She's his spokeswoman basically. Eventually Goliath teams up with an odd group of blue men to take on Kobrak and his army of no-face zombies. There's a couple more big brawls in there and some great action of Goliath whipping throngs of guys with huge chains. Man, he loves doing that. He also has a Three Stooges variation move where he holds his arms out and spins around quickly, knocking out a bunch of knuckleheads. Eventually we see Kobrak de-masked and he looks pretty cool in sort of a melted vampire face kind of way. It's all good fun and ends with Goliath getting some huzzahs and a statue of himself. The score has a nice eerie feel to it and is by Angelo Lavagnino, who did GORGO as well. The film itself was directed by Giacomo Gentilomo(not to be confused with my cousin Giacomo)but supposedly our old friend Sergio Corbucci was involved a bit too. I have to give the good people at Wild East Productions credit for another great double feature. Both features are lettterboxed and look as better than they have in years.
