Post by RedKing on Feb 2, 2007 8:22:56 GMT -8
This is a great Something Weird disc. GOLIATH is presented widescreen and is a great print. It's also an excellent movie. oddly this is one time when Hercules got his name changed in the english version rather than Maciste getting his changed to Hercules. The Italian title is something like HERCULES' REVENGE and AIP changed it to Goliath for some reason. I have read someplace that supposedly Universal held the copyright to the name Hercules which is why AIP released all the early sword and sandals as Goliath movies. I don't know how true that is since herc is PD mtyhological character and Universal never made or released any Hercules movies. Anyways, this movie is full of great monsters, action, babes and Gordon Scott! Right off the bat Goliath desends into a misty cavern to retreive the stolen "Blood Diamond" of the god of vengenance, whom he works for. In the cave he sees the dragon of the title breifly in a pretty good stop motion scene then takes on a 3 headed fire breathing dog which is a puppet type thing and then a giant bat monster which is a guy in a suit. After alot of intrigue involving Brod Crawford as a evil tyrant, Goliath's brother and a princess, and Goliath tearing his own house down, and a cool centaur/satyr(it can change forms) kidnapping his wife,he ends up back in the cavern fighting the dragon which is a nice combination of stop motion and life size head. goliath gouges it's eye out(which is fairly gross) and it retreats, the tyrant is killed and Goliath saves his wife. The original musical score was replaced by a new one by AIP resident composer Lex Baxter. AIP did this with alot of Italian imports including GOLIATH AND THE BARBARIANS and BALCK SUNDAY. I don't know about this movie, but the Lex Baxter score for BLACK SUNDAY is better than the original one. Also the IMdb credits Jim Danforth with the stop motion, so it's possible that AIP shot those brief scenes here in the states and added them in. They did similar FX work to REPTILICUS(which was more re-editing and adding in the slime that Reptilicus spits) and JOURNEY TO THE 7TH PLANET, where they actually reshot all the monsters as the ones in the original version were really really bad! CONQUERER OF ATLANTIS is one of the final sword and sandal movies made(1965) and stars Kirk Morris, who sort of looks like Elvis, as Herakles(using the original greek name for a change) washing up in Arabia and getting involved in a skirmish between a couple of desert tribes. I was actually starting to wonder what this had to do with Atlantisas this establishing plot takes up almost half the movie. Finally the tribes realize they haven't been raiding each other, but are all under attack from a mysterious force that lies beyond the so called "Moutain of the Dead". Herc and one of the tribe leaders who is also a muscular adventurer take off for the mountain and find a secret entrance to the last remains of Atlantis(finally!). Once there they are introduced to the queen, a mad scientist who is a dead ringer for Ming the Merciless and gold skinned zombies dressed in suits that look alot like the ones worn by the aliens in the Republic serial ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE! Herc and his partner manage to save a girl kidnapped from one of the tribes and pull the handy levers that make the city explode! This movie isn't in nearly as nice shape as the print of GOLIATH-it has widescreen credits, but the movie itself is full screen but the print's color is good, not scratchy or anything. Also included to fill out the disc are a couple of odd Hercules related short subjects, a 10 minute condensed version of the great FIREMONSTERS AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES and a dozen or more trailers plus a photo gallery of sword and sandal posters that has the awesome"Sons of Hercules" theme song played over it! I wish Something Weird had released more of these sword and sandal double features.
