Leofwine_draca A well-made (for the genre), expensive-looking (apart from the special effects) peplum vehicle for Mark Forest, here dressed up to look just like Steve Reeves. GOLIATH AND THE DRAGON is one of the more impressive peplum adventures and contains some very good scenes in its running time. Sure, the expected court shenanigans, romance, and plot twists are all present and correct, but the action - when it comes - is very good indeed and a must-see for fans of cheesy monsters.The opening couldn't be better, as it has Goliath climbing down a huge pit to retrieve the stolen "blood diamond" from the statue of his beloved wind goddess. It turns out that the diamond was stolen by the troops of Eurystheus (Broderick Crawford) and thrown into the pit for Goliath to retrieve. You see, there's a dragon lurking in the pit which Eurystheus hopes will kill Goliath. What do you think will happen? You're right, Goliath will manage to kill the dragon single-handedly, but that doesn't happen until the end of the film. For now we have to make do with some cool, impressive stop-motion animation of the dragon hunting through the cave; a first for the peplum genre? I've a feeling that this may have been inserted by American producers as I've certainly never seen any sign of stop-motion in other Italian peplum movies (they didn't have the budget for one thing). Still, it's a big surprise and a big plus for the film as I love stop-motion.Goliath's first obstacle is a dangerous, fire-breathing three-headed dog which is guarding the entrance to the cave. After a few thwacks from Goliath's sword, it immediately "plays dead" thus letting him enter - still, it provided a nice spectacle. Incidentally, spectacle is what GOLIATH AND THE DRAGON is all about and it provides oodles of it, which is why I rate it so highly; it may be cheesy and unrealistic, but the spirit of the film is action-packed and a whole lot of fun! Goliath wanders into some very impressive mist-enshrouded underground caverns, full of bubbling lakes and lurking danger. Sure enough, he's soon attacked by a cheesy, flying winged monster but beats it out of the sky! After retrieving his precious diamond, Goliath retreats, and the rest of the film (until the ending) takes place above-ground with some (less impressive) more standard human intrigue.Broderick Crawford hams for all his worth as the cruel tyrant Eurystheus (whom one character so memorably calls "a mass of fat and muscle, full of violence and brutality"!). Crawford is miscast, yes, but provides a worthwhile villain for Goliath to face - the only trouble is that he looks so physically unfit that you feel he might keel over and die at any minute! The rest of the cast is made up of Goliath's trouble-seeking younger brother (who doesn't share his sibling's love of body-building, obviously), some supposed Italian beauties, and lots of marching soldier types. Amid all the usual dialogue, near-death moments, and swooning females, Goliath proves his worth by chucking rocks, pulling down trees and temples, and fighting a grizzly bear (or a man-in-a-suit, depending on how gullible/perceptive you may be)! Great fun, worth watching.Eventually, Eursytheus kidnaps Goliath's brother and has him tied to a cross, intending to make an elephant trample him in a surprisingly grisly little moment. Thankfully Goliath comes to the rescue on his chariot, fighting off the elephant single-handedly - well he makes it sit down in the end! - and escaping again. But the fun isn't over yet. You see, Crawford has a creepy snake pit in his dungeon, into which he lowers beautiful women as a torture device! This means that Goliath is up to his arms in rescuing people and righting wrongs.In a memorable plot twist, Goliath actually falls foul of the gods, causing the sky to turn purple - cool! A centaur (seen only at a distance) called Polymorphus appears to kidnap Goliath's love interest, only to receive a spear in the back for its troubles. It hands over the fainted lady to Crawford before dying, who proceeds to chain her up as dragon bait. This leads to another cool scene, in which Goliath bravely battles the (mechanical) monstrosity, which is defeated fairly easily, it has to be said! It's all about spectacle again...after Goliath slays the dragon (and has his girlfriend kidnapped AGAIN), he storms Crawford's palace with his small army, but not before single-handedly destroying the foundations of the place from underground.A well-staged battle ensues, and the film culminates with Crawford falling into his own snake-pit and dying - a hilarious sight. Somewhat bizarrely, the most beautiful actress is also bitten and dies, but I guess even Goliath can't have everything! The Les Baxter score is appropriately spooky and exciting when needs must, Mark Forest looks the part and has some choice dialogue as Goliath, and the sets and costumes are spot-on. In all, an action-packed and fast-paced adventure, and in my mind one of the best films of the genre! I highly recommend Something Weird Video's print of this movie, which is, as they say, crystal clear and impressively letterboxed - go get it!

bkoganbing For a guy who was a villain in the Bible, Goliath in Goliath And The Dragon pursues a biblical strategy in defeating the evil king, played by Broderick Crawford. His just desserts were positively biblical themselves.Goliath as played by Mark Forest is a one muscular dude who is consecrated to the pagan Gods and he performs a number of tasks for them that are keeping him from home and hearth. While he's gone Broderick Crawford has usurped the throne in his home town, but the people aren't thrilled with their new monarch. What to do, but marry the daughter of the guy he killed to get the throne to legitimize himself. But she loves Goliath's little brother and that gets the big guy all kinds of mad. Still his obligations to the various pagan deities keep interfering and he decides to revolt against them as well.There are all kinds of little ins and outs of peplum politics in Goliath And The Dragon and Goliath has to face a three headed Cerberus dog, a big flying bat, a centaur, an elephant as preliminaries before he gets to the main event with the dragon. After that in the siege against Crawford's city Goliath goes underground and knocks down the support pillars to the walls of his city. Joshua wouldn't have needed trumpets had Goliath been working for the Israelites. The walls come down and Crawford becomes history.Broderick Crawford definitely knew this film was not anything approaching All The King's Men and he overacts outrageously to get through the film. He had just finished his five year run on Highway Patrol and I can't believe this was the best his agent could do for him.

dbborroughs Mark Forest as Goliath in a more spectacular than usual sword and sandal production. The film co stars Broderick Crawford as the villain trying to take over Goliath's kingdom while he is out battling monsters in order to complete a task for favored goddess.The film and the plot are typical for the genre, however the film has a larger than normal number of supernatural creatures including gods, multi-headed dogs, winged monsters, and a dragon. The film also has some large scale action set pieces that make it clear they spent a couple of bucks on the film. In no way serious or deep, its the sort of mindless spectacle that you can let wash over you on a Sunday afternoon. I've seen most of the films in the swords and sandal cycle and this is one of the most enjoyable and best made. Worth a look-especially if you can get one of the great looking letterboxed editions floating around.

horrorfilmx 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.