La vendetta di Ercole
Tags: psychedelic, violence

Plot synopsis:
The film begins with Hercules/Goliath/Emilius entering the underworld and defeating several monsters including Cerberus to retrieve the Blood Diamond of the Goddess of Vengeance. It is later revealed that King Eurystheus has sent Hercules/Goliath on this task to ensure his death to gain allies who after Hercules' death will join the King in an attack on Thebes. The episode is loosely based on the twelfth of the Labours of Hercules.
Hercules returns to his wife Deianira to find that his teenaged son (his brother in the American version) Hyllus is in love with Thea the daughter of a King that Hercules believes murdered his family. The enraged Hercules refuses to let Hyllus have anything to do with Thea. The scheming Eurystheus has convinced Hyllus that Thea is really in love with Hercules rather than him and concocts a plan where a jealous Hyllus will murder his own brother. A slave girl Alcinoe gives Hyllus a poison to give to Hercules that she says is merely a potion to have Hercules fall out of love with Thea. Eurystheus himself wishes to marry Thea and install her as his Queen.
The plan is aborted through a sympathetic Goddess of the Wind who relays Thea's warning. Hyllus attempts to rescue Thea but is captured. When Hercules rides to rescue Hyllus he saves the life of Alcinoe who is menaced by a bear. Ilus is to be executed with others in a public display by being crushed by an elephant in a crowded arena. Hercules rescues him.
On their return home the two are given a prophecy that Hyllus will become a King but at the cost of the life of the woman who loves Hercules. Hercules destroys his home and leaves with his family to try and avert the prophecy. Dejanira offers her life to the Gods in order to fulfil the prophecy for Hyllus. She is carried off by a Centaur corresponding with Nessus who Hercules mortally wounds.
The Centaur is able to bring his captive Deianira to his friend Eurystheus who intends firstly to let her be killed by his dragon, then to act as a hostage against the vengeance of Hercules.

Review: I saw the Alpha Video DVD of GOLIATH AND THE DRAGON, which is from a well-preserved widescreen print, and it's dazzling to look at!
If all the old sword and sandal epics were in this good a shape, the genre would attract many more fans.The movie itself is a delirious muscleman fantasy from start to finish.
A bearded Mark Forest shows off the biggest pecs and widest lats of his generation, and melts everyone with his smile (except scar-faced Broderick Crawford as the cranky villain).
In the 1960's as a child I and dozens of theater goers were watching this interesting Movie called " Goliath and the Dragon " when a small fire in the building sent everyone racing out in a panic.
After a mechanical 3 headed fire breathing dog (ahem, that is NOT Cerberus!), a man in suit giant bat and a centaur (which had to have been the most uncomfortable costume in the bunch) seeing a dragon that is partially stop motion animated was a real treat.
Colorful muscle-man epic with the robust Mark Forest and well directed by Vittorio Cottafavi.
Later on , there takes place a palace intrigue with a tyrant named Euristeo (a scarface Broderick Crawford , in the U.S. version, it's not his voice, but a voice actor impersonating him) attempting to rule over the city of Tebas and our hero unhesitatingly goes into action and must use his strength to save his wife and son of a cruel torture with elephants ; plus , he confronts Zeus represented by a great sculpture .
Mark Forest is good and strong playing the mythical hunk who finds several risks while attempting to defeat his enemies and fighting monsters and numerous odds .
Forest played the hero in great number of movies and was randomly assigned the identity of Hércules , Goliath , Samsom for US version .
He was one along with the biggest chests like are Gordon Scott , Alan Steel , Reg Park , Ed Fury , Dan Vadis , all of them to seek fortune acting absurdly mythological figures but nobody topped Steve Reeves in popularity .This motion picture is an enjoyable sword and sandals story , being compellingly directed by Vittorio Cottafavi (1914-1998), he was a complete artist , painter and Peplum expert , as he directed : ¨Conquest of Atlántida¨ , ¨Legions of Cleopatra¨ , ¨Mesallina¨ and ¨Rebellion of gladiators¨ .
Mark Forest, aka Lou Degni from the Bronx, made his movie debut in this colorful swords and sandals saga and became an overnight sensation.
This is captured in this film and he went on to make a string of highly successful muscle men features, the best of them, "Kindar the Invulnerable" and "Hercules versus the Mongols" and "Hercules versus the Barbarians." Forest left Italy at the peak of his career to return to America to study opera and performed all over Europe.
Reeves may have been the king of Italy's muscle movies during the 60s but his prince was Mark Forest--perhaps the biggest and most fabulous of them all..
Broderick Crawford is a slimy politician in a toga and Mark Forest (bodybuilder Lou Degni) is muscleman Goliath in this kitsch epic from Italy, exploited to the max in the U.S. by American International pictures during the drive-in heydays of the late 50's and early 60's.
This one's quite a potboiler, with a various assortment of cheesy monster creations (including some very brief stop-motion footage by Jim Danforth), the usual buxom babes with big Roman hairdos and, of course, the solid and stiff muscleman hero performing various feats of strength (like wrestling a bear suit and, rather impressively, genuinely warding off a real elephant!).
In addition to the cool poster what intrigued me about the film were the Jim Danforth stop motion sequences added for the American release.
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!
"Goliath and the Dragon" was one of two peplum films featuring Hercules (the other being "The Loves of Hercules') released in 1960, following the success of "Hercules" and its sequel both starring Steve Reeves.
The original Italian title for this film is "La vendetta di Ercole" ("The Revenge of Hercules"), but U.S. distributor AIP changed the hero to Goliath for the American release, and added a stop-motion animation dragon not included in the Italian cut.
Italian-American (Brooklyn-born) bodybuilder Lou Degni, billed as Mark Forest, takes over the role from Reeves.
Forest starred in a dozen or so peplum films including "Maciste in the Valley of the Kings" released this same year and played Hercules again in 1964's "Hercules Against the Sons of the Sun." He is a more than passable stand-in for Reeves, impressively built if not quite as classically handsome or well-proportioned and able to pull off the macho arrogance of the character.
The oddest thing about this film is the casting of American actor Broderick Crawford, with an enormous and distracting scar across his face, as Hercules's (or Goliath's ...
Crawford growls his way through the movie and generally seems like a grumpy old man.
The real attraction here, though, is not the complicated plot but the dizzying array of cheesy monsters Hercules gets to fight, beginning with a sequence in the "cave of horrors" where the big man defeats a three-headed beast that is probably supposed to be Cerebus, though not identified as such (another pseudonymous indignity) and a very strange man-sized bat-like creature that at first I thought was a unique take on the dragon, but as it turns out a more conventional (though, frankly, pretty hilarious) dragon turns up later.
Along the way, Hercules also defeats a giant bear-like monster and spears a centaur, who is the most convincing and strangely affecting of all the creatures that populate the film.
The bat-thing and the bear-thing are clearly stuntmen in silly costumes, but the dragon (aside from the brief stop-motion sequence) is a giant puppet that Forest does a great job trying to battle convincingly.
Though much cheaper looking and cheesier than the two Reeves films that preceded it, this is actually pretty fun and peppy peplum entry helmed by director Vittorio Cottafavi..
Actually, now that I've given it another look, it's not worse than most other peplums - though certainly not up to Cottafavi's best work, THE 100 HORSEMEN (1964) but his offbeat framing and vivid sense of color enlivens several sequences to be sure.
For the record, Cottafavi also made that which is arguably the best Hercules film of all, HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN (1961), whose shortened US version (alas) has just been released on R1 DVD.Anyway, the plot kicks into action immediately as Mark Forest (playing the titular he-man, named Hercules in the original Italian-language version) goes to recover a diamond from a monster-infested cave which includes a hilarious large cat creature with bat wings which I clearly recall sending the Venice Film Festival audience in hysterics!
The villain of the piece is Broderick Crawford who naturally chews up the scenery and approaches the role as if he were playing a gangster; at one point he even puts down his equally crooked, if actually brighter, henchman by calling him a "moron"...after which Crawford is apparently revitalized and inspired into devising newer and more ingenious traps to spring for Hercules...er...Goliath!
The busy plot line, of course, involves several action set-pieces, court intrigues, much invoking of the Greek gods, women threatened with torture...and more laughable monsters (the dragon of the English title is so cheap that only its head ever makes any significant appearance).
There is the usual coterie of maidens in these mythological epics who, thankfully, are very easy on the eyes here especially Leonora Ruffo (as Goliath's wife; she went on to repeat the role in Mario Bava's HERCLUES IN THE HAUNTED WORLD [1961]) and Gaby Andre' (as a duplicitous slave who also falls for Goliath).The version I watched this time around, via Alpha's DVD, was the AIP English-dubbed and rescored one (by the ubiquitous Les Baxter); surprisingly, it was a widescreen print - but the colors were way too much on the red side so that I had to tone down the colors on my TV set to make the whole thing viewable!P.S. Amusingly, my father and I attended a multi-part course on film appreciation some 10 years ago and when the lecturer mentioned such peplums in a positive light, my father, knowing the man to be a University professor, exclaimed loudly: "Don't tell me you appreciate that stuff?".
After the amazing success of "Goliath and the Barbarians" with Steve Reeves, American International pictures decided to go "Goliath" again and picked up the option on "Goliath and the Dragon".....Reeves was offered the role but due to conflicts with another film, American muscleman Mark Forrest took the role of Goliath.
Talk about a goofy film.....Forrest certainly has the muscles for the role, but the cardboard sets, bats and monsters flying in on a wire you can see....and a man in a bear suit fighting Goliath....geez!!!
Broderick Crawford dropped his Highway Patrol microphone and played Eurytus, a maniac despot with a penciled in scar on his face who tries to get rid of Goliath anyway he can, including sicking his pet dragon on Goliath.
Goliath fights elephants, centaurs, bats, bears and manages to pull down two giant trees with a rope to the ground!!
On well, if Steve Reeves could pull a tree out of the ground in "Hercules" I guess Goliath could pull down a couple too......
Absolute silly scene with Forrest as Goliath fighting a rubber dragon with a plastic knife breathing fire.....phoniest dragon up close you have ever seen!!
The Monsters Alone Makes This Film Worth Watching.
The monsters alone make this film worth watching.
The cinematography, directing and editing are just as tolerable as any one of the other many 1960s peplum.I enjoyed this film as much as Hercules the Invincible (1964) - in-fact, I think I like this one a little bit better than "Invincible" due to the many monsters and the darkness of some of the scenes.
Goliath returns home to find his wife and the people in peril from the monsters and vows to defeat the creatures and overthrow the wicked king.
Our hero is faced with the task of fighting a three-headed fire-breathing dog, a giant bat, a centaur, and finally a dragon before he can confront King Eurystheus for the fate of the kingdom," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.Re-titled "Goliath and the Dragon" for American International Pictures release, this Italian film arrived as the Herculean "sword and sandal" genre was gaining steam.
As mini-skirted Mark Forest (as Hercules aka Goliath) goes through the regular routine, the plot interest is on brother Sandro Moretti (as Illo aka Illus) and lover Federica Ranchi (as Thea), who is forcibly betrothed to...
Why "The Vendetta of Hercules" was changed to "Goliath and the Dragon" is explained in the IMDb trivia section and you will immediately notice that Broderick Crawford is dubbed by someone other than himself--which is odd since he was an American.
Goliath is sent on a mission that will surely kill him--to destroy the dragon and bring back the Blood Diamond.
But, for fans of silly and stupid films, it's worth seeing this one through to the end.When Hercules, I mean 'Goliath' returns, his brother Illus is oddly indifferent.
Instead, watching Goliath fight against guys in bear suits and a lot of other stupid creatures is THE reason to watch this very bad film.Pathetic and stupid--this is among the worst of the Hercules/Goliath/Maciste films.
If you enjoyed laughing at this mess of a film, also try "Hercules Vs. the Moon Men"--perhaps the only movie of this type that is even stupider than this one!.
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.
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.
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!
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"!).
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.
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.
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.
For a sword and sandal movie, Goliath and the Dragon has about the most convoluted and ridiculously hard to follow plot that I can remember.
Based on what I did get out of it, King Eurystheus (Broderick Crawford) has it out for Goliath.
In the meantime, Goliath is off doing battle with a three-headed dog, a giant flying bat creature, a wife-snatching centaur, and a dragon that can't seem to decide whether it's a stop-motion creature or a big, goofy looking puppet.
In the end, Goliath literally brings down the walls of King Eurystheus' fortress and, with the help of an army from Thebes, saves the day.Overall, Goliath and the Dragon is a real mixed bag – hence my very average 5/10 rating.
Mark Forest, the requisite body in this sword and sandal epic, is about as wooden as you'll find in one of these movies.
And what's Broderick Crawford doing in this movie?
When Goliath's not fighting some creature, the movie can be terribly sleep inducing.
Like I said, Goliath and the Dragon is a real mixed bag..
One of the more spectacular swords and sandals films is worth a look for the various monsters.
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.
I've seen most of the films in the swords and sandal cycle and this is one of the most enjoyable and best made.
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.
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.
Mark Forest looks incredibly handsome and acts very competently in his first peplum outing.
His physique is awesome and he handles the fights and action sequences with aplomb, even battling silly rubber monsters with passion and conviction.The two things that make so many peplum movies boring -- talky court intrigue and confusing, interminable battle scenes -- are kept to a minimum here, which make this faster-moving and more entertaining than most.The film serves up of a lot of what most of us watch peplum for: crazy monsters and imaginative, surreal action scenes like the one where Forest demolishes a palace by knocking down the stalactites in the cave beneath it.Definitely recommended for fans of the genre.