GOLIATH AGAINST THE GIANTS (1961)

After five years of battle, the Greeks (or, whatever people live near the Acropolis which is specifically referenced here) have been conquered by Goliath (not the Biblical figure) and his army. But there is no rest for the battle-weary, as Goliath discovers that back in his hometown (Beyrath?), the evil Bokan has 1) wrested power from the rightful king; 2) started a campaign of terror in which groups of helpless people who can't pay their taxes are tossed over a cliff—and if the fall doesn’t kill them, the brutal giants who live in the valley will; 3) and has sent assassins to take out Goliath. He and his crew take a ship back to Beyrath, and stopping at a desert island to stock up on fresh water, they find lovely blond Elea, bound and suffering. Goliath rescues her, but back on the water, they run into a nasty squall and an even nastier sea monster, leading to a wreck and the death of all except Goliath, his buddy Namath (not a football player), and Elea who all eventually wash up on the shore of Beyrath. Now things get complicated. Suffice to say that Elea is actually an assassin working for Bokan, but when she gets the truth about Bokan from Goliath, she joins forces with him. Also, a tribe of Amazons attack and one of them, Daina, joins up with Goliath. Also, there's another buddy of Goliath, Breseus, who is threatened with a huge torture wheel until Goliath saves him. Goliath and his merry band manage to spark a revolt, and finally in the last 10 minutes, we enter the valley of the giants to find that these fearsome creatures are barely taller than Goliath and look like scruffy cavemen from a grade-B science fiction movie from the 1950s.

As peplum movies go, this has a solid reputation. It's crammed with plot, which occasionally works against it. I’m not 100% sure of all the details in my summary, and I left out a few points I was especially confused about. For example, the opening invasion sequence is narrated in such a fashion that it seems like the invaders are the bad guys, which is par for the course, but then we find out it's our hero Goliath doing the invading. Why? When the men set sail for Beyrath, they discover a young lad named Antheus as a stowaway. The character seems ready-made to be mentored by Goliath, but before we've had time to get to know him, it seems he drowns at sea with most of the rest of the crew. I was sure he'd crop up again somehow, but he never did. So narratively, it's a bit of a mess. But story details are often secondary in these torch-and-toga flicks, and where it really counts, in beefcake and adventure, I give this pretty good marks. Brad Harris is not as beefy as some peplum heroes; he looks OK in a toga but he's not terribly convincing when pulling off feats of brute strength. Fernando Rey is also OK as Bokan, the chief villain, not really showing signs of going on to work in art movies with director Luis Bunuel and co-starring with Gene Hackman in The French Connection. For the record, Gloria Milland (pictured with Brad Harris) is Elea and Pepe Rubio is Breseus. The final revolt scene goes on a bit too long but is effective. The widescreen print on the region 1 DVD looks good. [DVD]