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Monday, October 10, 2011

Goliath And The Vampires (aka Maciste Contro Il Vampiro) (1961)

After his village is pillaged and his fiancee (Leonora Ruffo) carried off along with the other women to an island kingdom to be sold as slaves, Goliath (Gordon Scott) travels to the island to return them. But the island is ruled by a weak Sultan (Mario Feliciani) under the thumb of a diabolical blood drinking monster. I don't know if one could accurately call this silly piece of peplum as a sword and sandal piece. It's a mish mash of styles, more of a fantasy than your typical sword and sandal. Goliath and his people look like ancient Greeks or Romans while the island kingdom is out of an Arabian nights fantasy and the "blue men" (underground rebels) look like medieval knights. Anyway you look at it, it's still pretty ludicrous. I did get two big laughs out of it. Once when the leader of the kidnappers bellowed, "Throw the old women to the sharks!" which somehow struck me as absurdly hilarious and the other time was when a dancing girl in a tavern bumps and grinds to a distinctively anachronistic 1960s pop tune and I swear she even did the Twist! The score is by Les Baxter (who did the U.S. version) who borrows from his score to GOLIATH AND THE BARBARIANS. Directed by Sergio Corbucci and Giacomo Gentilomo. With Gianna Maria Canale as the villainess and Jacques Sernas (HELEN OF TROY) as the leader of the rebels.

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