Il terrore dei barbari (1959)

Director:

Carlo Campogalliani

Writers:

Gino Mangini (writer)
Emimmo Salvi (writer)

Release Date:

November 1959 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure

Tagline:

I Will Kill 10,000 Barbarians...And They Will Call Me GOLIATH!

Plot:

When barbarians invade his village and kill his father, a local man wages a one-man war against them. |

Plot Keywords:

Spear | Superhuman Strength | Dance | Beautiful Woman | Beefcake

Cast

Steve Reeves	...	Emiliano (a.k.a. "Goliath")
Chelo Alonso	...	Landa
Bruce Cabot	...	Alboino
Giulia Rubini	...	Lidia
Arturo Dominici	...	Svevo
Gino Scotti	...	Count Daniele
Livio Lorenzon	...	Igor
Luciano Marin	...	Marco
Andrea Checchi	...	Delfo (Londo's father)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Carla Calò	...	Bruno's Mother
Fabrizio Capucci	...	Bruno
Clara Coppola
Cesare Fantoni
Carla Foscari
Veriano Genesi	...	Barbarian Fighter
Furio Meniconi	...	Hulderich
Chery Million
Ugo Sasso
Renato Terra
Gabriele Tinti
Luigi Tosi
Amedeo Trilli
Eleonora Vargas
Ivanhoe Vela

Also Known As:

Goliath and the Barbarians (USA)

Runtime:

100 min | USA:86 min | France:90 min | Italy:85 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Norway:16 | Iceland:16 | UK:15 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Incir De Paolis Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Alta Vista

Trivia:

When Igor (Livio Lorenzon) slapped Landa (Chelo Alonso), the fiery Cuban actress couldn't help herself, and slapped him back. After ruining a couple of takes this way, the old director lost his patience and had Chelo's hands tied off screen. She took it as the script demanded, but after the scene cut, she walked to her colleague, slapped him, and told him, "Here's the change!"

Quotes:

Londo: Don't let them torture him anymore. He's a peaceful woodcutter.

This is the ripest of the Steve Reeves muscleman movies.

This is probably the guiltiest pleasure of any of the late 50's, early 60's European peplum movies. Released in the US by American International Pictures (under the supervision of Arkoff and Nicholson), this picture was an amazing box-office coup for that studio and one of the most memorable exploitation pics of it's day. Though this film is less famous than his star-making vehicle, HERCULES, Mr. Universe Steve Reeves is on display to much better advantage here, and thanks to the extraordinary participation of the fabulous Cuban beauty, Chelo Alonso, more memorable, too. These two superstructures were, and probably still are, the stuff of adolescent daydreams and adult fetishes. This sword-and-sandal flick is pure sexist fun and exemplifies an era in films when marketing a movie was practically an art form in itself, instead of the crass, big-business system it is today. Hopefully someone can bring this potboiler to DVD in a widescreen version that does it some justice. Aside from Steve and Chelo, there's a memorable music score by AIP's lead music director, Les Baxter, which was used to perk up a lot of the muscleman epics of the time. I think the title card for this picture, paraphrased, says it all: "569 A.D. A TIME, WHEN, IF YOU DIDN'T FIGHT OR LOVE, LIFE WAS A VERY SHORT AND DULL AFFAIR." Stop the presses! You gotta love that! Enjoy.