Goliath at the Conquest of Damascus (1965)
Goliath (Peter Lupus) comes to the aid of the former King Selim in order to regain his throne and rescue his daughter (Anna Maria Polani).
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Reviews
Load of rubbish!!
i must have seen a different film!!
The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
Peter Lupus made several Hercules type movies and while he was always good, the movies rarely were. Goliath at the Conquest of Damascus continues that winning tradition. A princess is being escorted to meet the prince she will marry when the caravan is attacked and she is taken prisoner. Goliath is sent to rescue her and the remaining 80 or so minutes is more talk than action as we watch varies power plays unfold. The film looks good and wonderfully fake, in ways that only well financed dull movies can. The money is up there on the screen in the sets and costumes, unfortunately they forgot an interesting script or a director that could do more than have people stand and talk. Almost everyone, except Lupus is robed from head to toe and it looks completely unreal, but it was done no doubt to hide the fact that people are doubling and tripling in crowd scenes (which do look well filled out)The action is better than in Hercules and the Tyrants of Babylon which at least shares cavalry footage and some of the horse back battle sequence with this film. But being better doesn't mean its good. Wrestling matches in the city square would never have made it in the wrestling ring, a bar fight is hampered by cheap props and a lack of energy on the part of the crowd- all heavily robed- who swing their fists and clubs like they have better things to do. Even the final fight is dull because the costumes look so darn perfect no matter what happens.This is a perfectly dull movie that gets a 2 out of ten because it at least looks good even if it's really not.