This Muscle man movie contains adventures , thrills , a love story and hokey historic events . Being a so-so Italian production financed/written by Emimmo Salvi and professionally directed by Carlo Campogalliani . Colorful sword-and-sandal odyssey , well-plotted, with an appealing performance from Steve Reeves , dealing with the time of King Alboino and his Longobards in which Barbarian armies sweep the Ancient Roman empire . When Barbarians invade his village and kill his father , a local man wages an one-man war against them . Then , there appears a corpulent mysterious masked man . He will kill 10,000 Barbarians . And all of them will call him GOLIATH! . As Goliath and his men go after the Barbarians who are ravaging and terrorizing the Northern Italian countryside , attacking Verona and Milan , during the Fall of the Roman Empire . Goliath must fight Barbarians to save enemy princess (lovely Chelo Alonso) and he conquers all . The picture is partially based on historical events , here shows up the powerful Alboino (American secondary Bruce Cabot) . After gathering a large coalition of peoples, Alboin crossed the Julian Alps in 568, entering an almost undefended Italy. He rapidly took control of most of Venetia and Liguria. In 569, unopposed, he took northern Italy's main city, Milan. Pavia offered stiff resistance however, and was only taken after a siege lasting three years. During that time Alboin turned his attention to Tuscany, but signs of factionalism among his supporters and Alboin's diminishing control over his army increasingly began to manifest themselves. Alboin was assassinated on June 28, 572, in a coup d'état instigated by the Byzantines. It was organized by the king's foster brother, Helmichis, with the support of Alboin's wife, Rosamund, daughter of the Gepid king whom Alboin had killed some years earlier .
This is an entertaining Peplum movie , full of action , thrills , double-crosses and of course , a lot of battles and fights . Another sword and sandal flick , this is acceptable . The production values are better than average, and the acting and direction at least try , including noisy action , spectacular combats , court intrigue , and usual dances performed by the gorgeous dancer Chelo Alonso . Screen-written by Emimmo Salvi who wrote and produced lots of Peplum , Giallo and Spaghetti Western . Lots of intrigue , treason , evocative scenarios , twists , thrills and ordinary spectacle as bouncing man carried out by the great Steve Reeves . Well sculped Steve plays yet another mesophorn to the rescue in this poorly dubbed Spaghetti legend . Sympathetic performances by main star cast such as Steve Reeves in one his main films of his fruitful career , beauty Chelo Alonso and agreeable secondary cast ; as the marvelous main actors are completed by a stellar cast full of veteran Italian players as Arturo Dominici , Gino Scotti , Livio Lorenzon , Andrea Checchi , Carla Calò and special appearance by Bruce Cabot , John Ford's regular secondary .
The picture is well starred by the hunk man Steve Reeves as the notorious war-time hero against Lombards captained by Igor : Livio Lorenzon and Delfo : Andrea Checchi , all of them governed by King Alboino : Bruce Cabot . In 1957, Reeves went to Italy and played the lead character in Pietro Francisci's Hercules, a very low-budget epic based loosely on the tales of Jason and the Argonauts, though inserting Hercules into the lead role . Steve performed the mythic Maciste in a number of movies was randomly assigned the identity of Goliath , Hercules or Samson for US viewing . From 1959 through 1964, Reeves went on to appear in a string of sword and sandal movies shot on relatively small budgets , and although he is best known for his portrayal of the Greek hero Hercules, he played the character only twice: in the 1957 film and its 1959 sequel Hercules Unchained (released in the US in 1960) . He played a number of other characters on screen, including Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton's Glaucus of Pompeii ; Goliath ; Tatar hero Hadji Murad; Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome (opposite Gordon Scott as his twin brother Remus); pirate and self-proclaimed governor of Jamaica, Captain Henry Morgan; and Karim, the Thief of Baghdad . Twice he played Aeneas of Troy and twice he played Emilio Salgari's Malaysian hero, Sandokan . Steve Reeves played the Umberto Lenzi Sandokan saga ; the first was "Sandokan, La Tigre di Mompracen¨ or "Sandokan the Great" (1963) and second was ¨Pirati Della Malesia (1964) .
This film is colorfully photographed by Bitto Albertini who bit later on launched his career as a professional filmmaker . Atmospheric and evocative musical score by Carlo Innocenci and compellingly conducted by Franco Ferrara . The picture was decently directed by Carlo Campogalliani (1885–1974) , a veteran and good craftsman director . He worked in silent cinema , shooting early Peplum as Il Testamento Di Maciste 1920 , Il Viaggio Di Maciste 1920 , Maciste Contro la Morte 1920 , Il Teschio D'Oro 1920 , La trilogy Di Maciste 1919 and Maciste I . In the sixties Carlo directed four Sword and Sandals movies : Ursus 1961 , Maciste Nella Valle Dei Re 1960 , this Goliath and the Barbarians 1959 and Rosmunda e Alboino 1961 , the latter dealing with Alboino (Jack Palance) , the Lombard ruler, wants to marry the daughter of a neighboring king, but she loves another . This barbarous war lord has his eyes set on princess Rosmunda (Eleonora Rossi Drago) and her father agrees to a marriage of convenience , subsequently to take place Alboino's killing .
