Originally titled "Hercules' Revenge", but since Universal owned the rights to Hercules at the time, the title was changed and the name of the main character was changed to Goliath.
American-International Pictures announced plans to make a follow-up to Goliath and the Barbarians (1959) called "Goliath and the Dragon" from a script by Lou Rusoff, with Debra Paget, but this fell through so it bought an Italian film called "Revenge of Hercules" and retitled it "Goliath and the Dragon". AIP changed the hero's name to "Emilius" and added a stop-motion animation sequence involving a dragon. The American version of the film was edited by Salvatore Billitteri and Maurizio Lucidi and had new music by Les Baxter. The dragon scene is only in the English-dubbed print, not in the Italian version.
This film is listed among the 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson's book THE OFFICIAL RAZZIE® MOVIE GUIDE.
The identity of the title character was changed from Hercules to Emilius known as Goliath for release in North America by American-International Pictures to tie in with its previous use of "Goliath" in Goliath and the Barbarians (1959).