Friday, October 25, 2019

Differences in GOLIATH & THE DRAGON

As I already posted here and at BY THE GODS!, GOLIATH & THE DRAGON (1960) was the US version of THE VENGEANCE OF HERCULES (1960). Additional scenes, including those with the dragon (claymation and huge practical effects head) were shot to make the film more appealing to kids. So, here's a quick overview on how to spot the differences between the original film and the added scenes.


Above: Mark in VENGEANCE OF HERCULES, with a dark brown peplum/tunic and dark beard. Below: in the new scenes for GOLIATH & THE DRAGON, shot after the movie was completed, the costume is clearly different as the beard as well. The costume doesn't fit him the same way and it's of a different shade of brown. The studs at the shoulder strap are also different, and the belt and sword hang differently. And the beard looks more fake and grey in the new scenes. Mark's body also seems more cut in the new scenes.




Above: From VENGEANCE OF HERCULES, the beard looks real. Below: in the new scenes for GOLIATH & THE DRAGON, the beard clearly looks fake and a different color.




In the original VENGEANCE OF HERCULES, Mark's peplum/tunic is a pewter grey color and hugs his body but in GOLIATH & THE DRAGON (below), only the bottom part survives and it clearly doesn't look like the original. It's more skirt-like. the top part came off during the statue tossing scene and it should have been hanging loose around the waist/belt but they forgot about it in the new scenes.


2 comments:

Richard Svensson said...

Unfortunately, the changes are painfully obvious. I was forewarned when I first watched this movie (US version) as I had read up on it, but it was still a bit jarring. It's still one of my fave Peplums.

Anonymous said...

American International constantly tampered with movies they picked up for distribution, sometimes to the betterment of the film and sometimes not. Their insistence in replacing the original background scores with ones by house composer Les Baxter was always a mistake.