David e Golia (1960) Online

In Jerusalem, the wicked King Saul (Orson Welles) is visited by the Prophet Samuel (Edward Hilton) after losing the Arch of the Alliance in a war against Asrod (Furio Meniconi), King of the Philistines. Samuel advises that God is not happy with him and the new king of Jerusalem would come from Bethlehem.

Meanwhile the shepherd David (Ivo Payer) loses his sweetheart and soon he is summoned by Samuel to go to Jerusalem as the chosen by God. He becomes King Saul's adviser, but the ambitious Captain Abner (Massimo Serato) plots a scheme to get rid of David, and convinces King Saul to send him as an emissary to meet King Asrod. David is challenged by Asrod to fight against the giant Goliath (Kronos) and the impossible happens: David wins Goliath.

"David e Golia" is a cheesy Italian epic based on a biblical story from the Old Testament and with the attraction of Orson Welles in the role of King Saul of Jerusalem. The sets are poor, most of the acting is only reasonable but this movie is not bad, for a Sunday afternoon. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "David e Golias" ("David and Goliath")

It was one of those nights when there was absolutely nothing good on TV. I went through many channels on my TV and landed on Trinity Broadcasting Network. I do on occasion watch TBN but usually for Robert Schuller or maybe when I feel I need extra inspiration.

This movie began and "David and Goliath" was all I needed to see to stay tuned,along with reading the story as a boy and the fact Orson Welles plays Saul. (I wonder if that was "his" voice in the English dubbing?) Cetainly if any film needs a good restoration this one really needs it. I think it would be a lot more enjoyable if it were.

Welles does a great service to this film and I don't think there ever was a film that didn't benefit from his presence (even The Muppett Movie featured Welles!) Aside from the grandeur that is Orson,is some good storytelling but some of the unfortunate liberties movie makers seem to take with biblical stories.

First there's David himself,with the curly locks and and looking like a muscle bound cross between Michael Landon or Kurt Russell. (Acoording to IMDb the actor who plays him passed away August 17th,2006 oddly enough). David also has a first love who apparently,according to a wise old man,was taken from him by a flash of lightning in a rainstorm for God's higher purpose. Of course she had dreamed the other night that she was taken far from their land,quite a coincidence.

As we know,David has been chosen by God to one day replace Saul as the King Of Isreal and tired and worn out looking Saul's not about to take it. David arrives in Isreal sees sin after sin taking place in the streets (one female dancer looks like she stepped off a burlesque stage) and (amazingly) gets the entire mass in the streets to quiet down.

Just long enough for him to give a speech about their sins and basically that it's an abomination before God and how it's Saul's lack of leadership that's led to it.

You'd think a young man who'd just arrived in a city and starts shooting his mouth off would get stones thrown at him but,no they all cheer for him. One of Saul's guards approaches David and David gives him one heck a blow to the head with his fist! leading to David being given Sanctuary by the church.

Meanwhile,another king is threatening to overtake Saul and have both his country and Isreal. (The English voice for this king sounds like a guy from the tough side of Chicago!)His lackey offers to draft the giant monster of a man Goliath (I'm guessing 10ft. tall or more)to help defeat Saul and his armies. (The lackey sounds like Ernest T. Bass from The Andy Griffith Show.) In one funny scene Goliath picks him up off the ground (in an obvious clay figure moment).

Anyhow David is finally brought before Saul and as would happen,he takes a liking to Saul daughter and becomes Saul's ally (although Saul doesn't know it yet.) Then we get to the battles between the two kingdoms and what we tuned in for to begin with. To see David take out Goliath with his "sling-shot". (A stretchy piece of material with a cradle for the rock).

A good deal of this movie mirrors The Ten Commandmants but certainly isn't on that grand level. Mostly just in plot point and look:Leader trying to stop God's chosen one - sins of the people of Isreal - big sets and of course the perfect looking heroes. ..and it's only 90 minutes.

Overall though,despite it's weaker points (english dubbing is always unintentionally funny)it's a pretty good movie. I'd recommend it for younger viewers and maybe people who like biblical epics or Orson Welles devotees.

6 stars for convincing enough sets,a great battle sequence and the casting of Welles and whoever chose Goliath (where'd they find that guy?). Along with a well told story,then again the Bible has plenty of them to tell. (END)

Spaghetti biblical study elevated somewhat in status by the appearance of Orson Welles playing King Saul. Ivo Payer is David, the man who would be king of the Israelites, but who must first defeat Asrod, King of the Philistines (Meniconi) who's managed to lure the hermit behemoth Goliath (Kronos) as his secret weapon. Beginning with David's journey to Jerusalem, where he quickly establishes himself as a shepherd (or radical, depending on your lean), freeing the slaves and showing compassion for the wicked, he is taken in by the Prophets and groomed as the next King. His inevitable battle to the death with Goliath is a disappointingly brief action sequence, with Goliath shown in the distance to distort the height difference which is obviously far less than desirable. The bloody battle that follows is everything a sword and sandal movie promises to be, again, albeit too brief.

Welles is essentially a peripheral character although unsurprisingly, his performance towers above those around him; Massimo Serato as ally turned conspirator Abner does a reasonable job and although not as buff as a Steve Reeves or Brad Harris, Ivo Payer isn't as wooden as one might expect of films of this ilk. Meniconi too isn't bad as the evil Asrod, although why he would bet the house on a 6 foot maybe 5 inch Neanderthal who can military press an ancient stone tablet beggars belief. But then it did happen according to the Old Testament. Goliath was probably much bigger than depicted here – cinematography tricks fail to enlarge Kronos to the necessary proportions.

Colourful sets, appropriate score and functional dialogue (dubbed) permits some standard of entertainment and unlike most biblical epics, "David & Goliath" is compact at about an hour and a half. If you're home alone over Easter or Christmas, don't have high expectations and could cop a low-key sermon (scantily clad dancing girls an unexpected bonus), "David & Goliath" might keep you mildly entertained.

Released as David And Goliath, this is a very enjoyable classic Bible story. On the cover it is billed as an Orson Wells picture, however, Wells does not take the prominent focus. This movie explores the opposite side of the Philistenes gearing up for war against Israel, an aspect not usually covered in Bible stories. If you like classic film, this is definitely one that should be seen.

This Italian made sand and sandal epic would probably be long forgotten were it not for the presence of Orson Welles as King Saul. Certainly the man who played David in David and Goliath, Ivo Payer, certainly did not enter the ranks of screen immortals.

David and Goliath took as many liberties with scripture as any good Cecil B. DeMille film, but without DeMille's sense of grandeur and spectacle. For instance in this film as a result of the battle where David defeats Goliath and the Philistines are routed, the Ark of the Covenant which the Philistines had captured is returned. Actually those are separate incidents that are not connected at all.

Another thing is that at least I've always interpreted David to be a rather callow youth when he was doing his shepherd thing before God sent Samuel looking for him. And he's still a callow youth when he's in battle with Goliath. The old Negro spiritual is called Little David Play On Your Harp, not without reason.

Ivo Payer is a rather muscular young man looking like he stepped from of those Italian muscle man epics so popular at the time. Of course the sight of all that bare chested beefcake sent many hearts fluttering in the audience. In that sense David and Goliath is right in the DeMille tradition.

The only reason this film is remembered if at all today is because of Orson Welles. Welles at the time was picking up work here and there to finance his own projects. Sometimes it would be something as good as Compulsion the year before, more often it was something like David and Goliath.

Still Welles is a consummate professional and he invests Saul with an air of tragedy about him. At the point we meet Saul, God has already decided he's not the man for the job as King of Israel. But Saul is not about to accept that verdict. If he can't beat David head on, he'll try and co-op David by bringing him into his household and matching him up with his daughter.

And of course there's Saul's son Jonathan. He's there, but none of the business about a gay relationship between David and Jonathan is in this film. Jonathan knows full well that his father has lost favor with the Lord and he's aware of his father's character weaknesses. He too, befriends David more out of a sense of survival than anything else.

English actor Hilton Edwards plays Samuel the Prophet and he comes across as a poor man's version of Finlay Currie. He's the only other English speaking player in the cast besides Orson Welles.

David and Goliath will not pass muster with either biblical scholars or with lovers of big screen spectacle. Still fans of Orson Welles will want to see this film to see how much a great talent can lift even a piece of mediocrity to a level of some respectability.

This cheesy but entertaining sword-and-sandal movie has more in common with the muscleman spectacles being made in Italy at the time than it has with the superior Biblical epics made by Hollywood in the same era, such as "Ben Hur" and "The Ten Commandments." The dialogue is stilted, the acting stiff, and the departures from the Biblical narrative make it unsuitable as a Sunday school lesson (i.e., Jerusalem did not become part of Israel until David conquered it after Saul's death; in one scene the prophet Samuel quotes verses from the Book of Ecclesiastes, which hadn't been written yet). On the credit side, the movie has lots of pretty girls (what's a Biblical epic without scantily clad dancing girls?) and an exciting battle scene. Hilton Edwards (billed as Edward Hilton) hams it up amusingly as Samuel, and an alarmingly obese Orson Welles gives a commanding performance as Saul, showing that life can be tough for a working actor even if you're a genius. Aside from Welles, only the sexy Eleonora Rossi-Drago, as Saul's scheming daughter Merab, manages to create a three-dimensional character. Overall, the acting is so poor that circus strong man Kronos, as Goliath, actually gives one of the better performances even though all he does is grunt.

From a free adoptions of several biblical sources, Umberto Scarpelli, gives forms to this biblical story, which is then directed by Ferdinando Baldi. Among all the several versions this is my favorite. It relates a time in ancient times when the first king of the Isreal, Saul ( Orson Welles) having been anointed by the prophet Samuel (Hilton Edwards) is seen now in the last stage of his rule and once again Summuel has advised Saul that a new king has been chosen. The choice is a son of Jesse called David (Ivo Payer). Saul's army has been challenged by the Phillistines and their new champion called Goliath. played by Kronos. The story of David and Saul is easily told, but in this movie version the writers have added, love, inner family conflict, ambition, and royal jealousy. As such the film begins to drag towards it's finally. Despite the dueling arms, little is seen which can add to the over-all movie. Still it's color is great, so too the panorama, all in all it's a great film for the 60's. Recommended to those who have time to watch a long drawn out biblical story. ****

When Orson Welles did not have anything to eat he had to become an actor in films that are hardly worth, at times, mentioning, and yet he tries to do what he can as an actor to save the film. That's typical in this one. The Bible is badly revisited in an episode that is not that particularly thrilling because too much known. The film more or less understands some political questions and sees in the attack of the Philistines against Israel an allusion to the menace against Israel from its Arab neighbors. But all that is naive. The stone civilization against the metal civilization from the north as Solomon will put it later is hardly seen. A sling and a stone against spears and a sword. This symbolism is present but unexploited. That also means The Semites (and that is a lot more than just the Jews) against those from the North, those who speak the Indo-Iranian languages of Mesopotamia, of Babylon, of Persia. All that is missed, and a lot more. The harp is also present but not used to its tremendous meaning. The oldest harp we know in this region is Sumerian and not Israeli or whatever. Israeli music is derived from that Sumerian music of some fifteen centuries before, and it is David who is going to establish the music school of the Temple, of the Levites, and also ,the singing school that will produce the prosody and the psalmody of the Ancient Testament, two musical forms that are both the results of older traditions and the root of twenty centuries to come. Apart from that the film is naive and primitive. I prefer the version given by Handel in his Saul.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

King Saul has lost favor with God, war is imminent. The only man Saul is afraid of is the prophet Samuel. Samuel arrives to prophesies about a man that God will anoint a man king out of the land of Benjamin to rule over Israel - that man is David. David must fulfill the prophesy but King Saul is willing put up a battle or die before he will bow down to David and give up his throne. Before David can take the throne, he must fight Goliath. In the end, King David restores Saul back to the throne.

This is a pretty decent version of the biblical story. It's not a big long Epic tale but of a good length to give us a movie version (around an hour and a half long).

I do not rate films of this nature by how much it matches the bible tale nor do I rate these types of films by how much I believe the story is true. I rate them by how well entertained I was by them, how well it was filmed and acted out. My rating is not for my personal beliefs, but for how well I enjoyed it.

4/10

Even the great biblical epics of Hollywood's golden age can't compare to the book they were based on. Most of them suffer from strange casting and overly campy dialogue. In the case of "David and Goliath", the issue is bad photography, obviously recycled sets and costumes, and horrendous dubbing. It's obvious that of the cast members, only Orson Welles (as King Saul) had English as his first language. Portly and imperious, Welles is the only actor to come out with his dignity intact. The actor playing Goliath simply laughs and sneers evilly in every scene he is in, and it is very uncomfortable to watch Philistene maidens dancing around him in an erotic way. The actor playing David seems about a decade too old for his role, and the other characters are simply too one dimensional to believe. The scene of David arriving in Jeruselem to find it overrun with corruption is interesting, although a bit far fetched with the encounters he makes, and the battle scenes are gratuitously bloody. It really looks like any other Italian sword-and-sandals trashy flick made throughout the 60's. The bible deserves better. For more interesting looks at the life of the future King David, check out "David and Bathsheba" (Gregory Peck, 1952) or even "King David" (Richard Gere, 1985). Leave this one for bible teachers to show pre-teenagers to learn the old testament.

At first glance, the story of David and Goliath may seem to be a good pick for a filmed adaptation of a Bible story - most people know of the story even if they are not religious, and it's a classic underdog making good theme. But thinking about it a little, an obvious problem rears its head - it's a SHORT story. The screenwriters of this movie had the problem of stretching things out to feature film length, and in the process made the story a pretty long and boring one. It's made worse by the fact that there's hardly any action. Also, some gentle humor here and there would have helped as well. Another script problem is that it doesn't get into the heads of the main players very well. David seems to blindly follow God's commands, Goliath is more or less a growling thug, and King Saul (played by a clearly embarrassed Orson Welles) only has a few brief scenes. The look of the movie is okay, but it's not enough to stop you from drifting off to sleep as you watch.

Serviceable enough Italian produced historical Peplum drawing upon biblical scenario, directed by Spaghetti Western master Ferdinando Baldi at the beginning of his career. Orson Welles glowers and half-whispers his way through a marvelously pointless performance done in only by Goliath himself, who standing about twelve feet tall at 450 pounds is the focus of my thesis on the film.

Which is specifically that the Italians -- no doubt limited by 1960 era morality -- made the wrong movie. The scenes with Goliath are its best, and the most enjoyable the one where he is promised command of an army (doesn't care) a roomful of gold (been there/done that) and the prettiest most wholesome women in the kingdom attending to his every bidding. SCORE!

The hilarious scene where Goliath sits on a giant throne quaffing a barrel of wine while scantily clad damsels perform a Veil Dance for him should have been the departure point for a much more interesting story exploring just what went down. Though sadly Goliath returns on screen only to slaughter a few guards prior to his disappointingly brief showdown with David. After which the film persists in continuing for a while, missing the point that we weren't dialing in to watch Orson Welles palpitate. We were there for Goliath, and he ruled.

David and Goliath is the Italian peplum version of the Biblical story, best known for featuring an aged Orson Welles as the villain of the piece, a ruthless King Saul who rants and raves in his various guest appearances. As a film, it's surprisingly low budget, a set-bound political piece that lacks the kind of basic spectacle that this genre is known for. It's no comparison to the Hollywood blockbuster version of the story, featuring Gregory Peck, and by comparison it just features minor actors spouting badly-dubbed dialogue with the occasional war sequence thrown in to try to keep viewers awake. It doesn't really work.