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.

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.

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.