American-International likely switched to the Goliath moniker to continue with their ‘Goliath’ series, and also because the name Maciste was unknown in the U.S.. Advisor and researcher Gary Teetzel found more interim titles in the trades. For a while the feature was known as Goliath and the Warriors of Genghis Khan ( ← ). At a later point it became Goliath and the Mongols. ( → )
But A.I.P. apparently decided to get off the Goliath bandwagon. Their dubbing job changed Goliath to the more Biblically-heroic Samson and the final title became Samson and the 7 Miracles of the World. It was released almost a full year later, in December of 1962. Something tells me that the ‘7’ may have been written as a numeral to tap positive kiddie memories of The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. Of course, A.I.P.’s go-to composer Les Baxter stepped in to re-score most of the music soundtrack.
If these particular sword ‘n’ sandal Peplum pictures don’t score too highly at the IMDB I fear that part of that rating is due to the crummy presentations we’ve seen on video: bad pan-scanned transfers and highly variable dubbing. A.I.P.’s product preview announces that the film is in ‘Colorscope.’ That non-existent process name was usually reserved for ordinary flat-matted 1:85 pictures. We’re told that Samson was anamorphic, but it’s hard to be sure: although most of the European posters herald ‘Technicolor’ only a couple display a CinemaScope logo. A.I.P.’s domestic prints were Eastmancolor by Pathé.
A year later (December 1963) A.I.P. would release yet another name-swapping muscleman epic: Goliath and the Sins of Babylon. Yes, it too was originally a Maciste movie, Maciste, l’eroe più grande del mondo (Maciste, the Greatest Hero in the World). Perhaps the name reverted to Goliath for continuity’s sake — the actor playing Goliath was once again Mark Forest.
Note that this final ‘production announcement’ offers next to no information — it’s just the title and a tag line that suggests a mix of science fiction, comedy, and romance: It Came To Conquer the Earth, But it Didn’t Plan On Our Secret Weapon… The Blonde in the Black Negligeé!”
The absence of any ‘names attached’ indicates that the movie is in the planning stages. A title might be all that American-International had when this release preview was printed. Its inclusion here really looks like a brochure-filler to suggest that A.I.P. had more product in the pipeline. A.I.P.’s artist seems to have ‘borrowed’ the flying saucer from This Island Earth.
The Maid and The Martian was actually a 1952 play written by Joseph Barbera of Hanna-Barbera cartoon fame. According to Wikipedia, actors Pat Priest and James Arness played roles in two different stage productions. The play first surfaces in connection with A.I.P. in an April 1960 edition of Motion Picture Daily, in a list of films forthcoming from the studio. → We see some familiar titles in the list, but also some oddities. Could ‘Ali Baba and the 7 Wonders of the World’ have any connection to the Samson feature? Whatever the project In The Year 2889 was, I guess it evaporated and its registered title was repurposed for Larry Buchanan’s later TV remake of Day the World Ended.
James Nicholson cites Maid/Martian as one of his promising upcoming projects in a 1961 Film Bulletin article titled Re-writing an Old Story . He talks about shifting A.I.P’s focus from ‘ghoulish attractions’ to a wider range of product, and suggests that a name comedian like Red Skelton would be ideal casting. It’s a career article; we learn that Nicholson’s first film credit was as a screenwriter, just as was the case with Roger Corman.
← From March of 1961, this Film Bulletin blurb repeats the Red Skelton casting thought and gives us a bit more of a description for The Maid and the Martian. Was A.I.P. perhaps seeking to exploit the TV success of My Favorite Martian? I guess not — a quick check tells us that the Ray Walston-Bill Bixby hit show made its debut in 1963.
Arkoff & Nicholson’s wanted a ‘wider range of product’ that could still appeal to teens — hopefully formulas that would keep the censors at bay. The tag line for Maid/Martian makes us wonder if they wanted to tie their old alien invasion film It Conquered the World (1956) in with a romantic teen comedy.
Perhaps A.I.P. backed away from the project in April of 1962, when Buena Vista’s Moon Pilot was released. It pairs NASA astronaut Tom Tryon with Dany Saval, an alien beauty from the star Beta Lyrae. It can boast a charming song by the Sherman Brothers, even if it’s something of a proto- shook-up shopping cart movie. One more American-International film concerned a romance with an alien: in 1964 they distributed the interesting, serious English sci-fi film Unearthly Stranger.
In the summer of 1963 A.I.P.’s Beach Party found a ‘safe’ formula to target the all-important teen audience, which perhaps made Joe Barbera’s The Maid and the Martian redundant. Elements from the play eventually ended up in the fourth or fifth ‘Beach Party’ movie Pajama Party (November 1964). The negligeé more or less became a bikini: the storyline introduces an alien invader named Go-Go (ex-Disney star Tommy Kirk) to A.I.P.’s established beach party regulars. Go-Go eventually falls for Annette Funicello’s Connie, and betrays his invader cohorts. The alien invasion angle doesn’t alter the Beach Party formula — Jody McCrea plays a big lunk named Big Lunk; Donna Loren, Bobbi Shaw, Teri Garr and Toni Basil dance; and the movie shoehorns-in ‘adult’ stars Elsa Lanchester, Dorothy Kilgallen, Dorothy Lamour, Don Rickles and Buster Keaton. Frankie Avalon is present, but only as a second-banana Martian named Socum.
However, The Maid and the Martian did end up as the title of a song for Annette Funicello. I don’t think it’s in the movie, but it made the Pajama Party soundtrack album.
One more ‘rule’ about trade announcements: you can say anything you want! That rule certainly applied at The Cannon Group, where we routinely misrepresented movie subject matter and promoted vague ideas as if they were finished features. Our propaganda also sometimes announced star casting for actors ‘prematurely.’ I raise this issue because this last graphic for Survival boldly announces ‘CinemaScope.’ Most of A.I.P.’s Poe pictures were filmed in Panavision, and Panic in Year Zero’s’ credits list no format, and especially not the licensed CinemaScope lens system. I wouldn’t be surprised if the art department stuck the C’Scope on the ad because it balanced the composition.
I hope this little piece encourages Bill Shaffer to dig deeper for more gems from his collection — anything weird, different or illuminating will be welcome. I know he’s saving things for his proposed book, but we’ll be looking forward to more items for arcane articles at CineSavant — !
By Glenn Erickson
Written with Bill Shaffer and Gary Teetzel
Reviewed: December 30, 2020
(6418artAip)
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