El juego de matar

George Hamilton shows why he became more popular for his tan than acting ability with "Medusa," a terribly insipid attempt at a crime thriller with would-be supernatural undertones. The plot...ummmmm...doesn't really make any sense (and not in the good David Lynch way). Okay, imagine Andrezej Zulawski's "Possession," with made-for-TV production values, none of the surreal sh1t, and a bunch of cop-thriller baloney. Set against a Greek backdrop, George (our hero?) plays a character more obnoxious and muggy than what you'd find in a typical "Saturday Night Live" sketch; anyway, he runs afoul of scenery-chewing gangster Cameron Mitchell (whose presence in any movie is like the official stamp of bad taste) who is whacking a bunch of guys(?); George spends the rest of the film running around Greece, wooing (and killing) random females, and finally fleeing to 'Atlantis' on a boat with his unusually devoted sister. Some existential hokum about the body dying, but the soul living forever is tossed in like an afterthought. Blandly directed by Gordon Hessler, "Medusa" is a slow-moving bore, its only amusing moments belonging to Mitchell ("The Toolbox Murders"), who gives an epic bath-house speech that is brilliant in its own head-scratching incoherence.

With a bow to Sunset Boulevard with the late George Hamilton narrating as William Holden did in that Billy Wilder classic just how it came that he got himself dead, Medusa did an impossible thing. It has the beautiful scenery of the Grecian Isles, photographed in color and it's in one dull and confusing picture.

When Hamilton and his sister Luciana Paluzzi are not living totally useless lives as international playboy and playgirl, he's got a very interesting sideline killing people just for the thrill of it and he's got Luciana cleaning up after him.

One of the folks he kills is a guy who does a little of it himself in his line of work, gangster Cameron Mitchell. That one might have had some rational basis because Hamilton's in deep and he's been cut out of his late father's will so no payback money from that source. Truth be told Mitchell's on the hook for that particular bad investment with his bosses.

In the end one really doesn't care one way or the other how Geroge got dead.

George Hamilton. What an argument for birth control. I have never seen this guy in anything worthwhile, yet he still seems to hang around. This terrible film involves his being tiresome and obnoxious. He goes from place to place, acting like an idiot, drunk, living a life he wants to continue. If this is why he needs the money, don't give him any. He serves no purpose at all. The title of the movie is misleading. If someone can explain it to me. I found it in a horror collection. I thought it was about Greek mythology. There is no Medusa. That's the thing that when looked at would turn a person to stone. Just about the same thing happened to me. Only I was snoring the whole time. There is nothing campy or bad movieish about this. It is an hour and half of dreadful dullness. Oh yes, George is known for his tan.

Jeffrey (George Hamilton) is a frivolous, quite possibly psychotic playboy. He and his sister stand to inherit the family fortune through their zillionaire father's will. It's not long before those involved with the will begin dying at the hands of a mysterious strangler.

Not even fellow psycho and loan shark, Angelo (Cameron Mitchell) is a match for this shadowy figure!

MEDUSA is a semi-dark, somewhat twisted tale of greed, violence, and murder. There are a few memorable scenes, like Angelo's swimming sequence. Though kooky and dull, this movie is worth watching to witness Hamilton and Mitchell face off in their dueling histrionics. Hamilton is his usual smirking self. So, if you're a big fan of "The Man With The Tan", that'll bump this one up a couple of notches...

Just dreadful film about George Hamilton playing some rich playboy type seeing his sister being engaged at the film's beginning and then, strapped for cash, needing to locate some will so he can continue his relative life of ease. Hamilton and his sister have a very, very close relationship it seems. Anyway, Hamilton owes money to thug/gangster/loan shark/over-actor Cameron Mitchell, and he must do whatever is needed to restore his income. This movie is just flat-out one big bore. It is directed by that awful director Gordon Hessler who could have Vincent Price and Christopher Lee in the same film(even in one film having Peter Cushing as well)and make them boring. Hessler is competent behind the camera lens in terms of framing a picture, etc..., but he has little talent in getting his audience interested in what he films or interested in his hangups which abound in almost all of his films. Hamilton is embarrassingly bad mugging to the camera spouting ridiculous dialog and mimicking the likes of Cary Grant, Clark Gable, and Humphrey Bogart. Overact he does and to the point of nausea for the viewer. I cannot say much in favor of this film: it has nothing it would seem to do with Medusa, the location shots in Greece are made to be quite mundane, and the plot...well, let's just say it makes little sense nor creates little interest. The "payoff" at film's end can be seen miles away, and it is yet another Hessler sick, twisted, perverted aspect. Mitchell is fun to watch considering his enthusiasm for the role, which allows him to flood one man's lungs with water via a garden hose and use a bulldozer to push a man in a car over a cliff. As for the rest of the thespians, they are all Greek to me...nearly. This is primarily a Greek production with an American "star" and a German director. Go figure huh? Lucianna Paluzzi plays Hamilton's very, very devoted sister with little appeal. The only performance which I would say offered any merit is that of Takis Kavouris as a somewhat witty, somewhat eccentric police inspector. He has what little dialog that has any worth. But all in all this one is literally a sleeper. It tries to be artsy and intelligent in parts, even having Hamilton narrate ala William Holden from Sunset Boulevard at the beginning. I was so not impressed! Like the lost city of Atlantis, this one sinks right to the bottom, "like a plastic boat in a bath tub." Again, just dreadful.