Perseo l'invincibile

Passable low-brow mythological hokum: Richard Harrison is Perseus – who, rather than the offspring of Zeus, here is the adopted son of Hercules (and an unwitting deposed monarch to boot!). The film provides two villains in Arturo Dominici, an ambitious man who usurps the throne by killing the current ruler and marrying his wife (the scriptwriters must have read "Hamlet"), and Leo Anchoriz as his equally despicable son – who also acts as a rival to Harrison for the heroine's hand; the latter, then, is the usual lovely sovereign of a rival harassed empire (but who, at least, demonstrates a prowess with bow and arrow).

In this outing, Perseus fights a couple of monsters: a man-eating dragon residing in a lake(!) and the titular paralyzing creature (which, instead of sporting writhing snakes in its hair-do, is a vine-like Cyclops that would better fit the atmosphere of a science-fiction movie, in the vein of the shapeless one-eyed alien seen in IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE [1953], than a sword-and-sandal flick); nevertheless, the latter confrontation anticipates the Ray Harryhausen opus CLASH OF THE TITANS (1981). With respect to the human end of the scale, the ongoing dispute is resolved over a long-running duel between Harrison and Anchoriz taking place at the heart of a tournament organized by Dominici.

Director De Martino made a few peplums before going on to other "Euro-Cult" genres (Spaghetti Western, war, horror, giallo, etc). Eugenio Bava – father of cult film-maker Mario – served as technical adviser here, presumably contributing the matte work involved in the creation of the special effects. The film's score is highlighted by a catchy but corny title tune heard over the opening and closing credits.

Ah yes, Richard Harrison as Perseus (aka: one of the myriad sons of Hercules) must battle all manner of men and monsters in THE MEDUSA AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES. All while wearing some very stylish power-tunics! Can Perseus defeat the eeevil meanie-pants, king Acrisio (Arturo Dominici) and his jerk-weed son, Galenore (Leo Anchoriz), before they fulfill their plan for old-world domination?

EXTRA POINTS: For the "tournament of strength" (aka: macho man contest), where the contestants get to use micro-shields that couldn't cover a baby!

EXTRA EXTRA POINTS: For the lovely Andromeda (Anna Ranalli) with her flaming red hair and fabulous earring choices!

EXTRA X3 POINTS: For the well-realized title creature, as well as the lake monster! For the time, and obviously modest budget, the animatronics are downright impressive!

Worth many late-night viewings...

The peaceful people of Serifo are unable to use their trade route due to attacks by the soldiers of Argos, led by the king's wicked son Galenore (Leo Anchóriz), and the existence of both a dragon and the hideous Medusa along the way. Help comes in the form of Perseus, the rightful heir to the throne of Argos, who defeats the dragon and the gorgon, and commands an army to defend Serifo from an attack by the Argos army.

As much as I admire the work of stop-motion genius Ray Harryhausen, I was never that impressed with his final film, Clash of the Titans, which saw Greek hero Perseus defeat the gorgon Medusa and rescue the beautiful Andromeda from the Kraken. In some ways, this cheapo '60s Italian fantasy peplum adventure, in which Perseus (played by Richard Harrison) also battles Medusa, is marginally more enjoyable than the star-studded Clash.

While Perseus Against the Monsters' special effects are undeniably far cruder than those in Clash of the Titans, they are arguably more memorable, the dragon an impressive life-size mechanical model that is wheeled out (literally) whenever someone gets too close to the edge of its lake, and Medusa a tree-like cyclops with snake branches who moves along on writhing tentacles. Both are clumsy looking creatures, cobbled together out of odds and ends by effects man Carlo Rambaldi (of E.T. fame), but they're imaginative and surprisingly effective, Medusa in particular managing to be be quite unsettling despite the fact that 'she' looks like she might topple over at any moment.

Director Alberto De Martino also packs in more action than Clash, with none of that boring nonsense on Mount Olympus that really dragged the Harryhausen film down. There's a fun tournament that involves jousting and a duel on a wooden bridge, plenty of battles with clashing swords and deadly arrows, and a castle siege. There's even a jolly theme song over the opening and closing credits. It all adds up to a passable piece of peplum bolstered by some family friendly fantasy.

American actor/bodybuilder Richard Harrison stars in this peplum epic about the legend of Perseus who wins princess Andromeda and her kingdom by slaying all kinds of foes, human and monster. Since he's the illegitimate son of Zeus it's only fitting as he has the heroic lineage.

This story was remade much better with a name cast and special effects by master Ray Harryhausen in 1981 as Clash Of The Titans. Perseus is also the son of a queen who married and a real son who grew up to be as nasty a piece of work as his old man. Andromeda is princess in the next kingdom over and her bit of real estate is in the grip of the bad king and his Snidely Whiplash like son. And we always know what Snidely Whiplash villains have uppermost in their minds.

Anyway the bad guys have both the Medusa and a lake dragon, cousin of the Loch Ness monster working for them. I wonder how the dragon knows only to eat the enemies of the bad king?

It's his mission to get the bad monsters and as for Medusa there's a bit of license taken from Greek mythology.

Harrison is a bit of a sculpted Greek God himself. But the acting and the dubbing is real bad in this Italian peplum epic.

I'd see Clash Of The Titans first.

This movie is not a literary dramatization of classical mythology. Instead it's a melodramatic action movie. The plot takes some long divergences away from the mythological sources, and has a few bits that don't quite make sense, but it does the job of carrying the characters from one action scene to another. The introduction tells us that Perseus is an honorary Son of Hercules, for no apparent reason except maybe to link it with the many Italian Hercules movies.

The acting is only occasionally good, but it's never terrible either. The costumes are pretty basic, but set the mood well. The sets are mostly simple too, but also get the idea across. There are plenty of extras in scenes that need them. The fights are sometimes well-choreographed and performed, but sometimes look dumb.

The lighting is almost always bright sunshine; even night scenes look sunlit, just slightly underexposed. The pan-and-scan was sloppy, and sometimes shows obvious losses, like people split vertically while they're talking. The cinematography probably looks better in widescreen versions.

The worst part was the monsters. The dragon looks decent, if low-budget, but doesn't move well in scenes it shares with actors. It's also a bit on the small side, but it's big enough to threaten a warrior in leather and bronze armor. It looked like a model of some sort, rather than a person in a dragon suit. In contrast to the dragon, Medusa is terrible, even though she's the title character in some of this movie's many titles. She looks like a leafless tree walking around on exposed roots, with a single glowing eye. Myths described her as a woman with snakes for hair, and looks so hideous her gaze turned people to stone.

The music sometimes took itself too seriously, but it kept the mood going pretty well. During the Medusa scenes, the score turned squeaky, as if the musicians were laughing at what they could see were dumbest scenes in the movie. Often it sounded better-suited to a Western than an ancient myth setting.

In parts where the movie is good, it's quite entertaining. When it's bad, it's still entertaining in a "so bad it's good" sense. As long as you don't set your expectations too high, you should be satisfactorily entertained.