Medusa

I got this as part of a box set and ignored it for years. Desperate to tidy up the unwatched films in my collection prior to Christmas, I threw this one on and watched it in a flu haze. George Hamilton sure is annoying, isn't he? This film is part crime caper, a quasi-giallo for a while, then a tragedy. I must have very low standards because I didn't find this one too slow at all, but the over-acting of George Hamilton really scuppers the film. His character is so absolutely smug and irritating it nearly derails the film. On the other hand, Cameron Mitchell, who is also way over the top here, manages to entertain as a cackling old gangster.

What you have here is a bunch of people you don't care about after an amended will. A mysterious person is killing off folk involved, but it ain't that hard to figure out who it is. Medusa was worth one watch, but throughout I wanted to reach into the screen and strangle George Hamilton, who constantly acts like a moron who's been put in front of the camera for the first time.

You can get this film free through public domain - that should ease the pain a little.

Quite terrible international "thriller" that stars George Hamilton as an obnoxious playboy who may or may not be involved in the murders of a bunch of people connected to his father's will.

I guarantee you you won't care whether he is or not, or whether or not he's bonking his sister in a weird relationship the film suggests might lean toward the incestuous, or why the film's called "Medusa," or how Hamilton managed to have a career despite being worthless in pretty much every category necessary to being a successful entertainer. You will only care about the movie ending so that Hamilton's annoying, twerpy jerk of a character will no longer be assaulting your T.V. screen, or rather you will only care if you are still awake, as I certainly wasn't.

Grade: F

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.

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.

Confusing tale of hell-raising playboy (Hamilton), a rogue mercenary thief based in Greece and living a bizarre double life as a cold blooded murderer. Enchanting though she may be, Paluzzi's Medusa connection is tenuous, instead the film focuses on Hamilton's bloody conquests with a succession of exotic imports, among them, Alana Stewart and the beautiful (and unknown) Nora Valsami. The rub of course is that Hamilton never actually recalls doing the deeds, while the manipulative Paluzzi disposes of the evidence (complete with mop and bucket) before suspicion is aroused.

Takis Kavouras is effective as the no-nonsense, yet ineffectual police inspector, while Cameron Mitchell is wasted as a local mobster who ends up, literally, swimming with the fishes in a sadistic demise. Hamilton is suitably hammy as he feigns drunken stupor one moment, fractured lunatic on the edge the next. The relationship between Paluzzi and his character is complex and, to my mind, never properly revealed (there's an implied incestuousness never realised). Paluzzi, for her part is assured and suitably sinister as the title character, with just a hint of the mythology to make the title linkage (revealed in the film's final act).

Authentic and attractive location work, combined with some effective chills and suspense are hampered by the convoluted storyline, making for a very uneven thriller. "Medusa" seems to dramatically change track at intermission, switching from a routine crime drama to a twisted "Bonnie & Clyde". Director Hessler's plot is full of sadism, lust and jealousy - just the ingredients necessary for a Greek tragedy of this ilk, but it ultimately lacks cohesion and sense.