O Testamento de Medusa

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.

That's one of the biggest problems i have with this movie. i have NO idea why it's called Medusa. She doesn't appear in the movie, there's no mention of her, and it's not even one of those cheesy things like "cat on a hot tin roof" where they use her name in a metaphor one time. they NEVER mention her or allude to her. EVER. if you name a movie "Medusa", then it better FRIGGIN HAVE MEDUSA IN IT! but enough of that, how's the actual movie? well it comes in the chilling movie 50 pack, and that's probably the only reason anybody would see this stinker. and it has a problem a lot of the other movies do. number 1. it's not a horror movie and therefore does not belong in a horror set. number 2. it's boring. BORING BORING BORING. God how do all these 70's movies keep getting more and more boring? but OK. lets discuss plot. Guy (Hamilton) needs to find the new will to destroy it so he and his sis can get all the inheritance money so he can pay off the mob. along the way people die. why? i'm not sure. there's really no justification of WHY these people are dying, they just kind of are. This movie was actually incredibly hard to follow. There were several characters doing things that i didn't know what they were doing and i didn't really care.

this movie made me stop several times to take breaks. and as a film lover. i hate doing that. i despise stopping movies and taking breaks. i saw epic movie in one sitting. i should be able to sit through anything. But not Medusa, oh no. you have to break this crap up.

Even the kills are dull as dirt in this movie. there's a lot of strangulations and offscreen deaths with no tension because i couldn't tell who was dying half the time because of oh yeah. the lighting! This movie must have a hard on for night shots because over half of this movie is filmed like someone forgot to bring a flashlight on their camping trip. The picture gets so dark you can't see who's doing what or what's going on. it's confusing and stupid.

The payoff (if you can call it that) isn't really a payoff because the beginning of the movie shows you what happens at the end. so it's not really a payoff.

Unless you want to see all 50 movies in your box set, (in which case know you're in for a boring one here) for the love of GOD do not search for this movie by itself, but if you HAVE to sit through it, just know you're in for a snoozer.

Medusa gets 2 scenes in pitch black dark, out of 10.

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.

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.

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