Les titans

This amusing Muscleman epic picture has mythological remarks , as it appears , ¨Los Titanes ¨, in Classical Greek mythology, they were members of the second order of divine beings, descending from the primordial deities and preceding the Olympian deities . Based on Mount Othrys, the Titans most famously included the first twelve children of the primordial Gaia (Mother Earth) and Uranus (Father Heaven). They were giant deities of incredible strength, who ruled during the legendary Golden Age, and also composed the first pantheon of Greek deities. As they had overthrown the primordial deities, the Titans were overthrown by younger gods, including many of their own children - the Olympians - in the Titanomachy (or "War of the Titans"). The Greeks may have borrowed this mythology from the Ancient Near East . The film deals with a nasty King called Cadmo (Pedro Armendáriz) makes a covenant with an evil devil in order to get away after murdering his wife , marrying his lover Ermione (Antonella Lualdi) and subsequently defies the Greek Gods . Likable Krios, (Giuliano Gemma) the youngest of the Titans, is assigned by the Olympian deities to punish Cadmo , as he may be the least strong of the seven brothers whose strength comes from their mother , earth-goddess Gaia . He arrives on Crete, the kingdom of the mighty king Minos , impresses him as gladiator , gains his trust, falls in love with his daughter , a gorgeous young called Antiope (Jacqueline Sassard) , joins forces with another gladiator , Rator , and faces off mortal soldiers as well as Medusa who has on head plenty of serpents . But then he is caught and chained to wall . With help his brothers , The Titans , Krios finds out both Minos's human sacrifice-cult and a dark conspiracy to seize power helped by hidden forces .

The picture is a fun sword and sandals epic with stirring adventures , struggles , absurd humour , irony , bizarre scenarios and turns out to be quite entertaining . This is a giant spectacle shot in Spain with acceptable production design , colourful cinematography and evocative soundtrack . There is plenty of action in the movie , guaranteeing some shots or stunts every few minutes . Funny and thrilling screenplay , including tongue-in-cheek, by prolific Ennio De Concini , adapted by the same filmmaker Duccio Tessari . The comic relief in charge of Crios/Gemma character was written by scriptwriter/director Duccio Tessari , who often uses humorous touches , for example , his various Spaghetti Western . Nice acting by Gemma as a sympathetic Titan , he is by far the smartest , and thus their natural leader . Giuliano is very fine , he ravages the screen , he jumps , bounds and leaps , hit and run . Gemma as a brave and two-fisted Titan is terrific , subsequently the would play similar role in other Péplum and Spaghetti . Gemma , along with Anthony Steffen and Gianni Garco , results to be one of the greatest stars of the Spaghetti genre . Gemma in his beginning worked as stunt-man , practiced many sports in his life, boxing, gymnastics, such as is well proved at the movie . Then the director, Duccio Tessari, gave him the first role as protagonist in the film " The Titani" and the first spaghetti western films where he often worked under the name of Montgomery Wood , playing Western as ¨A pistol for Ringo¨, ¨The return of Ringo¨ and others as ¨Adios Gringo¨, ¨Arizona Colt¨, ¨The price of power¨ , ¨Day of anger¨ and later ¨California¨. However, his first big opportunity came with the important Italian director, Luchino Visconti in ¨El Gatopardo¨ this was followed by important roles in "Angelica" , ¨Tenebre¨ , ¨Young Lions¨ and ¨The master touch¨. Then he played his most significant roles in ¨Il Deserto Dei Tartari¨ and ¨Il Prefetto Di Ferro¨ . In the movie appears usual support actors from Peplum as well as Spaghetti . Being a France/Italy/Spain co-production turns up several Spanish actors such as Fernando Rey , Rafael Albaicín and Fernando Sancho , Spaghetti Western regular . Besides , appearing famous Eurotrash babes such as Jacqueline Sassard , Antonella Lualdi Tanya Lopert and Ingrid Schoeller . As usual , colorful cinematography by Alfio Contini with gaudy colours and groundbreaking atmospheres . It was shot on location in Manzanares Del Real , Colmenar Viejo , Madrid , Spain , where in the sixties and seventies filmed a lot of Spaghetti/Paella Western . Agreeable music score being well conducted and splendid leitmotif ; it's full of enjoyable sounds and lively score by Carlo Rustichelli .

¨Arrivano i Titani" also titled "Sons of Thunder" or "My Son, the Hero" or "The Titans¨ was well directed by Duccio Tessari . This Italian writer / filmmaker Duccio Tessari so consistently mixed the good with the mediocre that it became quite impossible to know what to expect from him next . He wrote several Westerns as ¨A fistful of dollars ¨, ¨A train to Durango ¨Seven guns for McGregor¨ , ¨The return of McGregor¨ . He directed five Western with abundant touches of humor as ¨Vivi o Preferibilment Morti¨, ¨Don't turn the other cheek¨ and ¨Zorro¨ with Alain Delon and of course ¨Ringo ¨and sequel , mostly starred with his fetish actor Giuliano Gemma . Rating : 7 , entertaining and amusing movie that will appeal to ironic Peplum buffs .

King Cadmos of Crete murdered his wife to be with his evil mistress Ermione to the displeasure of The Gods. He is prophesized to die when his daughter Antiope grows up and falls in love with a man. In turn, Cadmos makes himself God and then Antiope into his High Priestess which keeps her away from all men. Jove makes a bargain with the smartest and weakest Titan, Krios (Giuliano Gemma). Krios is to bring Cadmos down to Hades and Jove will release the rest of the Titans.

I like Giuliano Gemma. He's doing a wise-cracking fish-out-of-water, all with a smile. He doesn't seem to take his situation that seriously and that is refreshing. Sometimes, these spaghetti sword and sandal flicks can be too serious. The story is a mishmash of various mythologies and names. I thought they would do a buddy movie with Rator, but that doesn't last long enough. At times, the pacing is too slow, but I still had some fun.

Giuliano Gemma, another of the innumerable sons of Jove, wind sup wooing Antonella Lualdi, defeating the evil king Pedro Armendariz, and generally having a good time in this light-hearted peplum movie.

Anyone who went to see the American version expecting an outright comedy was bound to be disappointed; Mel Brooks directed the trailer for the movie, and it's a lot sillier than the actual movie. But then, swords-and-sandal flicks are rarely known for their depth. People went to see them for the combination of pretty girls in short chitons, and body builders dressed likewise. Even so, this movie never takes itself seriously, with Gemma being less musclebound and more clever than your average hero.

Delightful sword and sandals comedy!

First and foremost, this is a comedy masquerading as and action fantasy. So, don't take it too seriously. Giuliano Gemma owns the screen as our hero, Krios. He is charming and incredibly likeable. Serge Nubret is his sidekick, and he is so ripped his muscles have muscles. Jacqueline Sassard is the breathtakingly beautiful love interest that needs to be rescued not once but twice.

The plot is really just a series of excuses to setup funny adventure scenarios. There are many references to ancient Greek and/or Roman gods and legends. There's a gorgon and a cyclops and some ancient depictions of hell. It's a good time!

To begin with, this was another early TV recollection though I recently saw snippets from it on the "Stracult" Italian TV program. The film cemented handsome and likable Giuliano Gemma's leading-man status, but also marked his first of a long-running and felicitous collaboration with the director that spanned 9 films (not counting the recently-viewed MESSALINA, IMPERIAL VENUS {1960} which Tessari only co-scripted and where the star had a small part). After looking high and low for a copy of the film (a recent Cable TV screening was obviously in Italian and widescreen but reportedly proved problematic), I landed a pan-and-scan edition of the English-dubbed version; still, being in a peplum frame-of-mind, I thought better of revisiting it in this manner rather than wait for a more congenial edition and which may never even happen!; incidentally, the English title is quite lame (the original translates to HERE COME THE TITANS). Anyway, while I had anticipated a low-brow and comedy-oriented offering, it emerged a superior and reasonably stylish genre effort.

The narrative involves the titular band, banished by the Gods who were jealous of their superhuman strength but now called upon to cut ruthless King (and self-proclaimed deity) Pedro Armedariz – making for a dry-run to his similar invulnerable character in the above-average and effects-filled fantasy-adventure CAPTAIN SINDBAD (1963) – down to size! He has killed wife Jacqueline Sassard in order to marry Antonella Lualdi (interestingly cast as a villainess but then served a dismally underwritten part!); the King is nonetheless bound by a prophecy which dictates that he is doomed to die when the child (also played, delightfully, as a grown-up by the waif-ish yet gorgeous Sassard) falls in love – so, when he tries to kill her, the Gods add another clause, as it were, that he will himself perish instantly if the girl does!; therefore, he tries to work his way around this by locking her up…only, when she reaches the age of 18, Sassard is to be presented as a Vestal Virgin to the Gods. It is in the temple that she happens to come face to face with Gemma – sent to pave the way for the Titans' 'atonement' in view of his cleverness and agility – since, at the time of the ceremony, he is a prisoner in the dungeons below (having deliberately insulted the King so as to be taken before him and lead his soldiers on an acrobatic roof-chase!) and decides to take a look!

To cut a long story short, he becomes a sort of gladiator (though the bouts take place indoors and only consist of wrestling matches) where he triumphs over his opponent by rubbing himself in oil and slipping his grip at every turn(!) and eventually wins favor with Armendariz (which naturally allows him to get close to his love); still, the latter turn-of-events obviously does not please the King and Gemma finds himself at the receiving end of his ire. Rallying support from some of his old prison/arena colleagues and later joined by the liberated and spoiling-for-a-fight Titans themselves, we get to the climax which sees Armendariz being literally whisked all the way down to Hades when the earth opens up beneath his feet…and Sassard is now left to govern the people of Crete with Gemma at her side. The highly-entertaining film (running for a hefty but fast-paced 111 minutes) looks very nice despite the misframing and is further blessed with a bouncy score by the ubiquitous Carlo Rustichelli (he has scored the lion's share of the peplums I watched throughout the month!).