Tuesday, July 17, 2018

THE MEDUSA AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES (1963)

We are told that, "through the centuries, in olden times," great heroes have been given the honor of the title of Son of Hercules, and Perseus is one of these men, or will be when we meet him, but first we get some backstory. There's a Hamlet vibe in the royal house of Argos: the previous king was killed by Acrisius who then married his widow, Danae. Her son, who would be heir to the throne, has been missing and presumed dead for many years, but Danae believes that he (identifiable by three marks on his shoulder) will return someday. Acrisius will not let the people of nearby Seriphos pass through his land to get to the sea so they can engage in trade. The soldiers of Seriphos also have to deal with a deadly water dragon and the Medusa, not the serpent-haired woman of mythology, but a shambling treelike monster with tentacles and a single glowing eye with which it turns people to stone. In the middle of a battle between the two armies, most of the Seriphan soldiers, despite being warned not to look directly at the monster, wind up as statues. With his army decimated, the only way to avoid invasion by Argus is for the King of Seriphos to allow Acrisius’s son Galenore to marry his daughter Andromeda.

As Acrisius and Galenore head off to Seriphos seal the wedding deal, enter Perseus, handsome, fair-haired, and nicely built (though not your typical sword-and-sandal muscleman), who pals around with a fawn and enjoys occasional sylvan encounters with a mysterious young woman—who turns out to be Andromeda. And, gasp, he has three marks on his shoulder! When Galenore shoots Perseus's fawn for sport, the two wind up in a duel fought with whips, but Andromeda steps in and arranges for them to work things out in a tournament, with the winner getting Andromeda in marriage. Perseus wins but Galenore ungallantly kidnaps Andromeda. When Perseus goes to Argos after her, Danae recognizes his shoulder marks but Galenore kills Danae. The stage is now set for a climactic battle involving Perseus, Galenore, the two armies, the dragon, and lest we forget the movie's title, the Medusa, as the death of the Medusa may bring the stone soldiers back to life.

As you can tell, this has more narrative than the average Italain peplum movie. I'll let you to go to Wikipedia to check out the story of the mythical Perseus; suffice to say that some of the names and legends of his story (Medusa, Andromeda, relation to Hercules) are here, but mostly the plot is made up fresh for the movie. Richard Harrison makes a nice exception to the rule of the musclebound hero—he is handsome and fit, but he surely doesn’t have super strength. Because of the often atrocious dubbing in these films, it can be difficult to judge a performance, but Leo Anchoriz as the evil Galenore and Anna Ranalli (pictured with Harrison) as Andromeda are fine. The effects are cheap but surprisingly effective, especially the Medusa (pictured top right). This, like MOLE MEN AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES, was actually released under a different name in Europe (PERSEUS AGAINST THE MONSTERS) and first appeared in America as part of a television package of Sons of Hercules movies, hence the catchy theme song. Worth seeing, though I wish I'd seen a cleaned-up widescreen version instead of the dull colored pan-and-scan version. [Cable]

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