I taped this pic off Turner Classic Movies about 4 years ago but for some reason never got around to watching it until today. Made about 1961, this is a slightly pre-deluge entry in the peplum fest that was Italian cinema until the sudden burst of spaghetti western in the middle 1960s.
Cadmus, King of Crete, and his new wife Hermione (they killed the previous Mrs C), in angry response to a prophecy, declares himself a god and drives the worship of Jove out of his kingdom. If the mills of the gods grind fine, they also grind exceeding slow, since it takes Jove 18 years to get around to this case! But finally Crios, the youngest and most clever of the Titans, is sent to Crete to take on Cadmus. If he's successful, his brother Titans will get their release from Hades, so the ball is definitely in Crios' court.
Crios has the usual run of adventures -- a gymnastic brawl with the royal guards that leaps from street to rooftop and back again ad lib, then imprisonment and being forced to do small arena gladiator work. He also manages to catch a glimpse of, and fall in love with, Antiope, daughter of Cadmus and the first Mrs C. Now things begin to get complicated. See, the prophecy is that when Antiope falls in love, that means the Big Sleep for her evil daddy. So, natch, it's in his interest to keep her away from guys.
Pic is a little long, at 112 minutes, but it doesn't drag. Think of it as watching 3 arced episodes of "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" back to back, but w/o the commercials. Tone of the production is similar to the Herc series, since it's full of mostly slapstick violence. The Titans, on earth, have no power other than their strength, so we get plenty of knock 'em down and bang 'em around scenes. Only at the very end does the violence get moderately serious, and even then, it's still well within a PG rating. Leonard Maltin's TV movies book says this was dubbed for comedy effect, a la "What's Up, Tiger Lily?" but if he's referring to the sound track on this version, it's quite misleading. The American dialogue track is breezy, though not the Valley dude and surfer boy yak of the Raimi series, and we're not within light years of "Tiger Lily" or "Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters" here. Anyway, it's obvious from the start that this pic was meant as a comic take on the peplum.
Giuliano Gemma plays Crios in full bleach-blonde mode. He grins a lot, but he always seems smarter than the average peplum lead of the 60s, and he's not called on to throw around papier-maché rocks from time to time like a Son of Hercules. Jacqueline Sassard, as Antiope, is a looker and a half. (Movie eschews several script opportunities to show her soaking wet.) Pedro Armendariz, in one of his last roles, is dubbed as Cadmus and brings only his presence to the US version of the film. Antonella Lualdi, as Hermione, doesn't get a lot to do but is something in the red wig she wears at the start, when she's young and hot. Since Gemma is just an ordinary-built guy, the muscles are supplied by Serge Nubret, a black man, as Rator, a fellow slave who becomes Crios' ally.
Production values are higher than average for the genre; the Cretan palace is really nice-looking and seems quite spacious. You might wonder why several of the Titans are shown as blonde, including Sisyphus and Prometheus, while they are in Hades, but when they eventually show up on earth to help out Crios, they're all dark-haired guys with facial hair. (At least, I wondered about it.) Light-hearted costume actioner is fun, without the cheap grinder looks the genre took on as production increased and budgets fell. I wish I'd seen this when I was about 12, but they'd have had to make it some years earlier than they actually did.
One complaint: the print shown on TCM is 1.33 ratio. The original was obviously shot in a wider ratio, perhaps 1.77 or 1.85 (no reference to 'scope in the credits or the AFI catalog). As a result, the framing is not always satisfactory. (Isn't it awful how letterboxed DVDs have spoiled us all when it comes to aspect ratios?) On the IMDb scale, I give this a solid 6.
Cadmus, King of Crete, and his new wife Hermione (they killed the previous Mrs C), in angry response to a prophecy, declares himself a god and drives the worship of Jove out of his kingdom. If the mills of the gods grind fine, they also grind exceeding slow, since it takes Jove 18 years to get around to this case! But finally Crios, the youngest and most clever of the Titans, is sent to Crete to take on Cadmus. If he's successful, his brother Titans will get their release from Hades, so the ball is definitely in Crios' court.
Crios has the usual run of adventures -- a gymnastic brawl with the royal guards that leaps from street to rooftop and back again ad lib, then imprisonment and being forced to do small arena gladiator work. He also manages to catch a glimpse of, and fall in love with, Antiope, daughter of Cadmus and the first Mrs C. Now things begin to get complicated. See, the prophecy is that when Antiope falls in love, that means the Big Sleep for her evil daddy. So, natch, it's in his interest to keep her away from guys.
Pic is a little long, at 112 minutes, but it doesn't drag. Think of it as watching 3 arced episodes of "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" back to back, but w/o the commercials. Tone of the production is similar to the Herc series, since it's full of mostly slapstick violence. The Titans, on earth, have no power other than their strength, so we get plenty of knock 'em down and bang 'em around scenes. Only at the very end does the violence get moderately serious, and even then, it's still well within a PG rating. Leonard Maltin's TV movies book says this was dubbed for comedy effect, a la "What's Up, Tiger Lily?" but if he's referring to the sound track on this version, it's quite misleading. The American dialogue track is breezy, though not the Valley dude and surfer boy yak of the Raimi series, and we're not within light years of "Tiger Lily" or "Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters" here. Anyway, it's obvious from the start that this pic was meant as a comic take on the peplum.
Giuliano Gemma plays Crios in full bleach-blonde mode. He grins a lot, but he always seems smarter than the average peplum lead of the 60s, and he's not called on to throw around papier-maché rocks from time to time like a Son of Hercules. Jacqueline Sassard, as Antiope, is a looker and a half. (Movie eschews several script opportunities to show her soaking wet.) Pedro Armendariz, in one of his last roles, is dubbed as Cadmus and brings only his presence to the US version of the film. Antonella Lualdi, as Hermione, doesn't get a lot to do but is something in the red wig she wears at the start, when she's young and hot. Since Gemma is just an ordinary-built guy, the muscles are supplied by Serge Nubret, a black man, as Rator, a fellow slave who becomes Crios' ally.
Production values are higher than average for the genre; the Cretan palace is really nice-looking and seems quite spacious. You might wonder why several of the Titans are shown as blonde, including Sisyphus and Prometheus, while they are in Hades, but when they eventually show up on earth to help out Crios, they're all dark-haired guys with facial hair. (At least, I wondered about it.) Light-hearted costume actioner is fun, without the cheap grinder looks the genre took on as production increased and budgets fell. I wish I'd seen this when I was about 12, but they'd have had to make it some years earlier than they actually did.
One complaint: the print shown on TCM is 1.33 ratio. The original was obviously shot in a wider ratio, perhaps 1.77 or 1.85 (no reference to 'scope in the credits or the AFI catalog). As a result, the framing is not always satisfactory. (Isn't it awful how letterboxed DVDs have spoiled us all when it comes to aspect ratios?) On the IMDb scale, I give this a solid 6.