Mysterious Island (1961)

It's been awhile since I've reviewed anything like this, but it's long overdue. It's time for a Ray Harryhausen-themed review! Master of pre-computer and CGI effects, Harryhausen is a legend and for good reason. He did for movies what had previously seen impossible, bringing creatures -- real and otherwise -- to life, meant to impress, terrify and produce wonder and scale. Though I've long been aware of it, having seen bits and pieces here and there, I'd never seen in its entirety 1961's Mysterious Island, until now!

It's late in the Civil War in 1865 in Richmond and a small group of Union prisoners, led by Captain Cyrus Harding (Michael Craig), is plotting an escape from Libby Prison. Their means of escape? A hot air balloon tethered near the camp. The group manages to let the balloon loose but it gets caught up in a horrific storm unlike any ever seen before. Harding's men drift through the air for days and days until finally they discover there's no land beneath them. Finally after many days in the balloon, the escaped prisoners crash in the ocean somewhere and manage to survive by reaching a nearby island. Everyone survives as they explore the island that seems to offer at least somewhat abundant supplies of food and water. Can they be rescued? That may not be the biggest of their concerns. This island has some secrets waiting to be revealed.

What a fun movie. In the vein of Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson, 'Mysterious' plays on that shipwrecked backstory and throws some twists into the movie. Director Cy Endfield brings to life Jules Verne's novel of the same name (a sequel to two previous Verne novels), a story full of the unknown and crazy prehistoric creatures and one of my favorites, a great sense of foreboding and hanging doom in the air! What exactly do the island's secrets hold? The island/beach scenes were filmed in Castel-Platja d'Aro in Catalonia, Spain, a suitable replacement for a Pacific island supposedly ignored by passing time. Throw in a score from composer Bernard Hermann and you've got a winning formula.

By 1961, Harryhausen was an established effects man with movies like The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, It Came From Beneath the Sea, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, and 20 Million Miles to Earth to his name. If there's a weakness in 'Mysterious,' it's that there's not enough of Mr. Harryhausen's work! What's there is excellent, but I wish there was more. Our intrepid heroes on the island must battle a giant crab, an immense prehistoric bird, and a gigantic cephalopod as they explore their new surroundings. The stop-animation technology stands out like a sore thumb with an almost washed out, grainy look in the background now, but it's crazy to know the depths Harryhausen went to in bringing these impressive creatures to life. I just wish there was more of them! Still, what's there is excellent (with some other surprises along the way) and should definitely be entertaining, enjoyed and appreciated!

Now how about are characters who could potentially be fodder for these giant creatures? Along with Craig's heroic Captain Harding, look for fellow prisoners, cowardly Herbert (Michael Callan), heroic soldier, Neb (Dan Jackson), and war correspondent, Spilitt (Gary Merrill), with a Confederate prisoner in tow, Pencroft (Percy Herbert). For good measure, our heroes are joined by two shipwrecked ladies, the very lady-like Lady Mary Fairchild (Joan Greenwood) and her niece, Elena (Beth Rogan). A good ensemble, nothing flashy without any huge star power, but some fun characters trying to piece together the island's secrets and mysteries.

Verne's most memorable character in his stories is the iconic Captain Nemo, a brilliant man capable of inventions far ahead of his time, and an extremist idealist at the same time. His hatred? He wants the world to be at peace. Totally at peace. Here, he's played by Herbert Lom who shows up in the third act with a potential rescue but with some secrets of his own up his sleeve. Lom is excellent as the iconic Nemo, bringing a sense of menace and calm all mixed into one. We're not always sure what to think of him or what his intentions are because he's so eerily calm. The problem is that when he arrives, out goes the mystery. The payoff simply isn't as good as the build-up. By the finale, things seem a little rushed and then it just ends. A somewhat disappointing finale to an otherwise enjoyable flick. A bit of a measured recommendation, but definitely still worth seeking out.

Mysterious Island (1961): ** 1/2 /****

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms

Fans of director John Ford's movies will no doubt recognize the gruff, worn face if not know his name. Often playing a bit part or a supporting role as a background player, Jack Pennick wasn't an actor so much as an ever-present part of the movie as a whole. A veteran who served in the Marines (World War I) and the Navy (World War II), Pennick was one of Ford's company of character actors that fans have come to know and love. His parts were usually so quick, so small that it's cool to see him actually get to do something that is essential to the story, like 1953's The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.

Now for starters, I don't want to give the impression that Pennick is in every scene and dominates the movie's 80-minute running time.  His part only requires two or three scenes out of him, and he's rather unceremoniously just disappears mid-scene at one point never to return. It is a cool little bit of casting in a movie that has several several oddities. James Best has a bit part as an Army radio operator, Vera Miles and Paul Picerni apparently made appearances in a trailer at some point (I didn't spot them), and one part late in the movie couldn't help but put a smile on my face. As for the rest of the movie? Pretty good so let's do this thing.

On an expedition in the Arctic, Professor Tom Nesbitt (Swedish actor Paul Hubschmid) believes he's seen a prehistoric creature that was unleashed from the thousands of feet of ice and snow by a nuclear detonation. Everyone around him believes that Nesbitt has lost his mind and is imagining things except for Lee Hunter (Paula Raymond), the assistant of Professor Elson (Cecil Kellaway), the world's leading paleontologist. Nesbitt identifies the creature he saw in a sketch and feels even more assured what he saw was real when strange reports of a sea creature attacking ships continue to filter in. The creature looks like it is making its way down the Atlantic current along the east coast heading for New York. With help from an old friend, Army colonel Jack Evans (Kenneth Tobey), Nesbitt tries to convince anyone and everyone how much danger the city is in, but it may be too late.

From the story down to how the sci-fi flick actually looks, my first thought was that 'Beast' was a cheap American knock-off of the original Japanese flick Godzilla.  Well, yeah, that one is on me. Beast was released a year before Godzilla (released in 1954). Nuclear detonations here don't create the beast, they just free him from his icy hibernation so it's not a dead on comparison, but it's similar enough. When the beast does reach New York City, the scenes are almost a blue print for the stereotypical shots of Godzilla attacking Tokyo, mass chaos in the streets, the fleeing masses screaming bloody murder as they flee.  Where so many of these 1950s creature features are a guilty pleasure though, this is a genuinely good movie, thanks in great part to the special effects work of who else? Ray Harryhausen.

As I know I've mentioned in all my other reviews with Harryhausen in the crew, it's easy to brush this man's work aside. Watch a movie made with computer generated effects and all its polish and clarity, and you get spoiled. To create his animation effects, Harryhausen had to take 24 still frames for each second that was on-screen to create the appearance of movement. That's not the right way of wording it I'm quite sure, but I'm drawing a blank right now to make it clearer. So when you see the beast move through the water or run across the frozen Arctic tundra, Harryhausen had to do hours, days and even weeks of work for a few quick seconds of actual screentime. The scenes of the beast attacking NYC are pretty cool no matter how long the they took to construct, the city serving as a great background for the battle between the cops, the Army and our friendly beast from 20,000 fathoms.

Watch movies like this, and if you're like me, you are just looking for the cast and the acting to be not horrible. I don't need award-winning stuff, just serviceable and not downright embarrassing. Working off a story from sci-fi writer Ray Bradbury (I don't know how close the story stays to his story), the characters are pretty cookie-cutter, but that's not a bad thing. Credited as 'Paul Christian,' Hubschmid overcomes his sometimes heavy Swedish accent to play the intelligent professor no one believes with Raymond playing the love interest and pretty assistant, the only person who believes him. Kellaway as Dr. Elson has a cool part -- including an unintentionally funny death scene -- and Tobey is as solid as ever, playing a similar role to the one he played in The Thing from Another World. Any American or spaghetti westerns will appreciate future star Lee Van Cleef showing up as Cpl. Stone, an Army sharpshooter called in to make a ridiculous shot on the beast. He looks almost bored with the proceedings, but come on, it's Lee Van Cleef, and he's still cooler than you.

As I've watched far too many of these movies over the last month thanks to TCM's Thursday marathons, I've noticed the same trend. We have these creatures/monsters/beasts that can't be stopped so...how do we stop them? The finale doesn't disappoint providing an answer that makes some sense (I guess, I'm not really scientifically inclined) and is executed well. The beast ends up cornered at Coney Island in a roller coaster where Professor Nesbitt and Van Cleef's sharpshooter have to fire a radioactive isotope at it. I'll give the movie this, it's got an interesting use of the actual roller coaster that plays into the solution. Seriously though, this is a good sci-fi movie, and one that set the stage for many more in the 1950s.

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms <---TCM clips/trailer (1953): ***/****

The Valley of Gwangi

Just yesterday I reviewed a dinosaur movie that's one of the worst all-time movies I'd ever seen.  Now I liked it, but not for any good reasons where you'd feel safe recommending the movie.  However poorly executed it was, the premise of dinosaurs existing in modern times is an interesting one. Jurassic Park and its sequels surely speak to that.  But one that works on the same premise as Dinosaurus! is a much better movie released in 1969 that sounds ridiculous, but is nonetheless exciting, The Valley of Gwangi.

I don't really know why I like this movie so much. I saw it for the first time when I was 11 or 12 on AMC and then saw it on multiple viewings on the same channel as part of their Halloween movie marathons over the years.  It is the genre it based in which makes it interesting; a science fiction western.  Take the basic story from Dinosaurus!, subtract about 75 years, transplant the story to Mexico, and have cowboys tangling with prehistoric creatures.  It sounds as crazy as this summer's release Cowboys and Aliens.  For whatever reason though, it just works as a legitimately good movie, not a guilty pleasure.

Years after riding away from a job working with girlfriend/fiance, T.J. (Gila Golan) and her rodeo/wild west show/circus, cowboy Tuck Kirby (James Franciscus) reunites with her as the show travels through Mexico and Central America at the turn of the 20th Century. Their parting was less than ideal so Tuck is welcomed back in a half-hearted fashion. T.J.'s show has a new feature though, a miniature horse unlike anyone has ever seen. The horse escapes though into the desert with T.J., Tuck and all her cowboys following as they eventually discover a hidden valley that's gone unmolested for thousands of years. Inside they find things that no one could have planned on, a valley full of dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures. One of them is a local legend, an allosaurus given the name Gwangi. Can these cowboys capture the creature and put him on exhibit, or will the allosaurus kill them all in the process?

If the story sounds a little familiar, it should. Replace Gwangi with an immense gorilla, and you've got King Kong 2.  That is the movie at its most basic, but director Jim O'Connolly improves on the premise. In the 1950s and 1960s, creature features were a dime a dozen in theaters and drive-ins, but how many can you think of in a wild west setting?  Just on terms of originality, the movie gets points for being unique.  'Gwangi' was shot on location in Spain, using several familiar spots for any fans of spaghetti westerns, especially the bullring and the hidden valley. It's a gorgeous movie to watch, something I might normally take for granted with a movie like this.  As a topper, I'm a sucker for a good soundtrack, and there's an underrated one from composer Jerome Moross which you can listen to HERE and into Parts 2 and 3 at Youtube.

In a handful of other reviews, I've mentioned the work of special effects master Ray Harryhausen, but right up there with his work from Jason and the Argonauts is his work here in 'Gwangi.' The stop-motion filming technique for his creatures seems a little dated now in 2011, but there's a charm to watching his work in a film.  He gets to show off much of his repertoire here, especially with the title character, Gwangi, a blue allosaurus hell bent on killing everything around it. One scene especially impresses as T.J., Tuck and the cowboys try to capture Gwangi with their lassos. Watch it HERE in its entirety. That's just a taste though as Harryhausen covers the gamut from the miniature horse to an attacking pterodactyl, a freaked out elephant to a charging triceratops.

The story itself is in no rush to overwhelm you with all these dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures. Definitely a slow burn here as anything and everything is laid out.  Then about 35 minutes in, it's dinosaur time and the rest of the movie focuses on the cowboys tangling with all these creatures.  It does look dated, but these sequences are still pretty cool.  The finale is also very impressive as Gwangi goes on a rampage in the crowded Mexican village, finally cornering himself in a still-to-be built cathedral.  Harryhausen had an overload of talent, and this is the master at some of his best work.

If you were wondering, Gwangi and Harryhausen's creatures are the real stars of the movie, but the cast is nothing to sneeze at.  Franciscus was never a big star, but I've always liked him and here as heroic Tuck Kirby he is no exception. Model turned actress Golan is okay as T.J. but nothing special. There's also B-movie star Richard Carlson as Champ, Laurence Naismith as Professor Bromley, Gustavo Rojo as head cowboy Carlos, Freda Jackson as Tia Zarina, a gypsy witch, Dennis Kilbane and Mario De Barros as Rowdy and Bean, two of T.J.'s cowboys, and Curtis Arden as Lope, the requisite young Mexican boy.

There are a ton of fan videos and clips available to watch at Youtube for anyone looking to see more of Harryhausen's creatures.  I'd recommend checking the whole movie out though, and not just those specific scenes.  It is a movie that is a lot of fun and rises above just being a creature flick B-movie. Really, how can you go wrong with a sci-fi cowboy movie? Okay, don't answer that. Just watch the movie.

The Valley of Gwangi <---trailer (1969): ***/**** 

One Million Years B.C.

Earlier in 1966, Raquel Welch starred in Fantastic Voyage, a cool little science fiction movie with an impressive ensemble cast. But if we're talking movies Welch starred in during 1966, that conversation is going to begin and end with one movie, One Million Years B.C.. Before this cult caveman classic was even released, 20th Century Fox Studios released photos of Miss Welch outfitted in a skimpy fur bikini that not surprisingly, went over quite well with audiences (I'm assuming a male-dominated audience). The pictures are easy to find -- just do a simple Google search -- and if anything, it is the outfit that is remembered more than the actual movie, which is pretty bad all things considered. It's up there with Ursula Andress in Dr. No coming out of the water in her white bikini as moments burned into the brains of thousands of viewers. As for the movie, you can take it or leave it.

Rewatching it this week for the first time in years, I realized how bad a movie it is.  It was made by Hammer Films -- master of cheesy schlock in science fiction, horror, thriller and B-movies -- and came at a time when audiences ate up these low-budget flicks.  In one of those weird examples where it is hard to explain reasoning, movie-going audiences went through a caveman/creature faze in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Of the ones I've seen, none of them are very good, but I don't know exactly what to say. These were movies about cavemen. Were they supposed to be good? Maybe not, but if nothing else they offered a chance to see some cool creature creations (more on that later) and female castmembers in various stages of undress or in scantily clad outfits. Take Raquel Welch out of this movie, and we're talking about a flick left to the ages.

In some sort of ridiculous past time where dinosaurs and people lived together, a caveman from the Rock tribe, Tumak (John Richardson), is banished from the group after a fight with the tribe's chieftain, Akhoba (Robert Brown). He heads out in the vast wasteland that is the desert wilderness on his own, battling creatures and conditions, desperately clinging to life. Tumak walks and walks and finally at the brink of death collapses near a large body of water where another tribe, the blonde Shell people, rescue him and bring him to their caves. One member of the tribe, the beautiful Loana (Welch), takes a keen interest in this strange, dark-looking man who walked out of the wild. But almost immediately, Tumak's ways burn that bridge too, and together he and Loana head back out into the wilderness. As they try to start a new life, a conflict is brewing between the two tribes, one that will bring them all together.

I've seen this movie a handful of times (it was a favorite of mine as a kid), but it wasn't until just now I realized how stupid it really is. To say there is an actual plot is a gigantic understatement. This is Cavemen Walking in the Desert. That's it. Occasionally, they grunt at each other, battle some prehistoric creatures, and then keep walking. The script -- yes, there is a script -- is an oddity because no actual conversation goes on at any point. There is some sort of pig latin caveman speak, but any interactions among anyone on-screen is a grunt, a blank stare, or a pissed off "I'm going to kill you!" look. If you're looking for a positive, and trust me, I'm trying, it's that director Don Chaffey shot this movie in the Canary Islands off of Spain. What did the landscape look like in prehistoric times? Who knows for sure, but this movie looks like some sort of post-apocalyptic hellhole where anything would struggle to survive. Stupid story, you bet. Great-looking movie, that too.

To talk about performances here feels beyond ridiculous to me so I'm not going to even make an attempt. Typically, I try and avoid minimizing criticisms/judgment of female characters based on looks or sex appeal alone, but that's basically impossible to do here because the whole movie is an excuse to watch Raquel Welch in her skimpy fur and leather bikini. That's it. End of movie. She's gorgeous, beautiful, out of this world sexy. Reviews have some fun pointing out that she's the most well-maintained cave-woman ever. A blonde, tan Raquel Welch in a bikini running around from all sorts of cavemen and creatures trying to kill her? It sounds like a decent basis for a movie. Who actually needs words spoken or a story when you've got that? Because there are at least a few other people in the movie, I'll mention them too. Richardson is phenomenal at looking bug-eyed and screaming, Brown is one gnarly-looking, angry dude, Percy Herbert is equally pissed off and willing to kill anyone who as much as looks at him funny, and Martine Beswick is Welch's Rock people adversary, a gorgeous, brunette cave-woman. See what they did there? Pretty sneaky.

One of the reasons movies like this are remembered so fondly are the creature creations of model-master Ray Harryhausen, he of Jason and the Argonauts fame among many other 1950s and 1960s flicks. Some 40-plus years later, the special effects do look dated, but they all add to the camp appeal of the movie. His stop-motion filming technique was a staple of a pre-CGI era in Hollywood. We see an allosaurus attack the Shell people's village, a pterodactyal swoop down and scoop up Welch's Loana, a giant turtle attack a hunting party, and several other examples peppered throughout the film. There is also the technique of super-imposing smaller animals (lizards, snakes, tarantulas) onto the screen to make them look gigantic, dwarfing the cast members. The movie never goes long without throwing some odd creature into the story, building up to the apocalyptic ending when all hell breaks loose when the volcanoes start to go. Yeah, no explanation needed there, just go with it. Throw in composer Mario Nascimbene and his epic, booming score, and you've certainly got a visually interesting movie.

Read through the DVD reviews at Amazon or anyplace really, and you'll come across complaints that the film as is on the DVD is an edited version of the film that was released in theaters in 1966.  Almost 10 full minutes were cut out, and fans understandably were pissed they weren't seeing the whole movie.  Good news for those fans, the print Turner Classic Movies aired recently is the full 100-minute long version. All the scenes mentioned that were cut (read IMDB's Alternate Versions HERE) were in the movie, back for everyone to enjoy. This is a guilty pleasure movie if there ever was one. A really bad, even awful movie, but one you can't help but enjoy through all the camp and cheesiness.

One Million Years B.C. <---trailer (1966): ** 1/2 /****

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger

I take it for granted sometimes when watching movies that computer generated images – yes, CGI – didn’t always exist. Before computers could crank out some ridiculously cool images, moviemakers had to improve in a lot of ways to get the necessary images to fill out their movies. Just like I pointed out in my review of 1965’s Jason and the Argonauts, one of the best ways to improvise was special effects master Ray Harryhausen who over a long career created a long line of special effects creatures. Now in 2010 they may look a little dated, but that doesn’t take away from their iconic status.

Of course, they’re not all winners that Harryhausen was a part of. But just because a movie overall is below average doesn’t mean Harryhausen’s effects aren’t worthwhile, 1975’s Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger a prime example. It was the rare movie where his effects were a part of that can’t be included somewhere in the horror/monster/sci-fi/fantasy genres.  So even with the stop motion filming technology, the effects still work and serve almost as a time capsule of a pre-CGI world. Unfortunately for this entry, Sinbad doesn’t have much else going for it. Bad acting, little to no story, and if anything, an overreliance on the effects.

Sailing into port, adventurer Sinbad (Patrick Wayne) is prepared to ask for the hand of Princess Farah (Jane Seymour) in marriage.  Instead, Sinbad and his crew find a city torn apart by an evil curse. Prince Kasim – about to be crowned prince in a week’s time – has been cursed, supposedly by his evil stepmother Zenobia (Margaret Whiting). If Kasim isn’t able to take power, her son Rafi (Kurt Christian) will step in for him. To reverse the curse, Sinbad can think of only one person to do the job, a mysterious man named Melanthius (Patrick Troughton) who may not even exist.  With time working against them, Sinbad, Farah and his crew embark on an adventure that will take them halfway around the world to a place of legend and myth, Zenobia not far behind.

Let’s get the positives out of the way first. Other Harryhausen movies I’ve seen used his effects and skills but sparingly, here and there with the tension building up to their reveals.  That’s not the case here as director Sam Wanamaker goes to town with an abundance of special effects creations.  Just some include three demon fire creatures, a primitive cave man, a giant prehistoric killer walrus, an unfrozen tiger, a Minotaur, and a couple more I might be forgetting. There is A LOT of them. If anything, there’s too many of them. It’s hard to appreciate how cool each individual creature creation is if the second they’re off the screen another is appearing.  Still, in a movie as bad as this, that is THE positive.

If the budget for this movie was $100, I feel safe saying at least $98.50 was spent on paying Harryhausen to create his effects. Everything else is lacking, starting with the script.  The premise of finding a mysterious man with special powers is nothing new and has been used in countless other mythology and fairy tale stories. That’s fine because it opens the door for all sorts of adventures, but that’s it. In between Harryhausen creations, we get long, extended scenes of Sinbad’s ship sailing across the seas or his crew walking across desert and winter landscapes. It feels like there wasn’t much of a script at all so instead of thinking something up, we see shots like that over and over again. Then there’s the whole green screen effect where the cast is shown in close-up clearly on a studio with a digitalized backdrop, then a cut to a 2^nd unit crew of stuntmen walking off into the actual desert.  Cheap, cheap, cheap, this movie reeked of it.

Right up there with the lack of script is the next casualty, lack of character. I like Patrick Wayne, but he’s best suited for supporting roles where he can play off bigger stars with more acting ability. As Sinbad, he’s supposed to be courageous, honorable, and a bit of an eccentric. Playing Sinbad though, Wayne is incredibly stiff and his line deliveries always have the same inflection whether he’s in trouble or trying to woo his bride to be. As much as I like Wayne, he just wasn’t cut out for this part. Seymour hadn’t developed as an actress so early in her career, but her part is basically eye candy. She is scantily clad every time she’s on-screen and screams like a champ whenever danger arises.

None of the rest of the supporting cast registers in a positive way, ranging from neutral to bad to just awful. And that's about all I can say.  The movie on a whole is pretty awful, and even Harryhausen's special effects can't save this dreck. If you're feeling adventurous, give the movie a try via Youtube, starting here with Part 1.

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger <---trailer (1977): */****

Jason and the Argonauts

If there's one thing I hate in movies, it would have to be computer-generated images or as we all so affectionately call it...CGI. I don't really hate all uses of CGI because sometimes it's necessary, but instead I'm more sick of directors, producers and studios overusing it to the point where I want to smash the disc apart rather than watch another minute. Movies like The Lord of the Rings trilogy are supposed to dazzle audiences with the spectacle of what they're watching, but usually for me it's always on my mind that 'hey, a computer made that.' "Cool."

That's one huge reason movies pre-CGI appeal to me. If a director wanted to do something spectacular with a scene, here's a novel thought, he actually had to do it or in some cases find a way around it with a green-screen, miniatures, matte paintings, things like that. One always reliable solution was Ray Harryhausen, a special effects master famous for his use of stop-motion animation, who specialized in all sorts of crazy creatures and creations. So when directors couldn't turn to computers to save the day, they turned to Harryhausen.

In most of the movies Harryhausen worked on, the stories required creatures of one sort or another that could not actually be replicated in real life...most of the time because they didn't exist. Greek mythology had hordes of such creatures, half-man and half-horse, species with six heads, harpies harassing people from the sky. And in director Don Chaffey's 1963 Greek mythology epic Jason and the Argonauts, Harryhausen turned in some of his greatest work that may seem dated now over 40 years later but at the time was groundbreaking.

The story itself is one of the more well-known adventures to come out of mythology as young Jason (Todd Armstrong) is trying to revive his home Thessaly to the power that it once was. He has heard of a golden fleece at the end of the world that if recovered, Jason believes will help inspire the country to regain its power. With backing from Greek gods Zeus and Hera (Honor Blackman), Jason goes about acquiring a ship, the Argo, and a crew of the strongest and smartest men Greece has to offer, including the greatest of Greek heroes, Hercules (Nigel Green) himself. But as Jason and his crew travel to lands where no Greek has gone before, they face a long list of foes and obstacles, both human and other-worldly.

Where movies like Troy tried to do away with anything godly or mythological, 'Jason' embraces everything of the sort. The gods, like Zeus, Hera and Hermes, interact with humans all the time, appearing here and there in a cloud of smoke as needed. Zeus even gives Hera just five chances to help Jason grow up because he fears she'll interfere too much in his development. The portrayal of Mount Olympus is actually pretty funny, very 60s stylish, and it made me chuckle they show Zeus and Hera as a bit of a bickering old married couple.

The treat here is of course Harryhausen's stop-motion special effects, especially the finale as Jason and two of the Argonauts engage in a sword fight with six skeltons brandishing shield and sword, check it out HERE but SPOILERS of course. It's an inspired sequence that took Harryhausen weeks to film because each skeleton had to be moved separately just to have one frame of shooting. One second equals about 24 frames so do the math, that's a long time playing with skeletons. But all around, the scene jumps off the screen both because of the skeleton warriors and the actors mimicking fighting these non-existent enemies.

'Jason' will always be remembered for that sequence but two others are almost as impressive thanks to Harryhausen. One has a man blinded by the gods attacked by two harpies, watch HERE, and the second has an enormous statue, Talos, coming to life and attacking Jason and the Argo, check the Talos scene out HERE. Sure, all these stop-motion scenes are obviously miniatures inserted into the movie so creature and actors never actually interact, but there's something nostalgic, something very cool about these sequences. Harryhausen spent months on things that could probably be done in a few days or hours today, all of which is a testament to his talent 30 years before computers started to take over.

The scenes without the Harryhausen creations do drag at times, but it's not long before another adventure comes around. Armstrong is a capable Jason -- although as an American his voice was dubbed because let's face it all Greeks speak proper old English -- and his supporting cast is good, especially scene-stealing Green as Hercules. Nancy Kovack joins the cast late as Medea, the requisite love interest, and Gary Raymond plays Acastus, the treacherous member of the Argo's crew. A fun movie all around, available to watch on Youtube starting with Part 1 of 11.

Jason and the Argonauts <----trailer (1963): ***/****