The Giants of Thessaly

The Giants of Thessaly is a 1960 Italian-French adventure-fantasy film directed by Riccardo Freda. It is loosely based on the epic poem Argonautica by Apollonius Rhodius.

Plot

Thessaly, overrun with barbarian invaders and beset with natural disasters, sends King Jason and his Argonauts on a search for the fabled Golden Fleece. Meanwhile, back home, his scheming cohort is plotting to get his hands on the kingdom and the queen.
The film's subplots bear some resemblance to Odysseus' odyssey including a plot by a trusted lord to seize a throne from an absent king and a desire to marry the king's faithful wife. Jason and his men encounter a queen on her island of siren witches who turns seduced men into animals much like Odysseus' encounter with the sorceress Circe. There is also a struggle against a Cyclops also reminiscent of the encounter between Odysseus and Polyphemus the Cyclops son of Poseidon.

Cast

as Jason
Ziva Rodann as Creusa
Massimo Girotti as Orfeo
Alberto Farnese as Adrasto
as Queen Gaia
Luciano Marin as Euristeo
as Aglaia
Alfredo Varelli as Argo
as Gaia's Sister
Nando Tamberlani as Aglaia's Father
Alberto Sorrentino as Licaone
Paolo Gozlino as Laerte
Raf Baldassarre as Antinoo

Release

The Giants of Thessaly was released in Italy on 6 December 1960 where it was distributed by Filmar. It grossed a total of 408 million Italian lire domestically.

Reception

In a contemporary review, the Monthly Film Bulletin noted that the script "owes very little to the legend, instead stringing together a series of action highlights, settings and characters which, if anything, have even less consistency than the strip-cartoon formula to which they owe their inspiration." The review noted that the "scaling of the colossal statue is moderately spectacular, too. The rest, including the filtered colour, is sub-Bava, let down by indifferent acting, irrelevance unimpressive trick-work and abysmal dubbing."