CLASH OF THE TITANS (1981) **1/2 The Medusa is the greatest of all of Ray Harryhausen's great creations. Well worth double the price of admission in an extended scene. In fact Harryhausen's monsters abound, all tremendous except for a tin owl that tries to sound like R2D2. Just fantastic stuff, in nearly every frame. The bad part is that there are also humans in nearly every frame. The good part is that they're humans who are usually interesting. The bad part is that they're rarely interesting here. Laurence Olivier doesn't have a lot of script to work with, but his depiction of Zeus as a rather petty deity who confusedly plays with dolls is beneath both the role and the actor. You would think that Ursula Andress as Aphrodite is classic typecasting for the ages, but she has even less to work with and literally does nothing. Maggie Smith is least boring of the gods, but she's not much of a liar and appears neither fearful of nor particularly interested in Olivier. The mortals reflect the problems of Mount Olympus, which is at least part of the point. Harry Hamlin looks a lot like a Greek hero, an illusion that dissipates immediately whenever he moves or opens his mouth. In fact the motions of Harryhausen's creations are more graceful and credible than those of Hamlin. Vida Taylor and Judi Bowker look like they could inspire the passion of heroes and divinities under the right circumstances, but here they could pass at least as well as advertisements for horse tranquilizers. So it's up to the monsters, and the good news is that the monsters deliver.
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