The Minotaur, the Wild Beast of Crete

This is a pretty good peplum film, based on the Theseus legend. It leaves out the ball of yarn gimmick that I recall from Bullfinch, alas; that made it a better story for me, showing Ariadne not only looked good in a short chiton, but had some brains.

Still, that's not what people watch swords-and-sandals flick for. The costume design is handsome, and there's some very nice photography under the supervision of Aldo Giordani, particularly the sequence with Theseus' rescue from drowning and Susanne Loret as Amphytrion. Bob Mathias plays Theseus and there's a bit with him throwing the discus. His principal claim to fame was winning Decathlon Gold at two Olympics, and he played himself in a cheap Allied Artist biopic, but his acting career was uninspiring.

This Italian peplum genre film can be missed but has enough going for it to make a screening pleasant and amusing. First, there's a LOT OF MOVIE here: many sets, big outdoor battle scenes, decadent court and temple scenes, perhaps as many dancing girl scenes as any such movie offers. Whole lotta shakin' goin' on. The music meets the moment. The wine goblets look like they'd hold a liter.

Trade-offs too in those areas. The film's visuals never provide any large sense of the labyrinth itself. When the monstrous title character finally appears, it's for only a hurried minute or two of indistinct action, cut-rate camera angles, and shifting scales for the creature's size. Also, how did a man-bull hybrid grow teeth more appropriate to a baboon?

Continuing on esoteric details, to stay family-friendly the opening narration skates over the Minotaur's origin story, i.e. Born from Minos's wife Pasiphae's lust for a particularly handsome Cretan bull. Credit to the scenario for depicting Ariadne providing a thread for escaping the labyrinth (like Hansel and Gretel's breadcrumbs), but then the film doesn't show her and Theseus using it after he finishes off the minotaur.

Back to positives, Olympian Bob Mathias is appropriately big, buff, and handsome to stand in for Theseus (Italian Teseo), and an early generic games scene show him and Demetrios competing in decathlon events. Rosanna Schiaffino looks great as good and evil identical twin princesses and plays both stock characters well enough.

History retells mythic stories in so many variations that it's futile to complain of infidelities to the versions we learned in school. In any case, the plot tirelessly makes twists and turns to keep things moving--maybe a few too many, as some characters and their plotlines disappear for too long. Through it all Theseus looks as good as Bob Mathias on a 1950s box of Wheaties, and you could find many worse films with which to while away an afternoon or evening indoors.

In legendary times, the Cretans offered their children as sacrifices to the Minotaur. The movie starts with such a sacrifice. King Minos' wife Pasiphae is on her death bed. She reveals that Princess Fedra has a twin, Arianna who was raised as a Greek peasant. Fedra sends out her loyal guard Chirone to kill her rival. Teseo, son of King Aegeus of Athens, and his Cretan friend Demetrio happen upon the massacre and manage to rescue Arianna.

The acting is pretty bad and the dubbing does not help. Italian beauty Rosanna Schiaffino does better than most. Olympian Bob Mathias needs to go shirtless all-the-time to show off his form. He does get to do a few decathlon events. This is a cast of hundreds and the scale of production is pretty good. This spaghetti swords and sandals flick is not the worst. This should hinge on The Minotaur and The Labyrinth. Sadly, that is a bit of a disappointment.

After having seen The Minotaur I'm surprised that no one recognized the plot elements from Alessandre Dumas's Man In The Iron Mask. Maybe there was no mask for Rosanna Schiaffino to wear, but she plays the twin princesses of Crete as both good and evil.

The star of this peplum epic is Bob Mathias two time decathlon champion and he gets to show off some of the prowess that got him that gold. He's a visiting prince from Greece who rescued good twin Schiaffino where she's been brought up by peasants to keep her safe from the Minotaur. He's one nasty looking 7 foot tall dude with the head of an American bison and teeth like a shark. Virgins are sacrificed regularly to him and royal virgins are his special delicacy.

Evil Schiaffino has overthrown dad with her boyfriend Alberto Lupo and they run things. Mathias as Prince Theseus from Athens is our hero.

I kind of liked the makeup done for the Minotaur. It's not Ray Corrigan in a gorilla suit, some care went into the creation of the beast.

Nothing too special in this peplum. It's a combination of the myth of the Minotaur with the plot The Man In The Iron Mask. Take it fromm there.

Fanciful rendition of one of the most famous Greek myths.To write that the movie takes liberties with the tale is to state the obvious:first of all,Phaedra and Ariadne are twin sisters both played by Italian beauty(and an usual sword and sandal heroine of the era)Rosanna Schiaffino : the former is the villain ,a wicked princess ,whereas the latter is an innocent clueless good girl .Theseus is still the king of Athenes ' son but his father won't throw himself into the sea which bears his name (Aegean sea);and if my memory serves me well,he marries Phaedra after abandoning her sister on an island.

People who are eagerly waiting for the Minotaur will be disappointed for the monster looks like King Kong and would not scare a four -year- old .They did include Ariadne's thread and she is devoted enough to go and meet him in the labyrinth.

Closer to Robert Siomak's "Cobra woman" than to Greek tales.