The Minotaur, the Wild Beast of Crete

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.

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.

Well made, good looking " Sword And Sandal" fantasy with famed athlete Bob Mathias in his sole acting role and he gets to show off some of his athletic skills.Rosanna Schiaffino is lovely in both twin sister roles and for it's time and aimed as a family entertainment. it is at times quite violent.The actual monster itself, isn't seen fully until the film's last four minutes and although it does not have the Bull head as in the legend, it is a passable effect. Entertaining film.

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.

The legend of Theseus finding his way through the Cretan maze in order to battle the Minotaur and rescue Ariadne is one of the great tales in Greek mythology. Alas, this version takes the tale and dilutes it into the standard "sword and sandal" plot. You know how it goes. The coldly-beautiful but evil queen lusts after the handsome, muscular hero. He already has a girlfriend and is a foe of tyranny and so spurns the queen. She's outraged, has the girlfriend imprisoned, and subjects the hero to a torturous trial. He triumphs, frees the girlfriend, and overthrows the tyrant. Grateful citizens cheer the happy couple. The End.

Steve Reeves might have been able to lift this mixture to a higher level but in his place we have ex-Olympics champion, Bob Mathias. Mathias is an affable sort and he's given an opportunity to show off his athletic prowess by engaging in a display of javelin throwing, pole vaulting, and discus throwing. He also looks pretty good with his shirt off, though not quite as good as you'd hope and he seems a bit self-conscious about baring his chest. On a more troubling note, however, his personality is bland, his acting ability no more than passable, and he lacks the swaggering sexuality needed to give his character that necessary edge.

Rosanna Schiaffino gets to play the evil queen as well as her virtuous twin sister. She's good at being bad but bad at being good. As for the Minotaur, traditionally represented with the head of a bull, it's poorly depicted here as a stunt-man dressed in sort of a King Kong suit, and the climatic battle between Theseus and the Minotaur doesn't deliver the expected thrills. Also, little is made of the strand of yarn which leads Theseus out of the maze, and the Minoan culture is only vaguely hinted at in the sets and costumes.

And once again, the movie bungles the torture scene. Theseus winds up in the queen's torture chamber, chained to a wall, but he's modestly allowed to keep on the top of his tunic! So when the torturer approaches with the red-hot iron, he must reach out and make a discreet rip in the hero's shirt in order to expose a bit of bare flesh next to the hero's left nipple. Hey, this is a "sword and sandal" movie featuring a muscular actor as its star. Why not rip that shirt all the way off and put the hero's sweaty torso on proper display?