Clash of the Titans (1981)

 "Once he tried to ravish me disguised as a cuttlefish..."

This is Ray Harryhausen's last film. His career was, of course, long and magnificent, but the best bits were the three Sinbad films and this. Harryhausen the American stop motion genius- surely the greatest special effects maestro of all time, from a time before CGI- finished his career here, gracing us with his presence in this England until the end of his pleasingly long days. By all accounts he was a really nice bloke, a good thing to hear particularly of a genius.

He does his usual brilliant stuff in this film- the kraken, the owl, the vulture, Medusa and so on, as he always does. As usual, he gets his ezxecutrive producer credit to demonsrate that,unusually, the special effects guy is one of the stars. Ray Harryhausen was unique. I can't see us knowing his like again.

This is the tale of Perseus, from the myths, pretty much straight, or at least as straight as the practicalities of stop motion will allow. Harry Hamlin and Judi Bowker are competent and pretty, but the real acting chops lie elsewhere. We have Burgess Meredith, first and foremost, outshining everyone. But we also have the gods, capricious as the myths demand. And so we have Larry himself as Zeus, Jack Gwillim as Poseidon and a veritable pantheon of goddeses with Ursula Andress, Claire Bloom and the extraordinary Maggie Smith as Thetis.

The film is a refreshingly straightforward and highly straightforward retelling of the myth. It's a B movie, whatever its fame. It may be a tad slowy paced at times, but I challenge you not to love it.