My Son, The Hero

My Son, the Hero (Arrivano I Titani) (1962)

Runtime: 111 minutes

Directed by: Duccio Tessari

Starring: Giuliano Gemma, Pedro Armendariz, Jacqueline Sassard, Antonella Lualdi, Serge Nubret

From: Various studios in a few different countries

This random film gives me plenty to discuss.

Until recently, I had zero knowledge of Hero; however, TCM has played it twice in the past month or so—they and almost everyone else has a blurry SD copy. A random YouTube account has a 16mm scan which isn’t perfect but is far better visually. But why would I watch an obscure Italian peplum (sword-and-sandal) movie?

Well, it’s a comedic take on the genre, which was different. I did watch Alicia Malone’s introduction to the film late Tuesday night-United Artists released a dub of the film, which is the version easiest to find. MEL BROOKS was hired to do trailers/advertisements which played up this aspect. AFAIK none of this exists anymore, at least for public consumption. 

In addition, this was the first role on screen for Giuliano Gemma, who became popular in Europe for awhile. The story wasn’t too terribly complex… Pedro Armendariz is a heel King of Crete who murdered his wife to marry his lover Antonella Luladi, he’s cursed by the Gods & will die if his infant daughter falls in love w/ a man as an adult… that’s why she’s locked away, to become a priestess at the age of 18.

Gemma is a Titan (the weakest of them all) who is freed by Zeus to get revenge on Pedro. This includes falling for his daughter Antiope right before she’s anointed. That is understandable as she’s portrayed by Jacqueline Sassard. What a European beauty-greatly appealing in terms of physical appearance. She did not act in too many films before marrying a Lancia heir and passing away just a few years ago. I’m happy to have finally seen one of her films. To be fair, Lualdi was also a lovely lady-especially w/ purple hair, believe it or not. It was also nice seeing Serge Nubret, a bodybuilder who appeared in a few other movies, including Pumping Iron.

It's a silly film; after all, Gemma does both the Cretan version of parkour and the Cretan version of three card monte. That doesn’t mean that Hero also wasn’t pleasurable. Some scenes have what I call “Bava lighting,” the quality of the sets, the action of the delightful variety. The cast as a whole was solid; Gemma proved why he became a star between his good looks and charisma. Sassard was fine-I’ll be more than happy to view her not dubbed to better judge her talent.

I have never viewed any peplum movies from this era (unless you count the ones seen on MST3K) before so I can’t compare this to anything else. However, it does make me want to see some of those—and of course see more of Sassard.