Guest Author - Peggy Maddox

Both Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and Clash of the Titans (1981) incorporate special sequences designed by Ray Harryhausen. Both have screenplays written by Beverley Cross, but Titans is the better movie.

According to TCM's Robert Osborne, Jason and the Argonauts was Harryhausen's favorite. I would guess that he liked it best because of the all the work he put into it. The elaborate and amazing sequence of the fight between the human beings and the skeletal warriors that sprang from the sowing of the hydra's teeth alone took four and a half months to film.

The memorable effects in Jason are Thalos, the man of bronze, the Hydra with its seven independent heads and necks, and, of course, the fight with the skeletons.

In Clash of the Titans Medusa is especially horrifying. Pegasus is absolutely beautiful.

As fantastic as the monsters in Jason are, I think that Clash of the Titans is the better movie in terms of drama.

For one thing, Titans boasts a spectacular cast that includes Laurence Olivier, Claire Bloom, Maggie Smith, Ursula Andress, Burgess Meredith, and Flora Robson.

Both films make use of a technique in which the Olympian gods look down upon the actions of the human beings whose stories are being told. Jason's sympathetic deity is Hera, queen of the gods and wife of Zeus, while Perseus, the hero in Clash of the Titans, is guided and protected by Athena, goddess of wisdom.

The film scores for both movies are of exceptional quality.

Bernard Hermann wrote the score for Jason. Hermann was no lightweight by the time he came to write the music for Jason and the Argonauts. Beginning with Citizen Kane (1941), his list of film credits include Jane Eyre (1944), Anna and the King of Siam (1946), Portrait of Jennie (1948), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), and Psycho (1960).

Laurence Rosenthal wrote the score for Titans. His filmography includes A Raisin in the Sun (1960), Becket (1964), and Man of La Mancha (1972).

I've watched Jason only once, so that may be why I can't remember much about the music. The score for Clash of the Titans, however, comes into my head sometimes. It may be the movie's most beautiful feature, and that's saying a lot since the acting and cinematography are superb.

Both movies are sure bets for family viewing. If you haven't seen them yet, treat yourself. And appreciate the special effects that were created not by digital technology, but by human patience.

(Maybe I'd better mention that Titans contains a glimpse of nudity as the child Perseus and his mother gallop along the beach. I find nothing offensive in it, but once when I showed the film to high school students, a complaint came in from one of their mothers. A simple expedient is to fast-forward this very brief scene. It occurs close to the beginning.)

Some discrepancies between the movie and the "original" story of Jason and the Golden Fleece:

• The harpies were chased away, not netted and caged.
• Jason got the ship through the clashing rocks with the help of a bird, not a sea god
• The "sown" warriors came from a dragon's teeth, as in the Cadmus myth, not the teeth or bones of the Hydra.
• The warriors weren't skeletons, and Jason didn't have to subdue them. He threw a rock at one, causing them to turn on each other.
• Jason didn't have to kill the Hydra. Medea gave it a sleeping potion. Jason took the fleece as the monster slept.

Anyone who has seen the film knows what delights of special effects would be missing if Cross had slavishly followed the original.