Tuesday 25 August 2015

Medusa (1973)



Despite the title, there are no supernatural or mythological elements to this film.  Its only connection to the legendary gorgon is that it is set in Greece.  And possibly that it could turn you to stone from sheer boredom.

The film begins with a man and a woman being found dead on a drifting yacht.  It then leaps back in time and the dead man - Jeffrey - gives us some narration establishing that he and his sister were heirs to a mining fortune before they shuffled off this mortal coil (yep, the narrator is not just dead, but aware of it).  Events on screen meanwhile depict the sister's wedding, where Jeffrey proves himself quite the jerk.

The 'real' plot of the movie though is that the siblings' father has written a new Will.  Since they were previously the sole beneficiaries this can't be good news and for Jerkfrey it is especially worrying as he owes local mobster Angelo a lot of money (it translates to about $700,000 in 2014 terms).

So it is that Angelo intercepts the father's lawyer in an attempt to acquire the Will.  The lawyer doesn't have it though, and Angelo's efforts to make him talk prove more fatal than effective.

The lawyer had a colleague though, so Angelo sends Jerkfrey to try and wheedle the Will out of him.  When this proves impossible, a masked accomplice murders the colleague.  So now there are two bodies, but still no Will.  I think it's no spoiler to say that the pile of bodies is going to grow significantly before the all important document does turn up.

If you were foolish enough to watch this film, you will probably work out the identity of the masked killer long before the movie reveals it.  In fact, you can probably work it out right now, if you think about it for a couple of seconds.

This Anglo-Greek production comes across as a pale and tedious attempt to make a giallo - unfortunately while they seem to have nailed the nonsensical story-lines of such films they have missed out entirely on the style.

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