Ancient Greece: Cadmus (Pedro Armendariz), tyrant of Crete, has found the secret of immortality and can now only be killed once his daughter Antiope (Jacqueline Sassard) falls in love - so to remedy this impediment, Cadmus just blocks her off all men (lesbianism wasn't a thing back then, apparently), and makes her a priestess to his own temple, as with the help of his wife Hermione (Antonella Lualdi) he has pronounced himself a god. Now this doesn't sit well with actual god Jove, so he frees Crios (Giuliano Gemma), the youngest, weakest but smartest of the Titans, to go back to upper earth and teach the tyrant a lesson. Now Crios doesn't waste any time and lets Cadmus' troops arrest him - and somehow, while incarcerated he gets in touch with Antiope, and the two feel drawn to one another almost immediately. However, Crios' focus right now ought to be surviving the next day when all of Cadmus' prisoners are pitted against one another in the arena in a survivor series, and strong brute Rator (Serge Nubret) seems to hold all the cards to come out on top. But it's thanks to Crios' cunning that he can overcome Rator's brute force - however after defeating him he shows him mercy by not killing him and has found a friend for life, while King Cadmus is fascinated by this new fighter who chooses brains over brawns, and he sets them both free.

Crios is dead-set to see Antiope again, so he goes down to Hades to steal Pluto's invisibility helmet to sneak into the palace - only to learn that Cadmus, to shield his daughter from all men, has shipped her to the island of the Gorgon ... whom Crios easily gets rid of using a mirror, but then Cadmus sends his fleet to get his daughter back, and grossly outnumbered, Crios and Rator are no match for Cadmus' troops, and while Crios is at least able to make an escape using the invisibility helmet, Rator is not so lucky and is prepared to be Cadmus' human sacrifice to ... himself, really. It seems it's the end of the line for Crios, but Jove shows mercy and sends his Titan brothers to support him, and Crios' cunning paired with his brothers' brawns (and some lightning bolts bought from the friendly neighbourhood cyclops - really) make it a walk through the park to break into the tyrant's palace, fight and defeat even his invulnerable bodyguards, defeat him and free his daughter from his evil grip ...

Before Giuliano Gemma became a spaghetti western mainstay (with quite a few of his westerns over the years also directed by Duccio Tessari) he tried his hands on the then popular peplum - and as many of his later westerns, this one is rather on the farcical side of things. And even if this one's a bit on the long side with almost two hours running time, this is quite a lively romp, a good showcase for Gemma's likeable persona paired with quite a few acrobatic setpieces and funny fight scenes, carried with an assured yet light-footed directorial effort and primaroy colour-heavy camerawork. Now granted, none of this makes a perfect movie per se, and Arrivano i Titani certainly isn't, and yet if seen through the lense of nostalgia, it's at least a fun watch with hardly ever a slow minute.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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