The Giant of Marathon (The Film Crew)

Onscreen Title:  "La Bataille de Marathon"
Film Year:  1959
Genre:  Action, Adventure
Directors:  Jacques Tourneur
Starring:  Steve Reeves as NOT Hercules!

The Movie

This Italian production tells the tale of the famed Battle of Marathon.  Steve "Hercules" Reeves plays Philippides, an Athenian commander who encourages the Spartans to help Athens fight the Persians, and happens to fall in love with a pretty blond dame as well.  ACTION AND ROMANCE!

Given this is from the star of Hercules and it's yet another sword and sandal tale of a Greek epic, Giant of Marathon is most likely to be enjoyed by those on board for these Italian flicks.  I certainly enjoy them, so Giant of Marathon is a bit up my ally.  That said, it meanders for a while leading up to the ultimate battle scenes, which are pretty cool.

Crew of note:  The director of this film, Jacques Tourneur, is best known for his collaborations with producer Val Lewton, including the horror classic Cat People.  His director of photography on this film was Mario Bava (who also did some uncredited reshoots), who MSTies will know as the director of Diabolik, and later became a noted cult horror director as well.

I'm not much inspired to write more about this movie.  Those who are inclined to enjoy it likely will, and it's easily the best film riffed by the Film Crew (not hard when your runner up is Killers From Space).  It's simply just solid and standard.

The Riff

Today we bid farewell to the Film Crew, the short but sweet series of DVD releases where Mike, Kevin, and Bill tried to give the fans what they wanted, but then decided to do Rifftrax instead.  Ironically, with the fairly simple and to the point opening I somewhat suspect that this final release may in fact have been the first filmed.  But at any rate nothing special is planned for this grand finale to this four episode series, as we're just given another movie and another riff.

This particular movie has echos of Hercules and Colossus and the Headhunters, giving old-timer MST fans like myself a familiar flavor to latch onto.  The riffing is among the strongest this type of film has seen, with some stellar delivery and timing by Mike, Kevin, and Bill, with some great targets in our oily, beefcake men in loincloths and dubbed production itself, while playing with the ancient setting itself.  If I were to detract anything from this riff it's that they often go for a safe running gag, such as saying the men are all wearing diapers or alluding to homosexual subtext.  Certain lines of these are funnier than others, but the over-reliance on them can get pretty boring.  The funniest running gag is about exposed genitalia on the statues, which are often quite hilarious.

The host segments are fair and brief.  The most detailed is the Lunch Break, in which Bill tries to teach Mike about the Battle of Marathon using Kevin's lunch.  The finale involves the trio wearing stupid hats, while Mike mocks Persians, which is added onto in the DVD's bonus features.

Giant of Marathon isn't as memorable an episode as Wild Women of Wongo, though it is the one Film Crew exorcise that approaches being nearly as funny.  While I think at times it can be a bit too one-note this one is a must see, concluding the Film Crew's mostly stellar, if brief, run.

Good

The DVD

Like all Film Crew releases, Giant of Marathon was filmed in 2005 but shelved and released in 2007 by Shout Factory.  This is the only Film Crew episode where both the host segments and the movie itself are in widescreen, despite this the entire episode is non-animorphic.

Bonus features kick off with a video apology by Mike for slandering Persians during the episode, which results in more slurs against Italians and Norwegians.  The second is a commentary by "Walter S. Ferguson," which is really Mike playing a character who was supposedly an actor on the film, playing just about every role imaginable.