CLASH OF THE TITANS turns 25

I had the great joy to revisit one of my favorite childhood films on Wednesday, April 19th when Gary and I went to see a 25th Anniversary Screening of CLASH OF THE TITANS at Graumann's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. Anyone even remotely aware of the name Ray Harryhausen is probably familiar with this, his last and greatest film.

The epic story of Perseus's rescue of his lover Andromeda from all sorts of mythological monsters is the kind of film any self-respecting 12-yr-old kid growing up in the early '80s drooled over. On the day I went to see it I made my mom drop me off at the 10 AM screening and sat thru it four--yes, four--times. Each time it ended I slunk down into my seat and avoiding the cleaning crews, so that I could watch Perseus, played by Harry Hamlin, do battle with Harryhausen's animated goddess of reptilian cool, Medusa the Gorgon, just one more time.

In addition to the thrill of seeing the film on the big screen again, we were visited by the man behind the monsters himself, RAY HARRYHAUSEN. Mr. H has always struck me as the most gracious of gentlemen, which is so charming in light of the fact that most of his work is the depiction of gigantic beasts wreaking havoc on civilization in one time period or another. It was his 7th VOYAGE OF SINBAD that first infused me with a love for stop-mo, so he's really the guy responsible for everything that followed.

There was a controlled Q & A after the screening, and though the entire audience was asked to fill out cards with questions for Mr. H, they only selected four, giving out free DVDs of COTT to the lucky writers of the chosen queries. Mine was the last of the four selected questions, so I walked home with one of the coveted prizes! I just love it when things go my way...