Jason and the Argonauts

Jason and the Argonauts was the the last film on which Herrmann collaborated with Charles Schneer and Ray Harryhausen. Although each production was more lavish than the last, Herrmann resented the producer's parsimonious attitude towards the music budget. In fact, with the score for Jason, he seemed to be almost testing the limits of what he would be allowed to do, writing music that required an augmented orchestra of wind and brass with no fewer than thirty six percussion players and a range of instruments that included the gockenspiel, xylophones, tambourines, woodblocks and a triangle.

Harryhausen and Schneer would go on to make more movies (including The Valley of the Gwangi and the original Clash of the Titans), but, alas, without Herrmann. At least, with Jason, their working relationship ended on a bang and not a whimper.

Essentially, the film was a men-on-a-mission story dressed up in togas and sandals. Fearless warrior Jason (Todd Armstrong) collects a band of like-minded brothers to help him find the fabled golden fleece that will somehow help him overthrow his father's murderer Pelias from the usurped throne of Thessaly. On the way he is aided by the goddess Hera (Honor Blackman) and abetted by Acastus (Gary Raymond), who is the son of Pelias and has been ordered to sabotage the voyage. None of this elaborate plotting mattered, of course, because what people really wanted to see were the latest Harryhausen creations.

The master of Dynamination did not disappoint. There was the giant bronze statue of Talos that creaked into life when two foolish Argonauts attempted to steal some treasure. There were winged harpies that tormented a blind Patrick Troughton. There was a bare chested Triton with a merman's tail, and a hissing many-headed Hydra. And, best of all, there was an army of sword-wielding skeletons. For Talos, Herrmann turned the dial all the way up to eleven with a pounding four-note figure. The cue "The Attack/Talos' Heel/Talos' Death" will not only rattle your speakers but your back teeth as well. For the fight with the skeletons there is a cue called "Scherzo Macabre" which - amidst a battery of almost every item of percussion known to man - employs the same xylophone technique that was used in The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. For the Argo itself (an impressive full scale model) Herrmann wrote a noble stately march that suggested the power of the ship under full oar.

The full score is available on a re-recording by Bruce Broughton on the Intrada label (MAF7083), and among Herrmann afficiandos it is considered to be one of the best.