Cinema: Fleeced

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Jason and the Argonauts. The reflecting surface of the fish pond in Zeus's palace on Mount Olympus is a sort of giant-screen TV that brings in news shows from all over the Aegean. Zeus and Hera, who are just folks, watch it so much that they must surely have to keep a six-pack of nectar and a frozen ambrosia dinner close at hand. But in stead of astronauts they see Argonauts —a bearded body builder named Jason (Todd Armstrong) and his adventure-prone shipmates aboard the Argo.

The Argonauts get into all sorts of telegenic scrapes. In one episode, the Argo is sailing through a maritime falling-rock zone, with boulders crashing into the sea from viselike cliffs. Hera, watching the show live, sends Triton from the bottom of the sea to hold the rocks apart so the Argo can sail past. Jason sails on to get the Golden Fleece. He needs this gelt pelt in order to claim the throne of Thessaly, but it is watched over by the Hydra, as disgusting a monster as ever writhed and roared on the screen. Hydra has more heads than a totem pole, but brave Jason whacks it dead and snags the Fleece (which looks like a Beverly Hills bath mat).

Jason's producers have mixed myths to suit their script: Hydra killing was Hercules' specialty, not Jason's. And they have dreamed up monsters Jason never saw, including a steam-powered King Kong, built of bronze, with a drain plug in its heel. The straight story of Jason's exploits, told with magic and imagination and a minimum of studio trickery, might have been delightful. This version is more bull than Bulfinch.