FILM · 1963 · UK
Jason and the Argonauts
34 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (34)
- #001
The skeleton scene, which runs for no more than three minutes, took Ray Harryhausen four months to make.
- #002
The live-action footage had been shot a year earlier in Italy, with the actors essentially shadow-boxing against imaginary opponents. Ray Harryhausen then had to animate seven skeletons, each with five appendages, meaning 35 separate things had to be moved for every frame of the film. On top of that, he had to match the skeletons' movements to the actors' movements so that all ten of them could be seen attacking each other with their swords. At times he managed only 13 or 14 frames a day (films are shown at 24 frames per second), which amounted to about half a second of film per day. In the end, animating the sequence took 4½ months.
- #003
Ray Harryhausen initially animated the skeletons with rotting pieces of flesh hanging from their bodies, but censors found this too horrifying, so the flesh was removed and they became clean skeletons.
- #004
Ray Harryhausen considered this his best film.
- #005
The fluid coming from Talos's foot is actually red cellophane, animated by Ray Harryhausen to look like flowing "blood."
- #006
Colchis, the location of the Golden Fleece, is a real place in western Georgia, on the eastern coast of the Black Sea.
- #007
This was Ray Harryhausen's favourite among the films he worked on, and although it did not do particularly well at the box office outside Britain, it is now regarded as a classic.
- #008
The skeletons' shields are decorated with designs from other Ray Harryhausen creatures, including an octopus and the head of Ymir from 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957).
- #009
Although Ray Harryhausen is best known for his effects work, he actually designed this film and helped shape many creative choices beyond stop-motion animation.
- #010
The Argo was built on a fishing boat and powered by three large Mercedes engines, which cost about 10% of the film's budget. The ship was sold to 20th Century-Fox after filming and was used in Cleopatra (1963).
- #011
Although the abrupt ending clearly implied a sequel that would continue Jason's journey, it was never made. No clear reason has ever been given, but it is assumed to have been a combination of factors. The film was a box-office disappointment at the time — though not a failure — and effects creator Ray Harryhausen's fondness for older-style shows was beginning to seem outdated among 1960s younger audiences. By the time the film became a cult phenomenon, Harryhausen was too busy working on sequels to The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), so a Jason sequel quietly died.
- #012
Ray Harryhausen says the head of Talos coming to life and turning toward Hercules was inspired by a Japanese film, but he could never remember its name.
- #013
The film was a big hit in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. It was successful in Europe. For some reason, however, it did only moderate business in the United States, which eliminated any chance of a sequel being greenlit.
- #014
Bernard Herrmann's score makes free use of the technique known as "self-borrowing," which involves reusing elements from his earlier scores. He reused passages from the music of The Kentuckian (1955), Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953) and 5 Fingers (1952), and reworked passages from the scores of North by Northwest (1959), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and Vertigo (1958).
- #015
Early stages of story development included the twin sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis, a horse-man and the three-headed dog Cerberus.
- #016
The film's stunt director appears as one of the Olympic competitors. The archer is Andrew Faulds, who later became a Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom.
- #017
In casting Hercules, Ray Harryhausen stated that he wanted to avoid the Italian "muscleman" stereotype found in films of the period.
- #018
This is Bernard Herrmann's fourth collaboration with Ray Harryhausen. The others are The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960) and Mysterious Island (1961).
- #019
The giant Talos puppet is actually about 14 inches tall.
- #020
The premiere of this British/American film took place in the final years of Italian-made sword-and-sandal/mythological muscleman films. Most of those productions were about Jason. The most unusual thing for the time was the casting of British actor Nigel Green as Hercules. Despite being very tall, Green lacked the bodybuilder physique audiences were used to seeing in the character. The film may not have matched the scale of many European productions, but Ray Harryhausen's carefully crafted special effects gave it the look of a more expensive production and contributed to its box-office success.
- #021
Ray Harryhausen kept the seven skeletons from the film's finale; one of them was the same one used in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958).
- #022
Nancy Kovack, who played Medea, was dubbed by Eva Haddon, an actress known from BBC radio.
- #023
Composer Bernard Herrmann wrote the score without a string section. This lets the brass and percussion carry the heroic fanfares, while woodwinds and additional instruments (such as the harp) dominate the more delicate and romantic passages. Herrmann would later compose the score for Psycho (1960), which uses only strings and no woodwinds, percussion or brass.
- #024
According to a comment by Ray Harryhausen, there was a reason the film ends where it does. In the original legend Medea was a fully fledged witch, and after Jason obtained the fleece, Medea was abandoned by Jason on the next shore where the Argo stopped. Harryhausen stated that if this part of the story were included in the film, the audience would lose all sympathy for Jason.
- #025
Although Nancy Kovack is billed second in the opening sequence, she does not appear until the 66th minute of the 104-minute film.
- #026
Todd Armstrong, who played Jason, was dubbed by British actor Tim Turner.
- #027
Terence Stamp was considered for the role of Jason.
- #028
This was the seventh collaboration between Ray Harryhausen and producer Charles H. Schneer.
- #029
In the first press materials, Mario Nascimbene was listed in the credits as the film's composer. This was because Nascimbene was considered for the composing job in case Bernard Herrmann turned down the offer (which, as it later turned out, he did). In later interviews Nascimbene claimed he had never heard of the film (most likely meaning that Herrmann accepted the offer before Nascimbene could be approached). Nascimbene went on to compose the music for another Ray Harryhausen film, One Million Years B.C. (1966), also directed by Don Chaffey.
- #030
A comic book was made from this film: Dell Movie Classics #310. A still frame from the film was used for the cover image.
- #031
The armor of King Aeetes and his army has a distinctly Persian-Armenian look, which fits the period when ancient Colchis existed on the eastern shore of the Black Sea.
- #032
American actor John Crawford was dubbed by a British actor.
- #033
Nigel Green and Douglas Wilmer would later play Sir Denis Nayland Smith, the chief nemesis of Fu Manchu, in films starring Christopher Lee as the Chinese criminal mastermind: Wilmer in The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966) and The Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967).
- #034
In Greek mythology, Herakles is the Greek counterpart of the Roman name Hercules. And it is Herakles, not Jason, whose second Labor was to kill the Hydra.
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