The Ogre of Athens (1956)

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

What an amazing film. I must admit that I haven't seen many of the Great Greek films, but out of ones I have seen this is by far the best. The music is truly outstanding and adds more tension to the carefully shot scenes of the film. Eliopoulos is superb as the "Drakos". He gives the best performance I have seen from a Greek actor (havent seen many of the Horn movies though). Besides the very good story, which would stand fine on its own, there are some very political and allegoric messages allover the film which give an extra depth to the film. Also, some of the scenes are mesmerizing (ie the scene in the beginning of the film and at the end). I would definitely recommend this film to Greeks and foreign people as well.

This is the first Greek film of that "Artistic" nature, that years later would almost destroy the Greek cinema. But in the 50's it was a great novelty for the local production. On a first level, it's talking about the story of a little man who is tiered of being this little man and decides that he 'd rather have the short but glorious life of a famous criminal. His borrowed reputation, soon gets him the tragic but exceptional end that he almost is wishing for. Still, this is not really a crime movie! It's a political film, made in a time when this was not permited by the authorities. The wounds from the wars that passed, the 2nd world war and the Greek civil war (a taboo topic at the time), are obvious to the viewer with eyes open. The poverty that dooms the life of the nation and the influence of the USA in Greece, not by their model of life but with their unethical, political involvements, is underlined with the only way that it was possible for the Greek cinema of the time! A beautiful, lyrical tragedy, with a message to read between the lines.

One of the best comments about the human society and its madness for fame ever made. A pathetic and frightened, peaceful man because of his similar face with a famous and wanted criminal, "the dragon", gives up his normal but misery life in order to become at last a famous person. He becomes the leader of a criminal group (that they think him as "the dragon") in a great and ambitious operation. He also falls in love with a young and beautiful singer of the bar that is the center of this criminal group; but unfortunatelly she cannot understand the tragic emotional situation of this man. But after a while he is identified not to be "the dragon" by the members of this group and one of them in his anger, murders him. The scene of his death, with Dinos Iliopoulos (he plays this person) walking in the cold of Athens, bleeding and finally fall dead next to the rollway lines is one of the most sentimental scenes i have ever seen. The film shows how a person in order to escape from his miserable way of life and its daily awful routine he prefers to be thought as a criminal in order to be important for once in his life. It also shows the full of poverty and sadness small neighbours of a big city (Athens) and the misery that rounds every person living in a city like this. It shows the way from a poor and anxious life to a life full of deadly illussions that they finally lead to death. One of the best european films of the 1950 decade.