Helen of Troy (1956)
Helen of Troy (1956), directed by Robert Wise.
This is not one of the great epics. I review it because of a current Homer boom and it has some good talent: directed by Robert Wise, photographed by Harry Stradling Sr, music by the great Max Steiner.
In this telling Paris is a brave warrior as well as the world's greatest lover. The Greeks are no better than bandits.
The first half is wasted with a dopey meet-cute of Paris and Helen. He washes up on her beach, she pretends to be a slave girl. He has to box in the royal court to establish his bonafides. None of this is in Homer. Then they run away.
The second half has a quick siege of Troy and much chariot fighting. It looks like a cast of thousands. Giant siege towers with ramps look like the siege of Minas Tirith in The Return of the King.
We have an effective "march of doom" on the score as the Horse in pulled into the city. Then the sack of Troy with long lines of slaves quickly rounded up and led away.
Rossana Podestà is Helen, previously Nausicaa in Ulysses (1954). Oddly enough both characters rescued hunky men washed up on the beach.
Also: Cedric Hardwicke as Priam, Stanley Baker as Achilles, Niall MacGinnis as Menelaus, Robert Douglas as Agamemnon, Nora Swinburne as Hecuba, Torin Thatcher as Ulysses, Harry Andrews as Hector and Brigitte Bardot (age 22) as Andraste, slave to Helen.
Janette Scott is Cassandra, who no one wants to hear. I've paid attention to her career: School for Scoundrels (1960), Day of the Triffids (1962), Old Dark House, The (1963), Paranoiac (1963), Crack in the World (1965).
Notes:
The blonde Paris looks like the blonde Richard Burton in Alexander the Great (1956), another bad film from the same year.
True to Homer: Agamemnon takes Cassandra. Back home she will be murdered with him. Menelaus takes Helen back to Sparta. In the text, years later Telemachus will visit them when searching for his father. The unhappy couple spend the evenings smoking lotus, trying to forget.
Aeneas, prince of Troy, is a prominent character but I think he is mentioned only in passing in Homer. He is more prominent in Italy, so that makes sense.
I heard the Wilhelm Scream twice.
Yakima Canutt is a second unit director, wrangling those chariots I would imagine.
Raoul Walsh and Sergio Leone are uncredited second unit directors.
In a reversal of time Christopher Marlowe is quoted: "the face that launched a thousand ships" and "make me immortal with a kiss".
Photographed by Harry Stradling Sr:
Score by Max Steiner; too many essential films to list.
Filmed in CinemaScope 2.55:1.
Available on Blu-ray from Warner Archive. The image looks only fair to poor to me, much poorer than Ben Hur (1959).
