Helen of Troy
Tags: violence

Plot synopsis:
The film retells the story of the Trojan War in In 1100 B.C., albeit with some major changes from the Iliad's storyline: Paris of Troy (Jacques Sernas) sails to Sparta to secure a peace treaty between the two powerful city-states. His ship is forced to return to Troy in a storm after he has been swept overboard on the shore of Sparta. Paris is found by Helen, Queen of Sparta (Rossana Podestà), with whom he falls in love. He goes to the palace where he finds Helen's husband, King Menelaus (Niall MacGinnis), Agamemnon (Robert Douglas), Odysseus (Torin Thatcher), Achilles (Stanley Baker) and many other Greek kings debating whether to go to war with Troy. Menelaus, who is denied by Helen, sees that his wife and Paris are in love and, pretending friendship, plots Paris' death.
Warned by Helen, Paris flees and, after they are both nearly caught by the Spartans, takes Helen with him to Troy. Under the pretense of helping Menelaus regain his honor, the Greeks unite, and the siege of Troy begins. Much blood is shed in the long ordeal, with the Trojans blaming their plight on Paris and Helen until it turns out that the Greeks are solely after Troy's riches, not Helen. The siege culminates in Greek victory through the ruse of the legendary Trojan Horse. While trying to flee, Helen and Paris are cornered by Menelaus. Paris faces the Spartan king in single combat, but just as he wins the upper hand he is stabbed from behind, denying him a fair trial by arms. Helen is forced to return with Menelaus, but she is serene in the knowledge that in death she will be reunited with Paris in Elysium.

Review: This film is well-scripted (it's based on Homer and neither substracts nor adds to his basic plot - except for the Gods, which are mentioned but never seen, which makes it a modern secular version of the Iliad), well-acted by some very impressive British actors, superbly constructed (art direction, photography, costumes, period research, choreography) and creates a lasting impression.
Robert Wise, besides being the director of The Day the Earth Stood Still, West Side Story and The Sound of Music started his career as the editor of Citizen Kane and it is his input in the editing (vibrant, energetic, kinetic, masculine) that makes this movie a real winner and actually brings life to the giant vistas of this classic and tragic fairy tale/war movie/love story.
HELEN OF TROY as directed by craftsman Robert Wise is very pleasingly made and with excellent action and spectacle - especially in the well populated fiery siege scenes.
All the elements of a magnificent spectacle exist in Homer's work - a lavish and decadent court life, the tension of the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon, the most beautiful woman in Greece, and a drama of love and seduction...Thousands of weapons are used: spears, bows, arrows, body armor, helmets, shields, maces and ships of the period l200 B.C., plus a tremendous wooden horse...Paris, on a diplomatic mission to Sparta to arrange peaceful trade, is washed up on the Spartan shore after being shipwrecked during a storm...
The lovers make their way to Troy...From that point the spectacular elements - the massing of the ships and men, and the battles outside the walls of Troy, take over...Rossana Podesta - a natural brunette given a blonde wig and the classical Grecian look - plays Helen, the indirect cause of the Trojan War, but for Paris, she is the goddess of love and beauty, "Aphrodite."Jacques Sernas plays Paris...
He is the chief warrior of the Trojan army...Niall MacGinnis is the furious Menelaus, King of Sparta, who calls on his brother Agamemnon to gather an army and avenge the mark of shame...Torin Thatcher is Ulysses, king of Ithaca, the man of outstanding wisdom...Sir Cedric Hardwicke is the powerless but kindly King of Troy...Janette Scott is Cassandra, daughter of Priam, loved by the goddess Athena...
With a great spirit of prophecy she warns her father to burn the wooden horse...Robert Wise makes a brave attempt to marry the intimate with the spectacular - a difficult task - but "Helen of Troy" is an epic movie, a superior entertainment filmed in CinemaScope and Technicolor...
As a fan of Greek Mythogy, Helen of Troy is the closest I've seen reenactment of the Trojan War. Under the Direction of Director Robert Wise, this is a well produced version in telling the story.As most people know the ending it was still sad, they had it made, but the advice given by Helen "Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts", was ignored and thus the downfall of the City of Troy.All in all I did enjoy this version, I don't think anyone else will disagree.
While the greedy Greeks plot to invade Troy to steal the treasures of the Trojans, Prince Paris (Jack Sernas) is assigned by his wise father and King of Troy to travel to Sparta and shows the peaceful intentions of his people.
The underrated "Helen of Troy" is an engaging romantic adventure with a wonderful version of Homer's epic poem "The Iliad".
Spectacular and Hollywood style renditíon based on Troy war with splendid cast and breathtaking battle scenes.When París : Jacques Sernas escapes with Helen : Rosana Podesta there takes place the Troy war.
This event lead to the Siege of Troy.Director Robert Wise picked two new Italian stars: Sernas and Podesta to play the íntimate lovers in this impressive as well as epic tale based on the known poem written by Homero: Iliada.
As Greek warriors under command of Menelaus , Agamenon , Ulysses , and Achilles : Stanley Baker get to hide out in the Trojan horse when they take the Wooden Beast into the Troy city and they are successful.This monumental and epic retelling contains a moving love story , Drama, tragic events , and overwhelming battles with a cast of thousands.
The picture ignores true deeds for lavish and high budgeted effects, including a great number of extras and a lot of war machines.In the movie shows up numerous historical and mythological roles as Priamo: Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Hecuba well played by Nora Swinburne , Agamemmon performed by Robert Douglas , as Menelaus interpreted by Neal MacGuinnis , Ulysses : Torin Thatcher, Hector : Harry Andrews , Achilles: Stanley Baker , Cassandra : Janette Scott , Ajax : Maxwell Reed , Patroclus : Terence Longdon , among others.This events about Troy war have been adapted on various films : Silent movie titled The Private life of Helen of Troy by Michael Curtiz 1927 with Maria Corda , Lewis Stone ; Italian versión 1962 by Giorgio Ferroni with Steve Reeves , Juliette Mayniel, Lidia Alfonsi, Mimmo Palmara; Italian recounting titled Fury of Achilles by Marino Girolami with Gordon Mitchell , Jacques Bergerac , Gloria Milland , Ennio Girolami and Troy by Wolfgang Petersen, with Brad Pitt, Diana Kruger, Rose Byrne , Orlando Bloom , Brian Cox. And a TV series 2003 by John Kent Harrison with Matthew Mardsen , Sienna Guilery, Rufus Sewell , Joe Montana,Daniel La Pine, James Callis , and Katie Blake as Cassandra..
Most of the cast were British, so Lithuanian actor Jacques Sernas, Italian Rossana Podesta, and French Brigitte Bardot's voices were carefully dubbed to avoid annoying and inexplicable variance in pronunciation which could have been a major flaw as in other films such as "The Vikings" and "Spartacus".This was a believable,realistic treatment with authentic period sets actually modeled after the palace at Knossos.
Contrast this convincing Greek-styled seemingly hand-hewn wooden horse carrying a shield with the emblem of Athena to the origami version in "The Trojan Horse", the rag and barrel dog-like travesty in "Troy" or the unbelievable extravagantly elaborate cast-metal object in the TV miniseries and you can see this for yourself.When Helen is forcibly taken back by the Greeks her only solace is in knowing that her love for Paris will never die and indeed it hasn't: their legend is immortal..
This is an impersonal movie,coming from someone as talented as Robert Wise ,who seems less comfortable in the sword and sandal genre than he is in the musicals ("West Side Story" ),the fantasy and horror movies ("The haunting" 1963!)or mainly the film noir ("odd against tomorrow" "I want To live" "the set up").He is not helped by an heterogeneous cast including Italian Rossana Podesta (Wise found her in Fernandez's "La Red"(1954) in which she played half-naked most of the time:so the part was tailor made for her),French Jacques Sernas (and a brunette Brigitte Bardot in the priceless part of a devoted slave),English Stanley Baker as Achilles ,as tradition as it,as far co-productions are concerned.That said,Wise's Troy is certainly smarter than the 2003 version which had Achilles die during the storming of the city,just because star Brad Pit needed a longer part.The judgment of Pâris,which was passed over in the modern version,is also absent ,but the screenwriters found an interesting counterpart with the statues of the goddesses.Generally the Spartians look nasty,sinister-looking whereas the Troyans are good-looking,loyal,brave and virtuous.Best performance,IMHO,comes from Janette Scott as Cassandra who plays her game well in an underwritten part.Lavish film sets , good battles scenes and a story closer to Homer than the 2003 version ..
The story, familiar to many, is simple: Trojan Prince Paris and the lovely Helen of Sparta, wife of King Menelaus, fall in love and flee to Troy - an impregnable coastal fortress-city.
Sernas and Podesta are great, but it's the supporting cast-including not only Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Stanley Baker, Niall MacGinnis, so many others, and even Brigitte Bardot in her first major screen appearance-who really ice it; there's even Desmond Llewelyn, known to future generations as the first and only true Q from James Bond!
The first half of the film deals with the Spartan argument, (Homer's epic doesn't start until 75 minutes into the film,) Achilles (Stanley Baker) making an impressing entry, with Brigitte Bardot as Helen's slave girl who is given for the night to Paris by Menelaos but instead helps him escape - she is only 22 but striking - you recognize her figure before you see her face.
Jacques Sernas (totally unknown to me) is the perfect Paris, a beautiful young man of great charm, sympathetic intelligence and audacious insolence, and Rossana Podestà (also unknown to me) is a very credible Helena, masking her real identity to get away with Paris from Menelaos.Among the Trojans, Cedric Hardwicke makes a very plausible Priam, he is given the most famous quote of the Trojan war, taking Helen round her chin: "So this is the face that launched a thousand ships," (Christopher Marlowe), and also Nora Swinburne as Hecuba, Ronald Lewis as Aeneas and Janette Scott as Cassandra, a Trojan parallel to Brigitte Bardot.
Only Hector is not quite convincing, Harry Andrews being the wrong type, (Eric Bana is the better compensation in the 2004 Wolfgang Peterson version), and all the battle scenes are dramatically violent and bloody enough.The action is swift and never dull, the dialogue is comfortably fluent all the way, the story is well but not exaggeratedly sugared with romanticism, and to all this comes Max Steiner's glorious music, culminating in the orgy of the wooden horse.Of course, you have to make a comparison with the 2004 "Troy" version.
But of all the film versions, I think Robert Wise, with his concise and clever editing of the story, with its flamboyantly efficient story-telling (it's less than 2 hours,) and exciting virtuosity constituting an excellent epic for all time, has made the best of it..
After the innovative style of his EXECUTIVE SUITE in the mid 1950s, he takes time and effort to film 'all the storied wonders of Homer's immortal 'Iliad' and all the gloried moments of its inspired romance,' as HELEN OF TROY trailer announced...
Therefore, the first and the most significant 'wounder' of this film is the love story of Prince Paris (Jacques Sernas) and Helen (Rossana Podesta).
HELEN OF TROY does not commit that 'sin.' Starting with Sir Cedric Hardwicke who beautifully portrays the good hearted and kind ruling Priam, through yet to come sex symbol Brigitte Bardot as Andraste, Stanley Baker as the brave warrior Achilles, Nora Swinburne as subtle and delicate Hecuba, Harry Andrews as good hearted Hector to Niall MacGinnis as cruel and wretched Menelaus.
I hereby refer to the monumental depiction of the siege of Troy with crowds of extras (more than 30,000), the lavish sets built in the Cinecitta Studios near Rome, the sea storm that brings Paris to the shore of Aphrodite, the lustful bacchanalia scene when the Trojan horse has just been brought within the city walls...The bacchanalia moment requires special attention as a very daring yet a tasteful depiction...
I missed the opening and didn't know all the time that I enjoyed a movie by Robert Wise, who tells us about Helen of Troy, who actually was the wife of an unloved Greek King, who took of cause the chance to follow a young good looking fellow to the town of Troy, which is the said reason for a 10 year long war that is told us from ancient times by Homer.
Now first of i am not a fan of Greek stories the only ones that i like is this one , Walt Disney's Hercules; and Pompeii.Beginning with this movie i was going into it with the intention of hating it.But boy did this one surprise me.I didn't even catch on that this is the story of the Trojan horse i realized it first when the wooden horse showed up on the screen.That aside the love story that's inter wined is perfect Rosanna podesta and Jack sernas was a perfect cast even though their voices were dubbed seeing that both of them are french.That aside this is remarkable movie.Give it a try and you will fall in love..
I've yet to see the story of the Trojan war done true justice on the screen; Wolfgang Petersen's TROY was the most recent and most lavish version of the tale, full of CGI-enhanced spectacle, and probably my favourite to date, but it was far from a perfect film.
HELEN OF TROY, a Robert Wise-directed retelling of the story, isn't bad, but it's a film which has dated in the worst way with a lot of stagy Hollywood actors pacing around and delivering their lines in the most old-fashioned way imaginable.The story is one we all know by now: Paris kidnaps Helen from the Greeks and takes her back to Troy, leading King Agamemnon to set sail with a massive army to get her back.
Big budget Hollywood epic at its best (although made in Italy), and directed by one of Hollywood's greats, Robert Wise (noted for The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Desert Rats, Somebody up there likes me, Westside Story and many others), this production shows what could be done, back in the fifties when there was still money enough to splurge.
Oh, yeah  the great battle scenes too...The story follows the usual myth: Paris (Jacques Sernas) is shipwrecked when on his way to Sparta to get a peace treaty with nasty king Menelaus (Niall MacGinnis).
Compared to such epics as Cleopatra (1963), The Ten Commandments (1956), Helen of Troy stacks up as an equally good romantic classic.I've seen the more recent Troy (2004) but that is a very different take on the battle for Troy; it's more a story about Achilles than it is about Helen and Paris.
Only Menelaus in this film is portrayed as a complete chump The intervention of Aphrodite/Venus into his his marriage and the fact that in Homer, though not as skilled and renowned a warrior as Achilles, Ajax,Ulysses and others on the Greek side he is brave and noble unlike the weasel Paris in the story who is constantly berated by family and Helen for his less than stellar participation in the war.
For those who haven't read the Iliad or know the real story behind the Trojan War, they will probably never realize that Paris is NOT the main hero or character of the story, though he does play an important role, for it was his act of abducting Helen that started the war - but the other Greeks, such as Achilles, Agammemnon, and Trojans like Hector.However, this film portrays the Greeks in a rather negative light - as boozy, two-timing cheats who go back on their promises, and gives all credit to Trojans as a peace-loving cultured nation.
Cedric Hardwicke is appropriately dignified as Priam, Niall MacGinnis a standout as Menelaus, and there are good bits from other actors, but the most impressive parts of the film are concerned with the spectacle of the assaults on Troy.Wise lets out all the stops for the battles, which achieve a genuine power, despite being rather tame by modern standards (though watch for a few surprising parallels with some of the assault on Minas Tirith in "Return of the King").
In ancient Greece, handsome Trojan prince Jacques Sernas (as Paris) is shipwrecked in Sparta, where he meets beautifully-figured slave girl Rossana Podesta (as Helen).
It is interesting to see future "sex kitten" Brigitte Bardot play a dark-haired handmaiden, and Niall MacGinnis (as Menelaus) does well in his supporting role.**** Helen of Troy (1/26/56) Robert Wise ~ Rossana Podesta, Jacques Sernas, Niall MacGinnis, Brigitte Bardot.
Homer's characters are there but the story has little to do with his version of the Troyan war as narrated in The Iliad.That aside, "Helen of Troy" stands as an enjoyable and entertaining ancient Greece adventure due mainly to spectacular battle scenes, wide open sceneries, lots of extras, adequate armours and costumes, carefully designed interior settings, a fine musical score and acceptable acting.
You always have the feeling that producers didn't try to save money on this movie and director Robert was "Wise" enough to understand that long duration is not what makes an spectacular epic film.The main couple, Paris (Jack Sernas)and Helen (Rossana Podesta), deliver standard performances and though both of them may have the "phisique du rol" for their characters, you come to understand why none of them quite reached stardom.
A very young Brigitte Bardot is also around in one of her first appearances on screen.The single combat between Achilles and Hector is very well handled and a highlight in the picture.In all, if you don't take "Helen of Troy" as a version of Homer's Iliad but just as an action/adventure/romance film in ancient times, you'll find it most enjoying and entertaining.
An Interesting Interpretation of the Trojan War. As most people probably know from reading the Iliad by Homer, "Helen" (Rossana Podesta) was the most beautiful woman in the world and happened to be married to "King Menelaus" (Niall MacGinnis) of Sparta.
"Paris" (Jacques Sernas) was a Trojan prince who got shipwrecked near Sparta and upon seeing Helen fell in love and then managed to take her back to Troy with him.
In this film, you can catch other celebrated actors hamming it up in crowns and togas - Sir Cedric Hardwicke portrays King Priam, Nial MacGinnis plays the imperious and possessive Menelaus, Janette Scott plays the blind, mad prophetess Cassandra, whose predictions of the fall of Troy are ultimately fulfilled, and Brigitte Bardot, who would later rise as a sexy and charismatic actress in the 60's and 70's, plays Helen's slave girl Andraste.
No, the story of the Trojan War is much more tragic than that because when Paris loses Helen it is because he is killed and she is dragged back to Greece to once again become a slave to Menelaus.