screenshots / Helen of Troy / 1956 The Mirisch Corporation
screenshots / Helen of Troy / 1956 The Mirisch Corporation
"Beware the Greeks bearing gifts."
Directed by Robert Wise (The Day the Earth Stood Still), this epic based on Homer's Iliad and Odyssey claimed to have had a cast of some 30,000 people.
The film starred Rossana Podestą (Fury of the Pagans, Slave of Rome) as Queen Helen, and Jacques Sernas (Duel of Champions, The Slave) as Prince Paris.
Co-star Stanley Baker (Zulu) was later cast along with Rossana Podestą in 1963's Sodom and Gomorrah.
Some footage depicting the Greeks' assault on the walls of Troy would later be reused in the opening scenes of the 1963 Ray Harryhausen film Jason and the Argonauts.
Italy filming locations included Punta Ala, Castiglione della Pescaia, Grosseto, Tuscany and the Cinecittą Studios, Cinecittą, Rome, Lazio.
Rossana Podestą passed in 2013 at the age of 79.
Jacques Sernas passed in 2015 at the age of 89.
