Rosalba Neri and Mark Forest in THE LION OF THEBES (1964)
A very solid PEPLUM in terms of action, entertainment and production. The story is purely speculative: Helen of Troy escapes the destruction of Troy only to end up in Thebes with her bodyguard/soldier, played by Forest. According to legend, Helen returned to Sparta to her husband Menelaus. So, this story definitely takes a whole different take on her story. Of course, Helen's appearance in Thebes causes a lot of turmoil amongst the elites there, including Rosalba's character. Everyone is after Helen and even if Arian (Forest) survives a near deadly snake attack during a wrestling match, no one is too concern about him even if he's the one that can cause maximum damage. PEPLUM stories often, not always, but often use this motif: the big hero is overlooked, to the detriment of the villains. When they do go after him, it's too late.
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I'll be posting just a couple of times this week before resuming full time next week!
There is an ancient Greek drama by Euripides in which Helen never went to Troy but was in Egypt for the duration of the Trojan War:
ReplyDeletehttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_(play)
The idea of Helen in Egypt has been told in an opera and in an H. Rider Haggard novel called The World's Desire.
ReplyDeleteIn fact quite a few ancient authors claim that Helen went to Egypt and never went to Troy. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_of_Troy#In_Egypt
ReplyDeleteA very beautiful image with excellent composition, many elements leading us to their eyeline. I like this film very much.
This off topic, but I don't see any other way to pass this on. There is a rare 35mm screening of HERCULES IN THE HAUNTED WORLD next week in Boston--Cambridge, to be exact: https://brattlefilm.org/movies/hercules-in-the-haunted-world/
ReplyDeleteI just posted about the showing of HERCULES IN THE HAUNTED WORLD in Boston.
ReplyDeleteYes, THE LION OF THEBES is a fine movie.
About Helen in Egypt...it's a legend!