CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY IN MUSIC, DANCE, AND FILM 749THE TROJAN WARIt may surprise all but the die-hard movie buff that many films inspired by
Greece and Rome were made between the years 1888 and 1918. We shall begin,
however, with Helen of Troy, produced by Warner Brothers in 1955, with Rossana
Podesta as Helen and a musical score by Max Steiner. This epic is lavish in its
production but, alas, weak in its script. Of a much lower caliber are two other
cinematic treatments: Steve Reeves as Aeneas in The Avenger, also titled Last
Glory of Troy; and Colossus and the Amazon Queen (1964), with Rod Taylor,
Dorian Gray, and Ed Fury, a tale about two veterans of the Trojan War and their
encounter with the Amazons; the main virtue of this romantic comedy is that
its humor is intentional.
ROMAN LEGENDGate of Hell (director, Hiroshi Inagaki, 1955) is a tragedy of a warrior's desire for
a married noblewoman set in twelfth-century Japan and based on the rape of
Lucrèce. It won an Academy Award for the best foreign film of 1954.
In a much lighter vein is Jupiter's Darling, starring Esther Williams and
Howard Keel and directed by George Sidney, an amusing musical about Han-
nibal based on Robert E. Sherwood's play Road to Rome. Equally mythological
is Roman Scandals. A fellow from Oklahoma (Eddie Cantor) dreams his way back
to an ancient Rome that enjoys Busby Berkeley musical numbers.
In addition to the Hollywood grand epics, countless movies of lesser stature
dealing with early legendary Rome are available, for example, Romulus and
Remus and Roger Moore in The Rape of the Sabines.
ULYSSES AND THE ODYSSEY
Ulysses (1954), an Italian film with English dialogue, has rightly received criti-
cal acclaim for its cinematic techniques and performances by Kirk Douglas (as
Ulysses) and Silvana Mangano, who offers haunting portrayals of both Penel-
ope and Circe. Viewers may judge for themselves the highly acclaimed Hall-
mark made-for-television movie The Odyssey (1997). For us it was a disappoint-
ment. Armand Assante set the tone by making the hero a bore; Bernadette Peters
as Circe played Bernadette Peters; beautiful Isabella Rossellini, who should have
been an ideal Athena, forgot she was a goddess and became the chum next door;
and so on. The great actress Irene Papas as Anticlea did her valiant best with
the banal script in these surroundings. Yet a very campy Hermes added a brief
moment of relief and some visual effects were impressive, for example, angry
Poseidon and the sea.
A contemporary, topical, and yet mystical reuse of the Odysseus' theme has
been made by the distinguished Greek director Theo Angelopoulos. In Ulysses'