Helen of Troy

Helen of Troy is a 1956 adventure film set in the world of Greek myth. Paris, a prince of Troy, is sent on a diplomatic mission to Sparta, but a shipwreck leaves him stranded on the Greek coast, where Helen, the wife of King Menelaus, finds him and nurses him back to health. The two fall in love before Paris learns her identity. Their decision to flee together to Troy gives the Greek states the pretext they have been seeking, and a fleet sets out to bring Helen back, setting the Trojan War in motion.

The film was directed by Robert Wise, the fourth of the thirteen features he directed in the period covered here, arriving between Executive Suite and Somebody Up There Likes Me. The screenplay is by John Twist and Hugh Gray, and the large credited cast of twenty-four includes Rossana Podestà as Helen, Jacques Sernas as Paris, Cedric Hardwicke as Priam, Stanley Baker as Achilles, Niall MacGinnis as Menelaus and Nora Swinburne as Hecuba. A co-production between Italy and the United States, it runs just over two hours.

On IMDb the film holds a rating of 6.1 from around 2,900 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.3 from a much smaller base of 65 votes. The two figures are close, suggesting a broadly similar, middling reception from the audiences who have recorded an opinion, with the larger IMDb sample giving the steadier picture of how the film has been regarded over time.