Helen of Troy (1956) (Warner Archive Collection)

[MifuneFan]

Update: Warner has officially announced the Blu-ray for July 25th.

George Feltenstein of Warner Archive has just confirmed on the most recent podcast from The Extras, that Helen of Troy (1956) will be coming to Blu-ray later this year! It will be sourced from a new 4K scan, and restoration.

https://www.moviezyng.com/helen-of-t...a/810134941601

Special Features: 3 "BEHIND THE CAMERA" sequences from the Warner Bros. Presents TV series: 1) THE LOOK OF TROY 2) INTERVIEWING HELEN 3) SOUNDS OF HOMERIC TROY (6 min each) WB CARTOON:NAPOLEON BUNNY-PART (HD)

Arrows rain death. Soldiers clamber up stone walls. Swords clang, fires rage. Yet the waves of combatants storming Troy are repelled. To defeat the undefeatable ultimately requires brains more than brawn. So feigning retreat, the Greeks offer a gift: a mammoth wooden horse secretly housing their fighting men. Homer's Iliad surges to the screen in HELEN OF TROY, from the '50s heyday of big-screen spectaculars. Robert Wise directs this lavish epic capturing some 30,000 people onscreen at the then-huge cost of $6 million. Among the 30,000: Sir Cedric Hardwicke. Brigitte Bardot before her sex-symbol renown, and as the lovers at the conflict's center, Rosanna Podesta and Jack Sernas.

Helen Of Troy Trailer (1956) - YouTube

[dig311dug]

WB has been promoting this as one of 10 films receiving a massive restoration to celebrate their 100th anniversary; should be a regular WB release as a 4K... oh well.

[Dragon78]

Sounds like another one to add the collection.

[Jobla]

I first saw it in 1959 on the Warner reissue double-bill with LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. Have loved HELEN ever since, and it's still one of my top five favorite films.

Coincidently, there will be a new book published this August, entitled HELEN OF TROY IN HOLLYWOOD, a study of Helen-related films and TV shows. The author is Ruby Blondell (her name sounds more like a film noir dame, but she's a noted scholar of antiquity). She's been working on the book for more than ten years ("Ten Years in the Making!!!").

I like the poster that MifuneFan used to illustrate his post above. In fact, I like that poster so much that I paid 60 dollars for an original print of it of back in the 1990s at Eddie Brandt's Saturday Matinee in North Hollywood.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by Jobla

I like the poster that MifuneFan used to illustrate his post above. In fact, I like that poster so much that I paid 60 dollars for an original print of it of back in the 1990s at Eddie Brandt's Saturday Matinee in North Hollywood.

Nice. I was looking for a vintage poster to go with the post, and that was my favorite of the ones I found.

[Jobla]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

Nice. I was looking for a vintage poster to go with the post, and that was my favorite of the ones I found.

I thought it was the best-looking HELEN OF TROY poster that Eddie Brandt had at the time. Some of the posters were in B&W, which wasn't what I was looking for.

[MifuneFan]

Officially coming on July 25th!

https://www.moviezyng.com/helen-of-t...a/810134941601

Special Features: 3 "BEHIND THE CAMERA" sequences from the Warner Bros. Presents TV series: 1) THE LOOK OF TROY 2) INTERVIEWING HELEN 3) SOUNDS OF HOMERIC TROY (6 min each) WB CARTOON:NAPOLEON BUNNY-PART (HD)

[Dragon78]

Wow, way to many things are coming out around July 25th.

[CinemaScope]

Originally Posted by Jobla

I first saw it in 1959 on the Warner reissue double-bill with LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. Have loved HELEN ever since, and it's still one of my top five favorite films.

God, I would have loved to have seen that double-bill. I was 8/9 year old then, maybe it wasn't released in the UK. Anyway, both of them given the restored Archive treatment on Blu-ray. Fantastic!

[Jobla]

Originally Posted by CinemaScope

God, I would have loved to have seen that double-bill. I was 8/9 year old then, maybe it wasn't released in the UK. Anyway, both of them given the restored Archive treatment on Blu-ray. Fantastic!

In the summer of 1959, I was six and a half years old, and fell in love with HELEN OF TROY.

In the 1990s, when HELEN OF TROY came out on VHS and laserdisc, I spoke briefly with Robert Wise. He mentioned that directors Martin Scorsese and Oliver Stone had both told him that they admired the film upon seeing it as youngsters.

[Alhlan Ain Ajeeba]

2 days after release date,where are the reviews for the disc?

[Sinbad75]

Originally Posted by Alhlan Ain Ajeeba

2 days after release date,where are the reviews for the disc?

If our reviewers ordered from Amazon we won't be seeing it or hearing from them until late August!

[Jobla]

My copy from Amazon is "out for delivery" today, reportedly.

[The Admiral]

Mine will be delivered tomorrow morning. I'll give it a quick spin when it does and will report back.

[Sinbad75]

Mine will be delivered on 25 August!

[Jobla]

I'm letting the Blu-ray play as I type this. I'm now 40 minutes into the film, and to me, the color looks much better than I expected. The colors are even brighter than the recent TCM telecast.

The film still doesn't "look like it was filmed yesterday," but the colors are much more vivid than I've ever seen on TV or home video. I hope the rest of the transfer remains on this level.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by Sinbad75

Mine will be delivered on 25 August!

MovieZyng has it in stock now if you want it sooner

https://www.moviezyng.com/helen-of-t...a/810134941601

[Alhlan Ain Ajeeba]

Originally Posted by Sinbad75

If our reviewers ordered from Amazon we won't be seeing it or hearing from them until late August!

I dont believe that for a second.I ordered my copy yesterday from amazon. Im overseas,and it shipped today!

[ewsjr]

So just got and watched this. I was two when it came out and probably 8-9 when I first saw it (I was a sword/sandal-biblical epic junkie). Hadn't seen it since (I'm 69 now) and enjoyed it for a film of that era (Stanley Baker as Achilles was strange but a young Bridgette Bardot was an eyeful). Sadly, it seems a bit soft, even the close-ups and focus in a lot of wide shots with many actors seems off. Tried it in both my UB9000 and Oppo 203 and images looked the same. Could just be my old eyes but still enjoyed it and was surprised it had an overture of Steiner's score which hadn't been there when I first saw it. Interested to read other's impressions.

[The Admiral]

I'm no expert and certainly don't pretend to be one, but this looks quite good to my eyes (projected onto a 165" screen) for a 1956 Cinemascope movie. It is most definitely not as sharp as we can sometimes be used to these days but it is certainly in line with most other Cinemascope movies of those years that I have seen. Optical shots (including scene transitions) do take a hit (sometimes serious) when it comes to sharpness -as is to be expected- but most other shots looked well detailed and well defined to me. Colours are perhaps a bit less vivid than I anticipated them to be, but at least they don't "pop", which I wouldn't have expected nor wanted them to. I noticed a bit of ringing around edges on a number of optical shots but again, that is not something I wouldn't have anticipated. It's nothing major anyway. Overall I am very very happy, I have to be honest. My old trusty DVD can now enjoy its retirement. Now Warner, please bring on The Prodigal, Knights of the Round Table and Julius Caesar soon. And then I'll be happy.