The Trojan Horse

This 1961 Italian-French peplum production is set during the tenth and final year of the Trojan War. Drawing loosely on the ancient Greek myth and the Iliad, it shifts the spotlight away from the Homeric heroes to the Trojan warrior Aeneas, building original adventures around him. Directed by Giorgio Ferroni, the film stars Steve Reeves as Aeneas and John Drew Barrymore as the cunning Odysseus. The story culminates with the ruse of the wooden horse and the fall of Troy. A typical example of the Italian sword-and-sandal epics of its era, the picture was followed in 1962 by a sequel continuing Aeneas's journey. In 2004 it was restored and screened at the Venice Film Festival as part of a retrospective devoted to the Italian kings of B cinema.