Phaedre *** (1962, Melina Mercouri, Anthony Perkins, Raf Vallone) – Classic Movie Review 3540

Melina Mercouri makes a predictably commanding Phaedre, who, though married to powerful Greek shipowner Thanos (Raf Vallone), seduces her stepson Alexis (Anthony Perkins) in her husband Jules Dassin’s interesting but rather heavy-going, free 1962 movie adaptation of Euripedes’s Hippolytus. Phaedra falls in love with Alexis and their doomed love affair leads the family to tragedy.

With Jacques Natteau’s cinematography, it is handsomely filmed in black and white.

Dassin is writer (with Margarita Lymberaki), producer and director. It also stars Elizabeth Ercy, Tzavalas Karousos and Zorz Sarri as Ariadne. Theoni V Aldredge was nominated for an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White, and Mercouri was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress – Drama.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3540

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