Blu-ray Release: Phaedra

Blu-ray Release Date: March 21, 2017
Price: Blu-ray $17.33
Studio: Olive Films


Loosely based on the writings of Euripides, the 1962 drama Phaedra stars international screen sensation Melina Mercouri (Never on Sunday) in the title role of a woman, as the theatrical trailer announced, who “had everything … was queen … until destiny uprooted her world.”

Melina Mercouri and Anthony Perkins in Phaedra

Set against some of Europe’s most beautiful backdrops including Paris, London and Greece, Phaedra presents its classical mythological tropes in a modern setting, where the beautiful, moneyed and bored Phaedra will face the tragic results of a doomed love affair with her stepson, Alexis (Anthony Perkins, Psycho). Raf Vallone portrays Thanos, Phaedra’s Greek shipping magnate husband.

Directed by Mercouri’s hsuband Jules Dassin (Night and the City, Rififi) from a screenplay by Dassin and Margarita Liberaki (The Magic City), Phaedra features costume design by the Academy Award-winner Theoni V. Aldredge (Best Costume Design, The Great Gatsby – 1975) whose work in Phaedra was also nominated for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White – 1963.

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About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.