Le Baccanti (aka The Bacchantes) (1961)

The kingdom of Thebes is suffering from a deadly drought which the prophet Tiresias (Akim Tamiroff) says it's because its king (Alberto Lupo) does not revere the god Dionysus (Pierre Brice). It is up to Thebes future queen (Taina Elg) to aid in resolving the situation. Loosely based on THE BACCHAE by Euripides and directed by Giorgio Ferroni (MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN). Serious scholars of Greek tragedy needn't bother but I'm inordinately fond of Italian sword and sandal epics also referred to as peplum. Blame it on my childhood! So I enjoyed this one much more than I should have. A trained dancer, Taina Elg had a brief Hollywood career from 1955 to 1959 but outside of LES GIRLS (1957), she was never used as a dancer. Here, in the movie's highlight, she gets to dance (the choreographer Herbert Ross would later direct such films as THE TURNING POINT and THE GOODBYE GIRL) an abandoned homage to the god Dionysus. With Alessandra Panaro and Raf Mattioli.