Movies - The Long Ships

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	Movies - The Long Ships

The Long Ships is a 1963 Anglo-Yugoslavian English language film, released by Columbia Pictures and very loosely based on the Swedish novel The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson.

The story centers around an immense golden bell, called "The Mother of Voices," which may or may not exist. Moorish king Aly Mansuh is convinced that it does.

Having collected all the legendary material about it that he can, he is planning to mount an expedition to search for it. When the shipwrecked Norseman, Rolfe, repeats the story of the bell in the marketplace, and hints that he knows its location, he is seized by Mansuh's men and brought in for questioning. Rolfe insists that he does not know and that the bell is only a myth. He manages to escape before the questioning continues under torture.

Managing to return home, Rolfe claims to have found the bell and raises a crew to go on a Viking raid to get it. (In reality, his course is set by clues he gleaned from Mansuh.) With the ship damaged in a maelstrom, the Norse are cast ashore in Mansuh's country. Captured by the Moors, the Norse are forced to man the ship in Mansuh's quest for the bell.

The film takes a much less serious look at the era of Norse raiders than the popular 1958 motion picture The Vikings (starring Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis) for which Director Jack Cardiff had been director of photography.

Richard Widmark stars as Rolfe, the swashbuckling Viking: canny, agile, and utterly convincing as a conniving adventurer. His rather flip performance works quite well for a character who is never quite on the level.

Aly Mansuh, as portrayed by Sidney Poitier, displays a Shakespearean nobility, appropriate for a role that combines Othello and Captain Ahab.

The film co-stars Russ Tamblyn, Rosanna Schiaffino, and Oscar Homolka.

The cinematography is well done, not surprising considering director Cardiff's background, particularly the scenes in the Moorish city and when the ship is being rowed through the fjord. The score, by Dušan Radoć, is a memorable one.

While choosing any particular scene to focus on is a matter of taste, the opening sequence, wherein the legend of the bell is given, is filmed in an innovative style, using combined silhouettes and paintings under the narration. There is also a delicious moment when Mansuh and then Rolfe enter the ruin where they believe the bell is being kept.

It should be noted that the relationship between Mansuh (Poiter) and his wife Aminah (Schiaffino) is an early example of an interracial couple depicted on film.

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