The Long Ships (1963 film)
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| The Long Ships | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover |
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| Directed by | Jack Cardiff |
| Produced by | Irving Allen |
| Written by | Frans G. Bengtsson Beverley Cross Berkely Mather |
| Starring | Richard Widmark Sidney Poitier Russ Tamblyn |
| Music by | Dusan Radic |
| Cinematography | Christopher Challis |
| Editing by | Geoffrey Foot |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | March 25, 1964 |
| Running time | 126 mins |
| Country |  United Kingdom Yugoslavia |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Long Ships is a 1963 British-Yugoslavian adventure film directed by Jack Cardiff and based on the Swedish novel The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson.
[edit] Plot
The story centers on an immense golden bell, called "The Mother of Voices," which may or may not exist. Moorish king Aly Mansuh (Sidney Poitier) 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 (Richard Widmark), 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 relationship between Mansuh (Poiter) and his wife Aminah (Rosana Schiaffino) is an early example of an interracial couple depicted on film.
