| gross = $840,000 (UK){{cite magazine|title=Billings This Year Set Col Int'l Record|magazine=Daily Variety|date=9 June 1964|page=1}}
$1,930,000 (US/ Canada rentals){{cite magazine|title=Big Rental Pictures of 1964|magazine=Variety|date=6 January 1965|page=39}}

}}

The Long Ships is a 1964 Anglo–Yugoslav adventure film shot in Technirama directed by Jack Cardiff and starring Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier, Russ Tamblyn and Rosanna Schiaffino.{{cite web|work=The New York Times|title=The Long Ships (1963) Screen: 'The Long Ships':Widmark and Poitier in Viking Adventure|first=Howard|last=Thompson|date=25 June 1964|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F02E4DF163DE13ABC4D51DFB066838F679EDE}}

Plot

The story centres on an immense golden bell named 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 plans to mount an expedition to search for it. When a 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 more than the legend itself and that the bell is most likely only a myth. He manages to escape by jumping through a window before the questioning continues under torture.

After swimming back to return home, Rolfe reveals to his father Krok and his brother Orm that he did indeed hear the bell pealing on the night his ship was wrecked in Africa. However, Rolfe's father has been made destitute after spending a fortune building a funeral ship for the Danish king, Harald Bluetooth, who then refuses to reimburse him by citing an outstanding debt. Rationalising that the ship does not yet belong to Harald (since he is still living), Rolfe and Orm not only steal the ship, but hire a number of inebriated Vikings to serve as its crew. In order to prevent Harald from killing his father in revenge for the theft, he also takes the king's daughter as a hostage. Harald declares that he will summon every longship he can find and rescue her.

Since the ship was intended as a funeral ship, the crew begins to get superstitious and demands to return home. Rolfe asks the ship's captain what's the way to sway the bad luck off them, and he states that a maiden must be sacrificed to the gods. He pretends to do so (he kills a sheep instead) and later reveals the trick to Orm. After prolonged difficulties at sea, the ship is damaged in a maelstrom, and the Norse are cast ashore in a Moorish shore. After getting attacked and captured by the Moors, the Norse are condemned to execution, where Mansuh reencounters Rolfe and again demands to know where the Mother of Voices is. Mansuh's favourite wife Aminah convinces her husband to use them and their longship to retrieve the bell. After they sail to the Pillars of Hercules, Rolfe and Mansuh find only a domed chapel with a small bronze bell where the Viking was certain he had heard the Mother of Voices. Frustrated, Rolfe throws the hanging bell against a wall, and the resounding cacophony reveals that the chapel dome itself is the disguised Mother of Voices.

After a costly misadventure topples the Mother of Voices from its clifftop down to the sea, the expedition finally returns to the Moorish city, Aly Mansuh triumphantly riding through the streets with the bell in tow. However, King Harald and his men, including Krok, out to rescue the princess, have since conquered the city, and upon Aly Mansuh's arrival they leap out of hiding. The climactic battle ensues, and ends when the bell falls over and crushes Aly Mansuh; the Moors are defeated and the Vikings victorious. The film ends with Rolfe trying his best to persuade King Harald to mount another expedition for the "three crowns of the Saxon kings", much to Krok's amusement.

Cast

{{castlist|

Richard Widmark as Rolfe
Sidney Poitier as King Aly Mansuh
Russ Tamblyn as Orm
Rosanna Schiaffino as Aminah
Oskar Homolka as Krok
Edward Judd as Sven
Lionel Jeffries as Aziz
Beba Lončar as Gerda
Clifford Evans as King Harald
Gordon Jackson as Vahlin
Colin Blakely as Rhykka
David Lodge as Olla
Henry Oscar as Auctioneer
Paul Stassino as Raschid
Jeanne Moody as Ylva

}}

Background

The film was very loosely based on the two volume Swedish novel The Long Ships (1941 and 1945) by Frans G. Bengtsson, retaining little more than the title (of the English translation) and the Moorish settings of Orm's first voyage. Although the protagonist is named Rolfe, the film was released in Sweden with the title Röde Orm och de långa skeppen (Red Orm and the Long Ships), in a further attempt to exploit the popularity of the novel. It was also intended to capitalise on the success of recent Viking and Moorish dramas such as The Vikings (1958) and El Cid (1961) and was later followed by Alfred the Great (1969).

Devel9pment

Bruce Geller wrote the first draft of the script in 1959.{{cite news|title=BRITANNICA PLANS CLASSROOM FILMS: Ford Fund Grant Will Enable Encyclopaedia to Produce 140 Movies on Humanities|author=HOWARD THOMPSON|work=New York Times|date=13 June 1959|page=12}} In April 1959 Irving Allen announced he would make it for a budget of £2 million (US$5.6 million) through his company with Albert Broccoli, Warwick Films.{{cite news|title=NOTED ON THE BRITISH MOVIE SCENE: Industry Irked by Tax -- Producers' Views -- Censors -- Debut|author=STEPHEN WATTS |work=New York Times|date=26 April 1959|page=X7}} That year the Yugoslav government pledged money for the production.{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/variety213-1959-02/page/n234/mode/1up?|magazine=Variety|date=25 February 1959|title=$3,000,000 Warwick pic to get Yugoslav money|page=11}}

In October 1959 Albert Broccoli said "We are in disagreement with our distributors, Columbia, over the casting. They want star names in the lead we think it's a subject strong enough to carry unknowns."{{cite magazine|magazine=Kine Weekly|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_kinematograph-weekly_1959-10-15_509_2715/page/21/mode/1up?|date=15 October 1959|title=Production|first=Bill|last=Edwards|page=21}}

The film was originally meant to be directed by José Ferrer, who had made The Cockleshell Heroes for Irwin Allen. Ferrer said he was looking for "a Burt Lancaster type and a Tony Curtis type and two girls" for the lead. He was not intending to act in the film.{{cite news|title=NOTED ON BRITAIN'S SCREEN SCENE: 'Stage' Men Success Story Torrid 'Toreador' 'Sparrers' Film Fledgling|author=STEPHEN WATTS|work=New York Times|date=20 May 1962|page=X7}}

Ferrer eventually dropped out and was replaced by Jack Cardiff who had been cinematographer on The Vikings (1958); Richard Widmark was signed to star.{{cite news|title=Sovietand Brazilian Filmmakers Discuss Techniques at Festival|author=MURRAY SCHUMACH|work=New York Times|date=3 November 1962|page=15}}

In June 1960 Warwick announced it would not make films through major studios but would produce and distribute films itself with a slate of pictures worth $8 million a year: "three big films a year" plus eight others which it would finance through Eros (that would cost an estimated $3 million all up). Warwick's first new film would be The Long Ships, a $3.5 million spectacle, following by The Hellions. Both would be shot in Yugoslavia.{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_variety_1960-06-29_219_5/page/n2/mode/1up?|date=29 June 1960|title=Broccoli-Allen self-financing|page=3, 26}} (The Hellions wound up being filed in South Africa.)

George Peppard claimed he turned down a lead role despite a fee of $200,000 because he did not want to spend six months in Yugoslavia.{{cite news|title=Entertainment: Peppard's Weary of Working Abroad Actor Enjoyed 'The Victors' but Now Prefers Hollywood|author=Hopper, Hedda|work=Los Angeles Times|date=26 Dec 1962|page=D11}}

"It is obvious that Tito's government is anxious to see more and more foreign filmmakers come to Yugoslavia", said Allen. "And of course it is also in the best interests of the American and British governments to encourage anything that improves Yugoslavia's financial independence from the Soviet bloc. I'm sure Belgrade will soon catch up with London and Rome."{{cite news|title=Bernhardt to Direct Film Here for Son: MacMurray Will Star in It; Rita Tushingham With Finch|author=Scheuer, Philip K.|work=Los Angeles Times|date=2 April 1963|page=C11}}

Production

Filming took place on Avala Hill.{{cite news|title=YUGOSLAV LOCALE FITS VIKING MOVIE: Terrain and Local Extras Aid 3-Nation Venture|author=DAVID BINDER|work=New York Times|date=2 June 1963|page=82}}

Jack Cardiff recalled "It turned out to be more of a comedy picture after all because you can’t really take those sort of things too seriously. I think if it had been done in the right way with big tough Norwegians, it would have made all the difference. But when you’ve got a mixed cast it never quite rings as it should do.”{{cite book|page=125|title= The stories behind the scenes of the great film epics|last=Munn|first= Michael |year=1982}}

Michael Reeves, future film director, worked on the movie as a runner.

The American Legion condemned the production of the film – along with another Hollywood financed film shot in Yugoslavia, Lancelot and Guinevere – as "immoral, deceptive, unethical and detrimental to the best interests of the United States and the free world."{{cite news|title=Asks Probe of Red Influence in Hollywood: American Legion Seeks Inquiry by Congress|work=Chicago Tribune|date=12 Sep 1963|page=b4}}

"It wasn't a happy time", said Widmark of the shoot.{{cite news|title=Looking at Hollywood: Widmark Mum on 6 Months in Yugoslavia|author=Hopper, Hedda|work=Chicago Tribune|date=24 Sep 1963|page=b1}}

Reception

The film performed very well in the United Kingdom, grossing $840,000. It was among the ten most popular films of the year at the British box office in 1964.{{cite magazine| url=https://archive.org/details/KineWeekly2985/page/n6/mode/1up?q=%22john+guillermin%22|magazine=Kinematograph Weekly|title=The Box Office Winners of 1964|date=17 Dec 1964|page=8}}

In the US and Canada it earned rentals of $1,930,000.

Awards

Nominee Best Costume Design – BAFTA (Anthony Mendleson)

Trivia

The sets for the film were recycled by the 1965 Swedish adventure film Här kommer bärsärkarna.{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059295/trivia/?ref_=tt_dyk_trv |title=Här kommer bärsärkarna (1965) - Trivia - IMDb |language=en-US |access-date=2025-03-28 |via=www.imdb.com}}

References

External links

{{IMDb title|id=0057259|title=The Long Ships}}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20111213231417/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,875923,00.html Cinema: A Thing of Booty], Time, 12 June 1964

Category:1963 films

Category:1960s adventure films

Category:Films shot in Montenegro

Category:Columbia Pictures films

Category:1960s English-language films

Category:Films based on Swedish novels

Category:English-language Yugoslav films

Category:Films directed by Jack Cardiff

Category:Films set in the Viking Age

Category:Films set in the 10th century

Category:Films set in Africa

Category:Films shot in Yugoslavia