Main Cast: Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier, Russ Tamblyn, Rosanna Schiaffino, Beba Loncar, Oscar Homolka
Release Year: 1963
Country: YU/UK
Run Time: 125 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
In this elaborately mounted seafaring adventure, Rolfe (Richard Widmark) is a Viking leader with the cunning and devious mind of a pirate. Rolfe tells others sailors of "The Mother of Voices," a mammoth bell made of gold and as tall as three men, but he adds enough incorrect details to throw them off the proper trail. However, Aly Mansuh (Sidney Poitier), the leader of a group of ambitious Moors, sees through Rolfe's story, and soon the two are in a breakneck race to be the first to capture the precious bell. The Long Ships also features Russ Tamblyn and Oscar Homolka. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
This film entertains in the tradition of the old Saturday matinee about high adventure, far-off lands, secret treasures, and swordplay. Although the production was nominated for a British Academy Award for costumes, it is a gigantic golden bell called the Mother of Voices that is the center of attention. Rival warriors Rolfe the Viking (Richard Widmark) and Aly the Moor (Sidney Poitier) both covet it, but only Rolfe knows its location -- an eminence on a distant shore. After Aly captures Rolfe and his men with a huge army, the reluctant partners cast off to claim the prize. But, of course, they don't plan to share it. The film, though short on aesthetics, is long on lavish spectacle, derring-do, and mortal combat. One hapless Moor gets to ride the razor edge of the mare of steel, an execution device, as a demonstration to Rolfe and his men that they had better behave while in Aly's charge. Widmark portrays the Viking leader as lusty and proud while Poitier invests his character with restrained nobility. Both men gain the sympathy of the audience, making it easy to root for them as they become raiders of the lost bell. Finding the bell and hearing it peal spellbinds the adventurers; they realize for the first time the true worth of the solid-gold treasure, as tall as three big men. But beholding it is one thing; moving it is another. Thus, the conflict shifts from man against man to man against bell. A rousing musical score accompanies the action, and the cinematography makes the most of the scenery. Oscar Homolka is entertaining as a Viking slob, and agile Russ Tamblyn makes a sprightly warrior. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide
John Hoesli - Art Director, Bill Constable - Art Director, Zoran Zorcic - Art Director, David Ffolkes - Costume Designer, Anthony Mendleson - Costume Designer, Jack Cardiff - Director, Geoffrey Foot - Editor, Dusan Radic - Composer (Music Score), Christopher G. Challis - Cinematographer, Irving Allen - Producer, Syd Pearson - Special Effects, Bill Warrington - Special Effects, Beverley Cross - Screenwriter, Berkley Mather - Screenwriter, Frans Bengtsson - Book Author
The story centers on an immense golden bell named 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 plans 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 reveals to his father 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, Harold Bluetooth, who then refuses to reimburse him citing an outstanding debt. Rationalizing that the ship does not yet belong to Harold (since he is still living), Rolfe and his brother steal not only the ship, but kidnap a number of inebriated vikings to serve as her crew. In order to prevent Harold from killing his father in revenge for the theft, he also takes the king's daughter as a hostage. Harold declares that he will summon every longship he can find and rescue her. After prolonged difficulties at sea, the ship is damaged in a maelstrom. The Norse are cast ashore in Mansuh's country. Captured by the Moors, the Norse are condemned to execution but Mansuh's favorite wife Aminah convinces her husband to use them and their longship to retrieve the bell.
Arriving at 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 cacophany reveals that the chapel dome is the disguised Mother of Voices. After a costly misadventure moving 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. As the group reaches Mansuh's palace, Aminah sudenly cries aloud that "The Long Ships came in the night" and is immediately shot down by a spear. A group of Vikings come leaping out from behind the silent townspeople. These Norsemen are King Harold's men, out to rescue the princess, and the climactic battle ensues. It ends when the bell falls over and crushes Aly Mansuh. The Moors are defeated and the Vikings victorious. The film ends as Rolfe tells King Harold about the "three crowns of the Saxon kings,".
Trivia
The relationship between Mansuh (Poitier) and his wife Aminah (Rosanna Schiaffino) is an early example of an interracial couple depicted on film.
