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21 out of 21 people found the following comment useful :-
A rousing action/adventure movie for a treasure lost for centuries, the richest prize in the world…, 2 September 2007
7/10
Author: ironside (robertfrangie@hotmail.com) from Mexico

"The Long Ships" is the story of a mighty gold bell "as tall as three tall men," the one people call the Mother of Voices, cast long ago by the monks of Byzantium…

Prince Aly Mansuh had searched from the mountains to the sea for the bell… Now he must know what lies beyond the horizon until Allah's divine guidance leads him to the treasures of Islam…

Prince Aly's wife Aminah thinks that her husband is chasing a legend, a fairy tale that has already cost them dearly in lives and gold… But the prince is no dreamer… He is sure that the bell does exist and it rests somewhere in this world, in a Christian land… For him it was stolen by the Christian armies when they plundered their way across his cities to the dishonor and humiliation of his ancestors…

In that morning, the obsessed Moorish prince is informed by his guards that a stranger in the market knows the whereabouts of the golden bell… The stranger is arrested and taken to a tower for interrogation… The stranger assures to the prince that he knows nothing but stories and legends, and swears that, out in the market he was trying to earn some money for food and shelter… He also said that he is a sailor, a dreamer, a Norseman, a Viking who was shipwrecked and was simply trying to get back to his homeland…

Richard Widmark is the true Norse warrior who swallowed the ocean… He tells his father that he has returned because he needs another ship and another crew… Rolfe said that he had found the bell… He heard it booming away like a god's hammer on a mountain of ice… Nothing else would've brought him back after losing his ship… That ship cost his father the tribute money he owed the king…

Sydney Poitier promised Rolfe that he would not be prepared to die so calmly… He shall give him an example of real courage that comes from authority, 'his' authority… Aly Mansuh asks Lady Aminah to select one of his guards to be the first to feel the kiss of steel before the Viking…

Rosanna Schiaffino could offer Rolfe and his comrades the chance to live and to sail from these shores as rich men… With fire in her cheeks, Lady Aminah looked lovely as the most envied woman with eye-catching legs…

Orm (Russ Tamblyn) asks the great Odin what did they do that he turns his rage against them ruining his father…

Gerda (Beba Loncar) is the beautiful snow princess taken as a hostage and whom to be sacrificed as a maiden to lift the curse of the death ship…

Krok (Oskar Homolka) is the old, ruined man who asks himself how a thane whose entire fortune consists of two gold pieces, find or even equip another ship…

King Harald (Clifford Evas) practically stole the ship build by Krok's men… He cheated the broken man in giving him two gold pieces for his funeral ship, the difference between the ship's price and two years' tribute he owes him…

Sven (Edward Judd) is the sailing master to King Harald of Norseland who really thinks the ship is cursed for being a funeral ship… He commands the sailors, these 'greedy devils' to turn back or they'll be hanged in the king's name…

With great stars, mutinous sailors, beautiful cinematography, and a look at a Moorish harem, "The Long Ships" remains another fine Viking adventure with a lot of humor and fun…

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23 out of 31 people found the following comment useful :-
Who Gets IT?, 4 April 2001
10/10
Author: scttwortman from Columbus, OH USA

Oskar Homolka got it. Richard Widmark got it.Even Gordon Jackson got it.Does anyone remember "the Crimson Pirate"? Folks this is not history! This is fun. One of My childhood favorites. The score that every one seems to love is the tipoff.This is going to be a swashbuckler! Only Poitier seems to think he's playing Shakespeare's Moor. This is a great adventure movie! So well done in fact;that no one, in my Saturday matinee audience,even noticed the interracial romance.Kudos to Cardiff for pulling that off! Quite a feat in 1963! This is the kind of film parents hated,because scrap lumber and yardsticks disappeared to make swords,and every trash can lid became a battered shield [that no longer fit the can]. By Sunday morning there were many bruised and splinter wounded 10 year olds You should rate this type of movie by the number of bandaids passed out to young berserkers!

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20 out of 28 people found the following comment useful :-
The OTHER great Viking movie., 14 December 2001
8/10
Author: jckruize from North Hemis

After Kirk Douglas' THE VIKINGS, this was a close second in fun, Saturday matinée-style spectacle. Richard Widmark inhabits the role of the Viking, Rolfe, with a breezy, unstilted style that suits his character's sense of derring-do perfectly. In contrast, Sidney Poitier plays it straight, and his majestic voice and bearing make him a commanding yet sympathetic villain. The plot is lightweight, it's true, but there's much fun to be had for those of us fond of old-fashioned adventure in distant eras and exotic climes. Sit back, drink in the magnificent cinematography and Dusan Radic's powerful, melodic score and enjoy the heck out of this epic clash of Vikings and Moors. And be warned: the Mare of Steel is not for the faint-hearted!

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17 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :-
THE VIKINGS meets John Cleese!, 30 October 2003
Author: Noel Bailey (uds3@hotmail.com) from Longmont: Colorado US

Churned out at pretty much the end of the cycle of epics, THE LONG SHIPS was NEVER meant to be taken seriously! Richard Widmark understood that - what's with this plethora of pseudo-intellectual reviews decrying cinematic and plotline aspects here. Wake up and smell the roses people, this is one for all and ALL for fun!

Even Poitier, hamming it up as OTHELLO with a wicked hairdresser, was secretly having fun! The whole misbegotten tale of the fabled golden bell was little more than a cack-fest but by GOD was the musical score great or what? I can still hear Dusan's stirring theme now, and I only saw the flick once at its Sydney premiere in '63.

Action aplenty, outrageous script and despite accusations to the contrary here, some gung-ho cinematography. This was never gonna be up for any Oscars, Widmark, Homolka and three quarters of the cast in fact, saw to that!

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10 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Prince Valiant Versus Othello, Best Two Out of Three Falls, 8 September 2007
7/10
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

In reading some of the other reviews I learned that The Long Ships was based on a rather serious work of medieval fiction. That's certainly did not come out in this film which has all the appearances of something that Vince McMahon might have directed.

I'm guessing that Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier and the rest of the cast wanted to do something that paid well without too much strain on the talent. In addition, Poitier for the only time in his career, got to play a villain. He hams up his part as a poor man's Othello with real relish.

There's a little Captain Ahab in Poitier's Othello impersonation as well. He's a Moorish prince obsessed with finding a legendary golden bell. When he hear's of Richard Widmark spinning tales in the market place for pin money he has him summoned.

Widmark escapes by diving out a window from a height and the next thing you hear from him is that he's washed up on Viking shores. I'm not sure the writers didn't want you to think he swam from Morocco to Norway either. Any how he tries to get a ship from dad, Oscar Homolka. The only ship available is the ship Homolka built for the Norse king. To insure the Norse king doesn't kill his Homolka, younger brother Russ Tamblyn kidnaps his daughter who he has a thing for in any event. And back they go to find the bell.

Richard Widmark is not known as a player who's best at comedy, but he seems to get in the spirit of the lightheartedness. Russ Tamblyn who was finding less and less employment as a dancer got to show a lot of athleticism in dueling sequences. The guy who seemed to be really enjoying making this film however was Oscar Homolka.

Jack Cardiff directed this film and he's probably best known as the United Kingdom's premier color cinematographer. The Long Ships has some of his best work and it also has a stirring musical score.

I saw this film in theaters as a teen and over forty years later I still enjoy this rollicking medieval romp.

Vince McMahon couldn't have staged it better.

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10 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Fond memories, 11 June 2001
7/10
Author: nefer_t from Glasgow, Scotland

I recently watched this film again, for the first time in years. OK, so maybe it's not as historically accurate as it could be. But the acting (in the main) is still good, the music is superb, and I defy anyone *not* to be scared when Poitier says "You will ride the Mare of Steel", surely one of the most gruesome punishments in the history of the cinema!

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12 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
Othelo goes Valhalla, 3 December 2001
Author: marciodecarvalho from Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

Considering Kirk Douglas, only five years before, has made of his 'The Vikings' the definitive viking epic, not so bad we could be entertained with a lighthearted version of the norwegian warriors. Sort of a 'comic relief' after the bloody, harsh, moody Douglas unsurpassed masterpiece.

Not to be taken seriously, this one. Directed by Jack Cardiff ('The Vikings' cinematographer), it offers fun, adventure, and a semi-Monty Python approach at times. The plot is the silliest ever, acting is hammy to the best, but what the hell?

The Othelo-tailored moor, cortesy of Sidney Poitier, is straight. The nice Russ Tamblyn makes his best. Rossana Schiaffino is traffic-stopper, jawbreaker, but this is a Richard Widmark's movie from the beginning to the end, because he is the only one who clearly got the point across: he is taken nothing, absolutely nothing, too seriously! He is clearly blinking an eye to all off us viewers all the time, saying: "Relax, folks, it's only a movie! Let's have fun!"

Somewhere in this very picture a given viking sighs: 'there's no real vikings anymore, like in the old times!" Man, they stayed all in the Kirk Douglas' movie, you bet! In this one, just tongue-in-cheek slapstick. Where's my popcorn pack?



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6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
" I am no dreamer, Viking! I too seek the Mother of Voices ", 5 December 2008
7/10
Author: thinker1691 from USA

Every Tale, fable, or legend has a basis in some small fact. In this film called " The Long Ships " we have a Viking reciting a legend which was once told to his people of a great bell which was as high as 'three tall men.' Said to have been created by the monks of Byzantium, in actuality, they had indeed cast one out of solid gold, but was small enough to be handed as a gift to the German emperor, for his personal chapel, during the middle ages. As with most 'fish' stories, the size of the bell grew with each retelling. For this movie, the seekers are Northmen, not Germanic knights as in the original tale. Still, the movie is entertaining enough due to the major stars in it. Here we have, Richard Widmark as Rolfe, a seafaring Viking who is captured by Aly Mansuh, the Moorish prince (Sidney Poitier) who threatens him with torture is he does not reveal its location. Then there is Russ Tamblyn as Orm, his very agile brother and then of course there is international star Oskar Homolka as Krok, who is their father. All in all, a good film, for an otherwise lazy afternoon. ****

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5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Under-rated colorful epic., 24 December 2003
9/10
Author: Don (scifiguy-2) from Lost Wages, Nevada

Big budget spectacle produced by Irwin Allen may possibly be his best film. The casting is great, although Richard Widmark appears to be out of place. It's a rare treat to see this many fantasy genre cast-members in the same film...Russ Tamblyn (George Pal films), Lionel Jeffries ("First Men In the Moon"), Clifford Evans (Hammer films) and Edward Judd. Great art direction, sets and costumes give this film some nice atmosphere.

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
One of my favorites as a kid, 2 July 2004
Author: Bill Lindau (blindau52@yahoo.com) from Hamlet, North Carolina

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

POSSIBLE SPOILER I saw this swashbuckler/howler when I was 11 and would love to

find it on video somewhere. I know it's historically inaccurate and

plenty of scenes are highly implausible, but it's fun to watch and

the people who made it never intended it to be Shakespeare.

Richard Widmark does great, playing a 10th-century Viking with

20th-century wisecracking. My favorite line is when, after the great

golden bell rolls off the cliff and into the sea, taking a few of his

men with it, Richard looks down and says, "Well, that was one way

to get it to the bottom." The Mare of Steel -- 50-foot razor blade shaped like a horse's head

-- prompted a memorable comment from one of my 14-year-old

friends when we saw the movie a few years later: "Boy, I bet his

(expletive deleted) would've hurt!" Only one little gripe: Russ Tamblyn is good, but with that modern

haircut he still looks like an extra in "Beach Blanket Bingo". Another

flaw I've noticed but is more forgivable: There are a lot of battle

scenes where some of Richard's men get killed. He must have

had about 500 replacements waiting in the hold of his one little

ship. I liked "The Vikings", too, but after seeing my main man Kirk

Douglas getting killed "The Long Ships" offered some much-needed comic relief. Until I read some of the user

comments I had no idea so many people around the world

enjoyed "The Long Ships" as much as I did. Reading their

comments, I wouldn't be surprised if Monty Python got some of

their ideas from it.

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