The Long Ships (Columbia Pictures) (1964)

General Advance Ranging from rugged Northland fastnesses to the sun-warmed Mediterranean, “The Long Ships” tells a brawling, romantic story of Viking adventure and excitement in Technicolor and Technirama atwthesais iecGys's Theatre, Staktinie a. ..)-\'Starred in the new Columbia Pictures release are Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier, Russ Tamblyn, Rosanna Schiaffino and Oscar Homolka with Edward Judd, Lionel Jeffries and Beba Loncar costarred. “The Long Ships” is Poitier’s first film since winning the Academy Award as best actor of the year, with his performance in “Lilies of the Field.” “The Long Ships” makes dramatic use of an ancient legend, a fabled treasure known as the Golden Bell of St. James. Made of solid gold, originally looted from Islam by the earliest Crusaders, and “as tall as three tall men,” the bell has been kept carefully-concealed to the point where its actual existence is doubtful. Widmark, in the course of his seafaring, learns the location of the bell and leads a crew of Vikings to its Mediterranean location. Here, they run afoul of a Moorish Shiekh—played by Poitier—who also is determined to find and retrieve the bell. Greed motivates the Vikings; a desire to avenge their ancestors, Poitier’s Moslem legions. Battle, murder and sudden death are major elements in the story of “The Long Ships,” but there also is a wealth of romance, suspense and even comedy. Of special interest, according to advance reports, are the boisterous bacchanalia staged by the Vikings early in the film, and the zestful manner in which they storm the Shiekh’s harem when, after a number of breathless combat scenes, they manage to escape from the dungeons into which they have been thrown. Of special interest, too, reportedly are the appearances of Rosanna Schiaffino as_ the Shiekh’s chief wife, and lovely blonde Beba Loncar, a lush screen newcomer, as the Viking princess who reluctantly accompanies the sea-booters on their Mediterranean mission and herself winds up a harem beauty. In his first costume role, far removed from the type of characterization he has previously given the screen, Poitier reportedly is superb as the handsome, determined Shiekh and soldier. He wields a sword and rides a horse with memorable grace and skill. Equally fine is Widmark, as the swashbuckling Viking who is nimble of wit and word. “The Long Ships” was produced by Irving Allen and directed by Jack Cardiff. ‘The Long Ships’ As befits the film’s title, Viking long ships had to be built and manned for “The Long Ships,” spectacular new adventure Saea ate ne hess Theatre in Technicolor and Technirama. Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier, Russ Tamblyn, Rosanna Schiaffino and Oscar Homolka star in “The Long Ships,” a Columbia Pictures release. “The Long Ships” is Poitier’s first film since winning the Academy Award as best actor of the year, with his performance in “Lilies of the Field.” Exact replicas of the ingeniously-constructed Viking vessels were made under the supervision of Erik Kiersgaard, a Danish sea captain and an expert in Viking history. The vessels are nearly 100 feet long, and carry more than 200 men. With 52 men manning the huge double oars, the long ships can reach unbelievable speeds. Their seaworthiness has long been attested to. The Vikings reached the North American continent long before Columbus, and established settlements here. There are some who believe the Vikings went down the St. Lawrence to the Great Lakes and as far west as Minnesota; there are others who theorize the Vikings sailed along the American coast as far as Yucatan, in Mexico. In “The Long Ships,” a Warwick-Avala production, Richard Widmark leads the Vikings south, to the stronghold of Moorish Shiekh Sidney Poitier. He and Poitier are both rivals and allies in the search for a legendary treasure, the Golden Bell of St. James. In addition to the ships, producer Irving Allen and director Jack Cardiff had to build for the film a sprawling Viking village and leave it standing for some eight months while it acquired the necessary “weathered” look. Also constructed was a half-mile square Moorish city. Two king-sized interiors were constructed for major scenes. One, a Viking feast, needed room for some 200 Vikings, 25 serving wenches and several hundred other assorted extras to plunge pell-mell into a riotous free-forall. The girls were gleefully pursued, and captured, by the men; the men, in turn, had to defend themselves and their buxom captives from each other, from legs of mutton, chairs, jugs and similar lusty weapons of bacchanalian battle. The other enormous interior, the Shiekh’s luxurious harem, is presided over by Miss Schiaffino as Poitier’s chief wife. It includes such oddments as two peacocks, a tame monkey and fifty nearlynaked harem girls. The girls, representing 19 different countries ranging from Indonesia to Israel, also included one lovely who disclaimed any national identity, claiming: “I am a gypsy.” Into this spectacular set, with its breathtaking beauties, swarm the attacking Vikings, newly-escaped from Moorish dungeons and eager to conquer or to destroy. “The Long Ships” co-stars Edward Judd, Lionel Jeffries and Beba Loncear. Richard Widmark Not generally regarded as a derringdo screen adventurer, Richard Widmark’s performance as a Viking leader in “The Long Ships,” now at the ........ Theatre in Technirama and Technicolor, is certain to surprise and delight movie-goers ... to the equally certain delight of the international film world which has long known the tall, blonde star as one of the sereen’s finest performers. In the Columbia Pictures release, Widmark stars with Sidney Poitier, Russ Tamblyn, Rosanna Schiaffino and Oscar Homolka in a spectacular saga of the rugged Norsemen in search of legendary treasure. They find it, too, along with battle and romance under the Mediterranean sun. “The Long Ships” is Poitier’s first film since winning the Academy Award as best actor of the year, with his performance in “Lilies of the Field.” Widmark turned to acting after teaching speech and dramatics at Lake Forest (Illinois) University for two years; he appeared in several Broadway productions before making his film bow as the mouth-twisted sadist with the maniacal laugh in “A Kiss of Death,” a performance which made him an immediate star and which kept him type-cast as a villain for a long, long time. Now, Widmark usually is found playing “sood guy” roles: a war hero in “Halls of Montezuma,” a doctor in “Panic in the Streets,” Jim Bowie in “The Alamo,” the American prosecutor in “Judgement at Nuremberg,” to cite just a few. In “The Long Ships,” he plays a fearless Viking. Appearing in support are co-stars Edward Judd, Lionel Jeffries and Beba Loncar, A Warwick-Avala production, “The Long Ships” was produced by Irving Allen and directed by Jack Cardiff. Berkely Mather and Beverley Cross penned the screenplay, based on the novel by Frans Bengtsson. sailors and Steeds More than 500 horses had to be found and trained for use in “The Long Ships,” adventure spectacle in Technicolor and Technirama at the ....... Theatre. The horses were used in a battle scene in which a shipwrecked Viking crew, led by Richard Widmark and Russ Tamblyn, stands off two charges by a company of Moorish cavalry under Shiekh Sidney Poitier. “The Long Ships” is Poitier’s first film since winning the Academy Award as best actor of the year, with his performance in “Lilies of the Field.” Even harder than training the horses was the problem of transporting them to the beaches where these scenes were filmed. Two special trains, consisting of 35 coaches, were needed for the 500-mile journey. The trip took five days because of the necessity for frequent stops for rest and exercise. “The Long Ships” is a Warwick-Avala production, a Columbia Pictures release. (Mat 2-A; Still No. 33) As a young Viking, Russ Tamblyn fights his way into the harem of Moorish shiekh Sidney Poitier to rescue lovely Beba Loncar. It's a scene from "The Long Ships," new Columbia Pictures release in Technicolor and Technirama, also starring Richard Widmark, Rosanna Schiaffino and Oscar Homolka. "The Long Ships" is Poitier’s first film since winning the Academy Award as best actor of the year. ‘The Long Ships’ Review Adventure and excitement, lusty and brawling, are among the entertainment ingredients of “The Long Ships,’ which opened yesterday at the ....... Theatre. This saga of the Vikings, in Technicolor and Technirama, stars Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier, Russ Tamblyn, Rosanna Schiaffino and Oscar Homolka, a superblychosen cast in performances that thunder across the screen. “The Long Ships” is Poitier’s first film since winning the Academy Award as best actor of the year, with his performance in “Lilies of the Field.” Rousing and spectacular, “The Long Ships” is the story of a desperate voyage and bitter conflict, a search for legendary treasure on the part of the free-booting Vikings. The treasure is the long-lost Golden Bell of St. James, known as the Mother of Voices. Reportedly as tall as three tall men and fashioned of solid gold looted from Islam by the earliest Crusaders, the bell is eagerly sought by the Norsemen in their long ships and by the Moslem people, led by their Sheikh. Widmark leads the Vikings; Poitier, the Moors. In his first costume role, completely divorced from the type of picture in which he has won so vast a reputation, Poitier is sheer delight as the powerful, ambitious and determined Moor. Widmark, in turn, is equally fine as the ad venturing Norseman, a man as nimble with words and wits as he is with a sword. The clash between the two, as presented in “The Long Ships,” is more than a battle of titans; it is a conflict between men who might have been friends and allies if it were not for their warring needs. There are moments of extraordinary comedy sandwiched among the sequences of fierce combat and glowing beauty, extraordinary in that they are in perfect keeping with the film’s might and pageantry and color. One of these is the bacchanalian revel engaged in by the Vikings, in their Northern village; another is their invasion of the Moorish harem presided over by Rosanna Schiaffino, as Poitier’s chief wife. There are moments of sheer horror, of blood-curding torture, of spectacular battle. And there is, throughout, a motion picture completely satisfying in its effectiveness. Russ Tamblyn plays Widmark’s younger brother, acrobatic and handsome, and Oscar Homolka, their bibulous father. Co-starred are Edward Judd, Lionel Jeffries and lovely blonde newcomer Beba Lonear. Irving Allen produced “The Long Ships,” a Warwick-Avala production for Columbia Pictures release. ‘Long Ships’ in Dangerous Seas Filming of sea action sequences for “The Long Ships,” Viking adventure spectacle at the ....... Theatre in Technicolor and Technirama, took place while several speedy motor launches, carrying experienced shark hunters armed with rifles and harpoons, patrolled the area. However, Russ Tamblyn was the only member of the cast or crew actually to meet a shark—while skin-diving on a day off. He didn’t wait around to be introduced, Other stars in “The Long Ships,” a Columbia Pictures release, are Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier, Rosanna Schiaffino and Oscar Homolka. Edward Judd, Lionel Jeffries and Beba Loncar co-star in the Warwick-Avala production. Sidney Poitier Sidney Poitier “has it made.” Which is to say, he plays his first costume role in a motion picture, “The Long Ships,” now at the ....... Theatre in Technicolor and Technirama, as a Moorish Shiekh, The part is the first Poitier has played which was not especially written for a Negro. “Up to now,” Poitier says, “all my ‘play-acting’ in films and on stage has been an accurate reflection of my own life and problems. Now, I’d like to dabble in a bit of romance, period stories and historical epics, and pour a little inner fury into swinging a sword and charging around on a horse.” This he does a’plenty in “The Long Ships,” a story of Vikings whose search for legendary treasure brings them to his own sun-warmed stronghold. Richard Widmark, Russ Tamblyn, Rosanna Schiaffino and Oscar Homolka also star in “The Long Ships.” Long identified with contemporary racerelations films, Poitier was the first Negro male star ever to win an Oscar as “best actor of the year” for his performance in “Lilies of the Field.” Other of his films include “The Defiant Ones,” “Blackboard Jungle,” “Edge of the City,” “All the Young Men,” “Porgy and Bess,” “Raisin in the Sun,” “Paris Blues” and “Pressure Point.” Co-starred in “The Long Ships” are Edward Judd, Lionel Jeffries and Beba Loncar. Irving Allen produced the Warwick-Avala production, and Jack Cardiff directed. The film is based on the novel by Frans Bengtsson. The Golden Beil The Golden Bell of St. James, sought by the Vikings in “The Long Ships,” now at; Ceres «0% Theatre in Technicolor and Technirama, is described in Norse legend as being “as tall as three tall men.” Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier, Russ Tamblyn, Rosanna Schiaffino and Oscar Homolka star in “The Long Ships,” where the Golden Bell actually is found. “The Long Ships” is Poitier’s first film since winning the Academy Award as best actor of the year, with his performance in “Lilies of the Field.” According to the story, the Golden Bell, also known as the Mother of Voices, was cast of solid gold looted by the Crusaders from all Islam, Carefully concealed by the monks, even the fact of its existence moved into legend until the Vikings heard the story and sought the Golden Bell. Also hunting the treasure were the Moslems, who wanted to avenge their ancestors. It is this search, and this rivalry, which encompasses the action and adventure of “The Long Ships.” To meet the needs of the film’s script, eight Golden Bells were constructed, in varying weights, of fibreglass and of styrofoam. The bells measured 12’ 6” in height, 12’ 3” in circumference. All the bells were covered with gilt. Total cost, $75,000, Page 9