The Long Ships (1964)

Cast

Richard Widmark

Rolfe

Sidney Poitier

Aly Mansuh

Russ Tamblyn

Orm

Rosanna Schiaffino

Aminah

Oskar Homolka

Krok

Edward Judd

Sven

Lionel Jeffries

Aziz

Beba Lončar

Gerda

Clifford Evans

King Harald

Gordon Jackson

Vahlin

About The Long Ships

Moorish ruler El Mansuh is determined to locate a massive bell made of gold known as the "Mother of Voices." Viking explorer Rolfe also becomes intent on finding the mythical treasure, and sails with his crew from Scandinavia to Africa to track it down. Reluctantly working together, El Mansuh and Rolfe, along with their men, embark on a quest for the prized object, but only one leader will be able to claim the bell as his own — if it even exists at all.

Popularity

2.5

Budget

$3,000,000

Release

Mar 25, 1964

Genres

Adventure, Drama

Director: Jack Cardiff

Writer: Beverley Cross, Berkely Mather

IMDb

Gallery

More Like This

7.0

The Vikings

1958

6.3

Thor: Tales of Asgard

2011

5.9

Beowulf

2007

7.4

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

2006

6.3

Ring of the Nibelungs

2004

6.2

China Seas

1935

5.9

Wake of the Red Witch

1948

8.4

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

2001

6.8

Dragonheart: Vengeance

2021

6.4

Jack Hunter and the Star of Heaven

2009

6.1

The Call of the Wild

1972

6.7

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

2017

Reviews (1)

CinemaSerf

Jun 14, 2024

5.0

Sidney Poitier just about carries his role off, as a Moorish prince obsessed with a mythical great golden bell ("The Mother of All Voices") - reputedly made by monks many years ago. The rest of the cast, however, are fish out of water - Richard Widmark and Russ Tamblyn are not at all plausible as Viking raiders/explorers and the ebbs and flows of the storyline and the pretty verbose dialogue stretch the imagination well beyond the point when it stops being fun and starts being dull. Oskar Homolka gets up to some mischief as the only potentially realistic Viking "Krok" but then Lionel Jeffries and Gordon Jackson show up and it is laughable again. The film does have a good, lavish, look about it and the attention to detail (costumes etc.) are suitably sumptuous but it is way too long and wastes a good adventure story.

Read full review