The Long Ships

The Long Ships is a 1964 British-Yugoslavian adventure film directed by Jack Cardiff and vaguely based on the Swedish novel The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson. It was intended to capitalise on the success of recent Viking and Moorish dramas such as The Vikings and El Cid, and was later followed by Alfred the Great. The story centers on an immense golden bell named The Mother of Voices, which may or may not exist. Moorish king Aly Mansuh (Sidney... more

The Long Ships is a 1964 British-Yugoslavian adventure film directed by Jack Cardiff and vaguely based on the Swedish novel The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson. It was intended to capitalise on the success of recent Viking and Moorish dramas such as The Vikings and El Cid, and was later followed by Alfred the Great. 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... less