Ulysses (1954) is a film I have not seen since I was a kid, and due to some events around my place, I thought it was time to look up this film and give it a run. The catalyst for watching it this time is less nostalgia and more to do with my daughter, Little Miss, discovering a concept musical, two parts, by Jorge Rivera-Herrans (you can find it on spotify) that is an adaptation of Homer’s two epic poems – The Iliad and The Odyssey. The musical is heavily focused on the exploits of Odysseus, aka Ulysses in the Roman World. This concept musical brought the movie Ulysses to my mind and I thought it might interest Little Miss. Nope! She didn’t want to watch it as she was concerned it would not “live up to my expectations.” Teenagers! Yeesh! So, my Bonnie Bride and I watched it without Little Miss.
Kirk Douglas stars as Ulysses, and Anthony Quinn is also in the film in a supporting role as Antinous. The rest of the cast is comprised of an international, mainly European, who’s who in film, with Silvana Mangano is the dual role of Penelope and Circe. Having been so many years since I originally saw Ulysses on that small black and white TV that I have mentioned in other posts, I didn’t remember much about the film except that it starred Kirk Douglas and the scene where Ulysses and his crew pass by the Island of the Sirens, the climatic battle at the end, and that Anthony Quinn was also in it, but I couldn’t place his role from memory. I really enjoyed watching this film again, but I quickly realized something odd that I didn’t recall, and most likely didn’t notice when I was a kid – the dialog for the entire film, including Douglas and Quinn, is dubbed. If you look at the production notes for the film, one understands why as it was an International production, and mainly Italian with Dino de Laurentiis (producer) at the helm. De Laurentiis has made a lot of films over the years that I have liked. And a couple I kind of tend to forget. And, of course, the stars are a couple of long time favorites as well as cinematic greats.
After getting past being caught off guard by the dialog being dubbed (adjust mindset, rock on!), the film still holds up as a pretty good telling of The Odyssey, hitting on some of the major plot points while missing others (like the Lotus-Eaters). And, between watching this film again, and discovering Rivera-Herrans musical adaptation, I have concluded that I really need to go and read these classics of literature. That being said, not sure if Little Miss would have enjoyed as much as my Bonnie Bride and I did, as she has most of the songs from this musical adaptation memorized now.
Mario Feliciani (left) and Anthony Quinn (right) in Ulysses - IMDB
The costuming and set design in Ulysses is well done, and the performances from the cast is darn good. The ship that Ulysses and crew used was a type of single deck galley common for the era, at least I think it was, but I am not as fluent on ship design as I am on weaponry (plus I have more reference books on historic weapons on hand than I do on ancient ships...more fun stuff to research), and the costumes may not be exactly period approriate, but they looked darn good.
As I mentioned earlier, the cast is mostly European, and so there are a lot of performers who are unfamiliar to me, although I have seen a few of them (Silvana Mangano, for instance, was in Dune 1984 - sadly it was not a very good adaption of Herbert’s novel) in other films over the years. It’s a good film, and I think worthy of watching, especially if you A) like Kirk Douglas and/or Anthony Quinn, or B) like a good fantasy film. Overall it was enjoyable to watch it again, and, for me, to finally seeing it in color the way it was meant to be seen.
In the meantime, if you are a music lover (and I don’t know anyone who isn’t), head over to either spotify or youtube and look up Rivera-Herrans musical adaption of Homer’s works. It really rocks, and the videos on youtube have a lot of background on the musical’s development. Check it out.
