Pygmalion? No! Just Dassin falling in love with Mercouri...
By 1960, when he directed NEVER ON SUNDAY, Jules Dassin had lived for about a decade in Europe, on the run from the Hollywood communist witch hunt driven by Senator Eugene McCarthy and the House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC).
In a number of interviews during his European sojourn, Dassin would talk about how tough it was to make ends meet, to scrimp any money to see him and family exist another day - and so, in a clean break with his mainly film noir past, he seized the chance of doing a kind of musical comedy in Greece with the country's then most famous actress, Melina Mercouri.
He ended up with more than just a film: he actually bagged beautiful Mercouri, who would become his wife. Because of minimal money, Dassin could not contract an established US or even English actor to play the part of Homer - so, as in RIFIFI, he ended up playing the part. In NEVER ON SUNDAY, he plays the American called Homer, who loves the European classic culture and Greek philosophers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, and decides to "reform" Mercouri in a manner reminiscent of George Bernard Shaw's PYGMALION. Clearly, Dassin was not a high quality thespian, and even less so of a dancer, nor were his looks of the kind that should entice the mercurial Mercouri, who plays a completely uninhibited Greek whore on the port of Piraeus who wants no pimp control and decides who she beds and at what price.
Of course, as in any film that borders on travelogue cum tourism publicity the host country is the real star, so one gets to watch plenty of Greek dancing, singing, and loads of broken glass to the tune of a cash register. The script - you guessed it, by Dassin - meanders quite a bit and the B&W cinematography by Jacques Natteau is nothing to write home about.
On the other hand, bouzouki music by Manos Hadjidakis is great, especially the Pote tin Kyriaki song that Connie Francis and others would soon croon to global fame under the title of NEVER ON SUNDAY, with English lyrics about a woman available every day except Sunday.
Needless to say, Homer's efforts to guide the earthy Mercouri (Illiya) on an Illiad of cultural discovery are doom-sealed, but in real life Dassin did get his prize and apparently the two were happy together, and went to work together in such masterpieces as CELUI QUI DOIT MOURIR and TOPKAPI.
Can you ask for a happier finale? As a movie lover, I cannot! 7/10.
In a number of interviews during his European sojourn, Dassin would talk about how tough it was to make ends meet, to scrimp any money to see him and family exist another day - and so, in a clean break with his mainly film noir past, he seized the chance of doing a kind of musical comedy in Greece with the country's then most famous actress, Melina Mercouri.
He ended up with more than just a film: he actually bagged beautiful Mercouri, who would become his wife. Because of minimal money, Dassin could not contract an established US or even English actor to play the part of Homer - so, as in RIFIFI, he ended up playing the part. In NEVER ON SUNDAY, he plays the American called Homer, who loves the European classic culture and Greek philosophers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, and decides to "reform" Mercouri in a manner reminiscent of George Bernard Shaw's PYGMALION. Clearly, Dassin was not a high quality thespian, and even less so of a dancer, nor were his looks of the kind that should entice the mercurial Mercouri, who plays a completely uninhibited Greek whore on the port of Piraeus who wants no pimp control and decides who she beds and at what price.
Of course, as in any film that borders on travelogue cum tourism publicity the host country is the real star, so one gets to watch plenty of Greek dancing, singing, and loads of broken glass to the tune of a cash register. The script - you guessed it, by Dassin - meanders quite a bit and the B&W cinematography by Jacques Natteau is nothing to write home about.
On the other hand, bouzouki music by Manos Hadjidakis is great, especially the Pote tin Kyriaki song that Connie Francis and others would soon croon to global fame under the title of NEVER ON SUNDAY, with English lyrics about a woman available every day except Sunday.
Needless to say, Homer's efforts to guide the earthy Mercouri (Illiya) on an Illiad of cultural discovery are doom-sealed, but in real life Dassin did get his prize and apparently the two were happy together, and went to work together in such masterpieces as CELUI QUI DOIT MOURIR and TOPKAPI.
Can you ask for a happier finale? As a movie lover, I cannot! 7/10.
- adrianovasconcelos
- Jul 24, 2024