|
Never on Sunday (1960) - full review!aka Pote tin Kyriaki (1960) Written, directed and produced by Jules Dassin (who received his only recognition from the Academy with Oscar nominations for his direction and writing), this partially foreign language comedy drama which also earned Melina Mercouri her only Oscar nomination (Best Actress) won an Academy Award for its (now very famous, and recognizable) title song, Manos Hadjidakis’s only Academy recognition; Theoni Aldredge earned her first Oscar nomination for B&W Costume Design. It's a Pygmalion-like story that features Dassin as an American named Homer that ventures to the port city of Piraeus, Greece seeking answers; once there he meets, and falls in love with a popular independent prostitute named Ilya (Mercouri). Homer is confused about what's happening in the world & life and believes that traveling to the land of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle will help him. He's perplexed when he meets Ilya, a truly "happy hooker" who substitutes her own plots for the Greek tragedies she watches at the theater on Sundays, her days off from the oldest profession. Homer is upset that Ilya thinks Medea was a good mother, and has other misconceptions about Oedipus Rex, so he asks for two weeks of her time to educate her about the truth. Of course, she becomes more modest and less happy, as do all of her local male groupies including her beau Tonio (George Foundas), the big dancing singing gregarious Jorgo (Titos Vandis, a Greek actor many will recognize) who fights before he befriends Homer, and the English speaking boat captain (Mitsos Ligizos) who occasionally translates for Homer. Despo Diamantidou plays another prostitute who, by exposing Homer, helps Ilya return to happiness as she battles the businessman Noface (Alexis Solomos) on behalf of her peers. |
Find your movie or DVD now @:
Most Recent Additions: Casanova Brown (1944) - full review! I Want You (1951) - full review! A Bill of Divorcement (1932) - full review! Patterns (1956) - full review! Last Train from Gun Hill (1959) - full review! Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) - full review! Hour of the Gun (1967) - full review! To Sir, with Love (1967) - full review! You'll Never Get Rich (1941) - full review! The Actress (1953) - full review! Mannequin (1937) - full review! All My Sons (1948) - full review! Mourning Becomes Electra (1947) - full review! State Fair (1945) - full review! Billy Budd (1962) - full review! Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951) - full review! The Bachelor Party (1957) - full review! The Glenn Miller Story (1954) - full review! The Southerner (1945) - full review! The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming (1966) Never on Sunday (1960) - full review! The Arrangement (1969) - full review! A Summer Place (1959) - full review! Miracle in the Rain (1956) - full review! Love Letters (1945) - full review! The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944) - full review! The Absent Minded Professor (1961) 20000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) Come and Get It (1936) - full review! The Prize (1963) - full review! This Is the Army (1943) - full review! Home from the Hill (1960) - full review! Hangmen Also Die (1943) - full review! The Shop on Main Street (1965) - full review! The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (1969) - full review! A Gathering of Eagles (1963) - full review! This Happy Breed (1944) - full review! Red-Headed Woman (1932) - full review! Waterloo Bridge (1931) - full review! Baby Face (1933) - full review! Titanic (1943) - full review! Cover Girl (1944) - full review! Saratoga Trunk (1945) - full review! Murder on the Orient Express (1974) The Young Philadelphians (1959) - full review! Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967) Pocket Money (1972) - full review! |
||||||||||||
[Home] [Hitchcock] [Oscar's Best] [Essays] [Essential Films] [TCM Picks] [Obscure Films] [Links] [Other Reviews] [Academy Awards] [Silent Films] [Movie Index] |
||||||||||||||