Ulysses (1954) on Netflix
NR19541h 40mAdventureFantasyHistory
Sailing home from the Trojan War, Ulysses is shipwrecked and washed ashore, where the princess Nausicaa finds him. In Ithaca, his wife Penelope fends off the suitors pressing her to remarry.
- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb6.6/106,808 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes52%
Trailer
Plot summary
In Ithaca, the palace of Ulysses is overrun by suitors who want his wife Penelope to accept that he died in the Trojan War and marry one of them. Led by Antinous, they live off his wealth while Penelope keeps them waiting, saying she must first finish a tapestry that she secretly unravels each night. Their son Telemachus, tired of the suitors, sets out to find his father. Ulysses is sailing home from Troy, the city he entered by the Trojan Horse and where he destroys a temple to Neptune; the witch Cassandra curses him, a storm wrecks his ship, and the princess Nausicaa and her handmaidens come across him on the shore, his memory gone. King Alcinous and Queen Arete take him in.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Ulysses (1954)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Mario Bava was hired on Ulysses to help with the special effects, but ended up serving as camera operator and uncredited co-cinematographer for the whole shoot; he also directed the cyclops sequence without credit.
- Alberto Moravia's 1954 novel Il disprezzo, known in English as Contempt, grew out of his work on Ulysses as a script doctor; Jean-Luc Godard turned it into a 1963 film, produced by Ulysses producer Carlo Ponti.
- The success of Ulysses let producers Dino De Laurentiis and Carlo Ponti secure a deal with Paramount for War and Peace the next year; the two films shared crew, and Mario Camerini was briefly set to direct War and Peace until King Vidor replaced him.
- Because Ulysses would be dubbed later, every actor spoke his or her own language on set; Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn did their own dubbing for the English version.
