Ulysses

Ulysses is a 1954 fantasy-adventure film based on Homer's epic poem Odyssey. The film was directed by Mario Camerini, who co-wrote the screenplay with writer Franco Brusati. The original choice for director was Georg Wilhelm Pabst but he quit at the last minute. The film's cinematographer Mario Bava co-directed the cyclops Polyphemus segment (uncredited). In the film Silvana Mangano plays two roles, as Penelope, the faithful wife of Ulysses and the sorceress Circe. American star Kirk Douglas plays the Greek hero, Ulysses. Anthony Quinn plays Antinous. Plot The palace of Ulysses, king of Ithaca, is beleaguered by a horde of suitors wooing his wife Penelope after his failure to return from the war against the city of Troy. Penelope has promised under pressure to marry one of her many suitors, who under the leadership of Antinous squander her husband's wealth and land. She holds them off by telling them she first wants to finish her tapestry, but she unweaves it every night to stall. Telemachus, the son of Ulysses and Penelope, is sick of the suitors' behavior and decides to search for his father. In the meantime, on the nearby island of Phaeacia, royal princess Nausicaa and her handmaidens find a shipwrecked man washed up on the shore. Due to his ordeal, the stranger has lost his memory, not even remembering his name. He is taken in by Nausicaa's parents, King Alcinous and Queen Arete, and in short time he and Nausicaa fall in love. Just on the day they are scheduled to be married, however, the stranger, longing to remember who he really is, returns to the shore and stares out to the sea. And as he does so, his lost memories begin to stir.