User reviews

No one else in the history of cinema became a star in America playing a sexpot at the age of 40. Melina Mercouri did. "Never on Sunday" is why.

Aided immeasurably by Manos Hadjidakis' unforgettable score (you're probably already humming the theme) and Jules Dassin's story, Mercouri's incredible presence stole the show -- and hearts worldwide.

Dassin is perfect in what would be the "nebbish" role, were he Jewish. The Greeks have, perhaps, 27 words for "nebbish" as they do for "love." Dassin brilliantly inhabits one of them.

Rarely has the energy and life force of a particular time and place been so economically and delightfully captured on film.

There's a reason "Never on Sunday" is a legend and part of every serious film lover's collection. Once you've seen it, you'll know.

Melina Mercouri takes an often-played role - the 'Whore with a Heart of Gold who Loves Life Despite It All' - and makes it her career-defining movie role, and she is the entire reason to watch the movie. Fiercely independent, sexually progressive, not spending her life trying to find the perfect man and gorgeous, she's a force of life.

Jules Dassin has directed a great movie but he should have hired an actor to play Homer, and not played it himself. He almost ruins all the charm the movie has going for it with his ineffective acting, bad line readings and stupid motivations. A better actor might have found a way around the rough spots but Dassin magnifies them.

Mercouri probably should have won Best Actress that year, but who can beat a Liz Taylor death scare? Plus Simeone Signoret had won Best Actress the year before, and Sophia Loren would win the following year..you don't want to upset icons like Louella Parsons, Frank Sinatra and John Wayne by giving ALL the Oscars to foreigners, do you?? Maybe the fact that she does not die at the end was too much..we all know the odds of longevity for a hooker in a Hollywood movie. Taylor met that criteria, as if she needed to help her own odds after almost dying of pneumonia.

Worth watching for sure. 8/10.

Melina Mercouri, "The Last Greek Goddess", stars in the comedy "Never on Sunday"(1960) directed/written by Jules Dassin. She plays Illia, the most sensuous and radiant "lady of the night" in the seaport Pyres where every man adores her and she is the one who chooses her partners. Mercouri was 40 years old when she played Illia but she did not hide a single day of her age and she was gorgeous, full of the inner fire and absolutely irresistible. When the new Pygmalion, the intellectual American named Homer (of course) sails into the town and meets Illia, he decides that his search for meaning of life would end in Pyres if he would reform Illia and make her change her way of life. With all his intellect and education he couldn't understand a very simple truth about Illia - only true love might change her. Homer played by director/writer Jules Dassin is the weakest part of this mostly charming comedy. I agree with one of the IMDb commenters who said that "Jules Dassin has directed a great movie but he should have hired an actor to play Homer, and not played it himself... A better actor might have found a way around the rough spots but Dassin magnifies them." I guess that in real life Dassin was much more charming that in the film because he and Mercouri were married in 1966 and stayed married until her death in 1994.

7.5/10

One of my all-time favorite movies! Coming from the 50's generation, I remember seeing this movie when I was a teenager and being absolutely fascinated by the Greek setting, music and dancing. I believe that this movie contributed to my interest in foreign movies to this day. The song "Never on Sunday" was very popular on the radio in the 60's. If you don't remember it now, you probably will, once you hear it.

The story line in this movie is clever and charming. The variety of characters pull you right into the story. It's dramatic, funny and at the same time, romantic. Tame by today's standards, this movie must have been considered very risqué for its time, but it remains entertaining to this day.....timeless!!! A must-see for old movie buffs.

Middle-aged American scholar Jules Dassin (as Homer) goes from Connecticut to a Greek sea port, where he discovers vivacious thirty-something prostitute Melina Mercouri (as Ilya). As he soaks up local culture, Mr. Dassin decides to play "Pygmalion" with Ms. Mercouri. Speaking about morality and happiness, Dassin wants Mercouri to cleave only unto him; but, that means she must give up her regular seamen, including handsome Giorgos Foundas (as Tonio) and the occasional lonely young sailor. Mercouri is happy with her pleasure-driven lifestyle. Dassin wants her to change…

Dassin wrote and directed "Never on Sunday" for the actress he loved. The film won Mercouri the "Best Actress" prize at the film's celebrated "Cannes Film Festival" opening. She went on to receive similar consideration from the "New York Film Critics" (her performance was #8), and nominations from the US and UK Academies. Dassin and the music also received many honors. In the end, Mercouri and the music are the film's main assets.

The excellent Manos Hatzidakis title song was an easy listening hit for several recording stars, worldwide; collectively, the song must have sold many millions during 1960-61. My grandfather and mother liked the more innocent stereo LP version by Connie Francis. MGM made sturdy record albums; it still plays.

****** Never on Sunday (5/25/60) Jules Dassin ~ Melina Mercouri, Jules Dassin, Giorgos Foundas, Titos Vandis

Never on Sunday is a beautiful, down to earth, romantic comedy. It's a feel-good movie without the Hollywood over-sweetness. A well to do American is educated by a Greek courtesan who is not so sophisticated but full of life. And life proves to be more important then money or sophistication. And there even is a happy ending even though is one with a tear, if you a a sucker for such things. The music is prefect. The title-song is just great. The scenery makes you want to got to Greece for your next holiday. In an nutshell; this is one Greek Delight. Watch it on a cold Sunday and you'll get all warm inside. Watch it on a hot summers-night and you'll believe your in Greece already.

An American writer/philosopher is in Greece to try to discover why both he and the world are going nowhere. He meets a happy, independent prostitute in Piraeus and believes that she embodies the reasons that Greece is no longer great, and using a pimp's money, tries to reform her.

Full of cliches, but pleasant none the less, mainly for the Greek music and for the look and atmosphere of the time.

I first experienced "Never on Sunday" shortly after I had visited Greece while in the US Navy. I loved the movie because of the atmosphere which it caught so well. Ilia was like so many of the Greek women and a wonderful character. The sensitive and skillful direction of Jules Dassin ranks as one of the best efforts I can remember in a film because of the humor and pathos he managed to combine and capture as well as the great love of life of the Greek people. The wonderful characterization makes the film a joy to watch. I have seen it countless times and each time it has been a delightful experience. The wonderful title song is quintessentially Greek that is a tune that I still adore and go back to, often humming for days. The plot is simple, direct and charming. The love of life that Melina Mercouri demonstrates in her performance is one to envied, admired and emulated. She was a truly gifted actress and Greek treasure. This is a must see film for anyone who loves life and all it can hold.

David Manning

Greek film "Never on Sunday" is a perfect film for all those viewers who appreciate good cinema and have already seen films directed by Jules Dassin namely Rififi, Topkapi and Celui Qui Doit Mourir. Never on Sunday is a simple philosophical film with sufficient doses of light philosophical lessons. A philosophy professional would feel music ringing in his/her ears when the names and teachings of great Greek philosophers namely Socrates, Plato and Aristotle are uttered. The film's star cast includes director Jules Dassin who is paired against his wife Melina Mercouri, one of Greek cinema's best known actresses who was also active as the minister of culture in her native Greece. For 'Never on Sunday', the difficult subject of prostitution is treated in a non controversial, non didactic manner. In many ways this has become a weak point for the film as such a tough topic requires more attention both from director as well as audiences. Much of the film is based on the meditative curiosity which an American tourist displays regarding the profession of a practical harlot upon his arrival at the island of Piraeus, Greece. As the film was made in 1960s, a time of black and white films, there is virtually no skin show. Hence, one can go ahead and watch it with family members without bothering about any polemical content.

To a committed hellenophile, this film represents all things that are great about Greece - the food, the music, the people.

First, there is the incomparable music of Manos Hatzidakis, who won an Oscar for the title song.

Then, there is Melina Mercouri, the star of the film, who won at Cannes for her role, as well as getting an Oscar and BAFTA nomination. The Minister of Culture after the fall of the dictatorship in Greece, she was magnificent.

She later married the writer/director of the film, Jules Dassin, who received two Oscar nominations for this film, as well as a BAFTA nomination. Dassin is also well know for the film Rififi.

Watching film is a trip back to the old Greece when the spirit was high and people lived life to the fullest. It is a trip worth taking many times.

Jules Dassin has directed a delightful film starring Melina Mercouri as the happy whore with the heart of gold. As wonderful as Mercouri is, and she is wonderful, Dassin is a disaster, whose performance almost destroys his film. Clearly the low budget with which the film was made prevented his obtaining another English-speaking actor for the main male role.

Dassin, I'm sad to say, is the only actor in the film who has absolutely no personality. He comes across with all the dynamism of a dead log. How lucky we are that Ms Mercouri, who won best actress at the Cannes film festival for her role here, was at the top of her form. Without her, the film would have been forgotten decades ago. As it is, it remains a classic.

Never on Sunday (1960)

An odd movie—odd partly because people still watch it despite its painful artifice. Nothing is quite right, and a lot is quite wrong, including the humor, the gender assignments (sexist stuff), and the larger plot, what there is of it. It's set in Greece, and has a painfully dated and almost naive tourist view of Greek "culture" on the docks of a fishing village.

Director Jules Dassin, born in Middletown, Connecticut just as Homer, the leading rather clueless character of this movie, loved Greece. He was not Greek, but Russian Jewish, but he died there after his up and down career as a director. Dassin has a following of sorts for other films, mainly noirish pieces like "The Naked City" with its debt to Weegee. Here he goes for a thin drama about a prostitute who everyone loves (all the men, of course, especially because she works for free, but the women, apparently, also, how nice!). He's an uneven director, and a not so compelling actor, but apparently no one had the heart to tell him this.

There is some sharp acting here, not what you would call naturalistic, but colorful, especially from the leading woman, Melina Mercouri. And all the location shooting is fun, for sure.

So you can get yourself in the mood for this kind of European old school film, but for 1960 it's weirdly out of date, and it lacks the punch of other true Euro productions of the time (and I'm not just talking French New Wave, but all kinds of great post-war movies). I'm usually willing to go with the flow because I like old styles and am willing to shake off some of the weird and imperfect quirks. But I had trouble doing that here, and so it ended up being a chore, and almost an embarrassment.

Hollywood blacklist Jules Dassin's Greek comedy, starring his future wife and muse Mercouri, which was a sensational success, acquired 5 Oscar nominations (including BEST DIRECTOR and LEADING ACTRESS, with one win for BEST SONG, the titular NEVER ON Sunday, a record- breaking first-time for a foreign movie). The story is a variation of the Pygmalion, a delectable tug- of-war between a golden-heart Greek prostitute's free spirit and an amateur American philosopher's attempt to save her from the oldest profession.

Ilya (Mercouri), a sought-after prostitute lives in the port of Piraeus, who exerts her own volition instead of the highest bid when comes to choose her customer, she meets Homer (Dassin), an American tourist, the scholar type, who clashes with denizens in a bar brawl on grounds of baffling cultural disparity, and reeks of the superior Western morality to persuade Ilya from doing what she does best, Homer is seeking for the truth in the cradle of culture, and immediately correlates Ilya with the fall of the Ancient Greece, it is beyond his understanding why such a marvel of beauty could be so content with her debased occupation. Through their entanglement, especially their vastly contradictory interpretations about Greek tragedy, they agree to try out a tentative plan, Ilya stops receiving her patrons and Homer educates her with literature and philosophy, but a less convincing plot-device eventually would set her back to her larger-than-life spirit, Homer's experiment fails miserably, just one time, a prostitute doesn't need salvation, her Greek blood renders her unbridled exuberance and spontaneity, that's something no education can alter, like her passionate romance with local worker Tonio (Foundas)

This Black-and-White picture is a winsome culture-clashing curio, Mercouri unleashes her divine charisma which infatuates not just Homer and her regular clientèle, also us, wide-eyed viewers as well, her personification as the object of passion, a magnificent force-of-nature defies all the earthly categorization, eventually becomes an invitation card for people to visit her enchanting motherland; to that effect, Dassin sacrifices her character for bookish caricature, utters "Ilya, you are a Greek, you must be logical, since it is established by Aristotle" and a devoted second fiddler for Mercouri to hog the limelight entirely. Behind the camera, Dassin is bent on infusing a thumping pulse of vivacity to the not-so-original script, influences a well-calculated balance between exotica and erotica. Fairly speaking, the settings of its characters are reasonably behind our time, and the arc of Ilya's transition is done perfunctorily, otherwise, the appreciation could have been higher by a new wave of audience.

"Never on Sunday", that charming Jules Dassin film, was shown unexpectedly on cable recently. The inspired story of a happy prostitute working the waterfront of Piraeus, was a smash hit everywhere when it first came out. Mr. Dassin's love poem to Greece, a land he loved, added another layer to his distinguished career. Not being known for light comedies, this movie strikes the right tone from the start. The director himself decided to play the pivotal role of Homer Thrace, a Brooklyn scholar familiar with Greek culture, but naive in matters of the heart and sex.

Ilya, a happy-go-lucky prostitute, is loved by the men working in the port. She has no hangups, something, that in contrast, Homer is full of. After all, he came from a society where sex was for the most part a taboo for the society he came from during the time period where the action takes place. After all, America was not a sexually liberated country. Ilya, on the other hand, was free to share her services openly, as she saw fit without any problem. In a way, the relationship that develops between Homer and Ilya, is a modified version of Pygmalion and Galatea, something that Homer was happy to undertake, even though he knew better not to try.

Melina Mercouri dominates the film. She obviously enjoyed getting inside her character as it clearly shows on the screen. She gave a bigger than life reading in what was her best role in the movies. Ms. Mercouri's effortless performance wins the viewer right away because one realizes she is, like Fellini's Cabiria, a genuine soul that gives love without expecting anything in return.

Jules Dassin has been criticized by some contributors to IMDb by his take on Homer, but actually, he also gives an appealing account of his scholar. Not being an actor, he understood what he wanted to accomplish with this Brooklyn man that has spent most of his life around books, but not around real life, something he finds living among the earthy people around the Greek port where he spends his vacation. In fact, he kept reminding this viewer of this type of individual that is more at home among books than with real people.

The black and white cinematography of Jacques Natteau, enhances the film and the background in which it was filmed. Manos Hatzidakis' delightful music score plays well in the story and it's never out of touch with what the director conceived. Ultimately, the film was another triumph for Jules Dassin, an American original whose body of work speak for itself.

Jules Dassin wrote, directed, and co-stars in this Greek-infused play on "Pygmalion", wherein an American scholar vacationing in Greece becomes obsessed with reforming the most popular prostitute in the village: a fiery local who picks and chooses her men--and celebrates alongside all her paramours with an 'open house' on Sunday. Melina Mercouri gives a star-making performance as the passionate Ilya, though Dassin, who also co-produced the film uncredited, may have taken on more than he could handle. The character of the professor (who's actually lusting in secret for Ilya) doesn't make a lot of sense, and Dassin's actorly turn in this role gives us little to go on (he's a blank). We understand that educating Mercouri's Ilya, in effect, replaces her sexual desires with a quest for knowledge, but one isn't sure how the professor personally hopes to benefit romantically from this denouement--nor how his plan relates to the greedy landlord who keeps raising the rent on all the prostitutes in town. The music and the film's celebration of life (and sex without need for attachments, which Dassin tells us can be cured by true love) put the movie over at the US box-office, but only Mercouri's delicious performance remains memorable today. **1/2 from ****

SYNOPSIS: A well educated American tourists attempts to 'enlighten' a Greek prostitute in a small seaside village.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER Newer is not always better, and sometimes over analyzing a problem can only make it worse. Leave well enough alone. It is more important to be happy than to understand everything.

PROS AND CONS Every recent prostitute film from 'Irma la Duce' to 'Pretty Woman' owes a lot to this work. It was one of the first films that shed light on the idea that prostitution was a respectable and acceptable way to make a living.

If nothing else this film is a homage by Jules Dassin to his wife, Melina Mercouri. She is the focus of the film and she captivates any scene she is in with her zest for life and smoldering sexuality. The other thing you tend to fall in love with is the romantic ideal of living in Greece in 1960. It appears care free, relaxed and almost infectious with its love of the simple life.

The plot of the film is not overly complex and deals with an outsider, Homer (Dassin) arriving in town to study Greek culture. He is almost immediately captivated by Ilya (Mercouri) as one of the local prostitutes that 'freelances' and does not work for the town pimp. She negotiates a price with whomever she chooses, and sleeps with all the towns vendors in exchange for her daily goods (food, wine, drinks, etc), but she never 'works' on Sunday. Hence the title to the film.

Homer is smitten by Ilya and decides that he must 'save' her from what he perceives as a wretched life that is going no where and decides to educate her so that she can see the error of her ways. In the end, this does nothing but frustrate everyone in town. The education of Ilya does have a silver lining, which if anything, leaves the town more corrupted than when Homer found it.

The underlying theme of the film is that one should strive to be happy in what you do and more importantly, who you know. There is an interconnection between people in a small town, and disrupting those connections may lift some people up, but is not good for the whole of society. Regardless of his meddling, the towns people never turn on Homer, or blame him for anything. At their core, they know that life is to be enjoyed and blaming people for your troubles is just not part of the mix.

An American scholar (Jules Dassin) in Greece meets earthy, happy prostitute Ilya (Melina Mercouri). He attempts to "reform" her and make her better.

The plot is old, clichéd and entirely predictable but this works. It shows what Greece (supposedly) was like in 1960 and you get caught up in the spirit of it. Everybody is happy, sex is seen as a great thing, everybody gets drunk and there's no problem with it and all the Greek men know how to dance and sing. It's actually refreshing to see a film that doesn't condemn all these things! Also Mercouri is just fantastic is Ilya. She's full of energy and fire and is drop dead gorgeous. It's hard to believe she was 40 when she did this! Also Tonio, her boyfriend (sort of), is played by the extremely handsome Giorgos Foundas. Him and Mercouri work well together and their scenes really sparkle. They also almost show Mercouri topless a few times and almost show Foundas nude also. These scenes are tame today but they must have been shocking in 1960. Mercouri also sings the title song in Greek.

The bad things--there's some badly overdubbed dialogue in the beginning (watch the fighting scene), Dassins' character is extremely annoying and unlikable and this was so predictable I started to get bored. Still it's pleasant and enjoyable. Slightly recommended.

It is easy to see why I am fascinated with Greece. It is not because of it's role in this film. Melina Mercouri plays a self-made woman of the world's oldest profession in one of the world's greatest civilizations. She is beautiful, intelligent, and independent from men. In fact, she entices men to her rather than play subservient and inferior. Melina Mercouri was perhaps Greek's best known actress. While American born and bred, Jules Dassin's character, Homer, tries to capture his vacation in Greece. He tries to change her like Professor Higgins in Pygmalion and My Fair Lady. He cannot change what is special and unique about her. Ilia is a force to be reckon with and returns to her glory as the best person around, herself. She is a strong woman who makes no excuses for her lifestyle. The men adore and worship her like a Greek Goddess. Perhaps, that's what she is--a Greek Goddess! It makes you want to go to Greece ever more. It is no wonder that in real life, Jules Dassin and Melina Mercouri fell in love.

I haven't seen "Never on Sunday" in ages but I remember it as a really wonderful comedy. This was the very first time I saw Melina Mercuri -- and it's she and the Greek musical sound track that made it so pleasurable. The story doesn't matter really: It's enough to know that Mercuri plays a prostitute with a gift for joy and denial of harsh realities. If I remember correctly, she has a way of rewriting Greek tragedies in her head so that, at the end, "everyone goes to the seashore." I imagine that the film isn't as vivid as it was in its day because while the scenery was beautiful the photography was not special. You might not like Jules Dassin as Mercuri's foil -- he acted in as well as wrote and directed the film -- but see it for Mercuri. She played roles of greater significance in films that were perhaps more artful. But she is luminous and funny and sweet and gorgeous in this picture.

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.

I must repeat what some of the reviewers have said about this film. It is most unfortunate that a talented director Jules Dassin, Hollywood black list runaway, director of a very influential heist flick, Rififi , should cast himself as the goofy American that wants to educate his real life wife, Melina Mercouri. He is awkward in the role.

Unfortunately, this saucy prostitute that Melina plays started to grate on me early on. My parents talked of this movie when I was young and they thought it sexy in a 1950's way. There's not much actual skin, as we know R rated films today. There's tight fitting, long skirts that make the chunky babes look especially pear shaped. There's a lot of haughty drinking of the ouzo and the Zorba dancing, but really, the premise of Ancient Greece corrupted in the symbol of this smiling whore; indeed, Greece to be restored to greatness is so fuzzy, Dassin and Mercouri must have cooked it up in the Mediteranean sun. Two bottles of ouzo and the investors fell in. It just doesn't ring true.

This is one of the best films ever where the characters are human (unlike Star Wars, ET, etc), don't have magic powers (Edward Scissorhands, Terminator), aren't dealing with war, divorce, murder. In fact, no one gets killed!!!! No one needs to be killed or murdered for us to be manipulated into feeling drama for these characters, because the acting and story line are that good!!! Hello, Hollywood???? A truly believable, honest, sincere snapshot of 1960 Greece, questioning the difference between 1960 Greece and ancient Greece from an American and Greek perspective. I feel some irony writing this, as this movie seems so sweet, innocent, and pure nowadays compared to today's movies with their gratuitous sex and violence, yet in its time, Never on Sunday was a bit racy and controversial, as its heroine is a prostitute, yes? And the music is still catchy and great.