It is kind of hard to understand why Fox thought
this was a good idea for a film. It centers around the 1896 Olympics in Greece
and a Greek shepherd who wins the Marathon restoring Greek pride. Very little
of this is true other than the name Spiridon Loues of the Marathon winner.
But the headliner in the film is Jayne Mansfield who portrays a nitwit Greek
actress and only shows up every 20 minutes or so to look absolutely spectacular.
And I say that though Mansfield is so not
my type with her large everything. But that face is breathtaking in a few
shots. Still, at this point her career was fading with a Peplum in 1960,
The George Raft Story in 1961 and now this. In an attempt to reinvigorate
her career the next year, she made the horrific Promises, Promises in 1963
in which she appears nude in a trashy story with some shock value.
But unfortunately, hers is not the main
story. That goes to the Greek shepherd played by American Trax Colton, never
to be seen again. He is herding his sheep with his dog Sophicles when he
hears that the Olympics begin in Athens the next day. He walks to Athens
where he runs into a girl from his village. She is a servant to Mansfield.
He wants to run in the Marathon. Mansfield has promised as a publicity stunt
to marry the winner of the Marathon. Hell, I would start training. The race
takes up nearly the final third of the film and is kind of fun. In this version
of the Olympics, the Americans win everything else. Not true. The Greeks
won the most medals. Fox throws some money into this film with 50,000 extras
for stadium scenes, but it lost money and Fox ended its contract with Mansfield.
By the way, the American coach is played by Bob Mathias, a name many won't
remember, but he was on Wheaty's boxes at one point for winning the Gold
for the Decathalon in 1948 and 1952.
