LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Melina Mercouri: Jules Dassin
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In the film, Melina Mercouri portrays a Russian actress who has dreams of seeing her son becoming famous. Skilfully, Delerue adds Russian flavours (the accordion melody in 'Leningrad - Prologue' is one of those beautiful, slow and romantic Delerue themes you just fall in love with immediately) to a score that ... has a lot of other influences, the most striking ones coming from Vivaldi. Promise At Dawn is a pretty eclectic work with a distinctly classical sound where Delerue's own melodic genius meets the influences of masters like Mozart, Glinka and Vivaldi. You can also hear traces of his own groundbreaking score for Jules et Jim in gallop pieces like 'Pursuit (To the Chemistry)' and 'Romain Riding a Bicycle'.
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In this contemporary reworking of Eurpides’ Hippolytus, Melina Mercouri plays the wife of a Greek shipping magnate (Vallone) who finds herself inextricably enmeshed in an overpowering love for her husband’s son (Perkins). In a performance the New York Times called “luminous with fervor and honesty,” Mercouri conveys a range of agonizing emotions—from irrepressible passion to bitter jealously to despair—that extends the tradition of the great Phaedras of the stage to Dassin’s highly expressive screen. Noted for its striking Mediterranean locales, Dassin captures the Hellenic setting with his characteristic visual strength.
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Celu Qui Doit Mourir (He Who Must Die) represented director Jules Dassin's first professional collaboration with his future wife, Greek actress Melina Mercouri. Filmed on the island of Crete, the story concerns the efforts by the townspeople to stage their annual Passion Play. The priest in charge of the play, anxious not to rock the boat with the occupying Turks, refuses aid and comfort to a rebellious priest from a battle-scarred village. But three townspeople do their best to help the visiting cleric, an act that splits the town right down the middle and forces the previously benevolent Turkish overlord to take decisive action. Melina Mercouri offers a dry run of her Never on Sunday character as the town trollop. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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Eventually, he settled in Greece, where he fell in love with actress Melina Mercouri after casting her in his religious allegory He Who Must Die (1957). Wanting to boost both his own career and hers, he set out to create a vehicle for her that would capture the international market. The result was Never on Sunday, the comic romance of an American tourist (Dassin) who sets out to reform a small-town prostitute (Mercouri) only to make her miserable. In an effort to assure the film's U.S. success, he even wrote most of the scenes in English, using the tourist's ignorance of the Greek language as an excuse.
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It was during this period of renewed activity that Dassin met Greek actress and singer Melina Mercouri, who was to become his wife and the star of eight of his films. Possessed of a passionate and exuberant persona, Mercouri achieved international acclaim for her performance as Ilya in Never on Sunday. Long a political activist, she devoted much of her energy in the late 1960s and early 70s fighting against the right-wing military junta in Greece. Despite forced exile, she eventually returned to Greece and was elected to political office, serving for more than eight years as Minister of Culture. For both her acting achievements on stage and screen and for her zestful commitment to Greek art and politics, Mercouri was considered a national heroine at the time of her death in 1994.
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Mercouri was de dochter van een Atheens politicus. Als actrice werd zij ontdekt door Jules Dassin met wie zij in 1966 in het huwelijk trad. Zij vierde triomfen in verschillende van zijn films, vooral in de wereldberoemde Never on Sunday uit 1960. Toen in 1967 na een militaire staatsgreep de kolonelsregering aan het bewind kwam in Griekenland, ging zij uit afkeer in vrijwillige ballingschap en voerde zij in vele landen actie tegen het dictatoriale regime, dat uiteindelijk in 1974 ten val kwam.
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Jules Dassin