It Happened in Athens

It might not be a great movie, however it has huge merits as documentary since its depiction of historical Athens is great. It seems that it was indeed shot within the historical monuments that you can now only see from meters away, while the surroundings of the Acropolis - without today's cement pollution and road traffic -keep their entire aesthetic value. A couple of great greek actors are also included. Main american character is convincing, I feel he deserved a long success in film industry but he has strangely made only a couple of films

This is a frivolous light hearted comedy about about Greek farm boy, Trax Colton, who decides to enter the first Olympics in 1896. The movie follows his struggles through to his success. It's amusing to watch the primitive conditions athletes competed under back then, and the lack of formality. Real-life Olympic hero Bob Mathias plays the American captain. A real attraction is Jayne Mansfield, who as a beauty promises to marry the winner of the marathon. She appears in a number of skimpy, revealing costumes, trying to tempt the virtuous Colton, to humorous effect.

Even though Brad Harris is listed as being in the cast, he told me that he missed the start of the filming due to prior commitments. He just couldn't make it on time. Many reference books list him in the cast but he is NOT in the movie. Also, Mickey Hargitay was there at the time, with Jayne Mansfield, but wasn't used in the production. Larry Anderson, Canada.

The winner of the Arhens 1896 first modern Olympics was a Greek water carrier called Spyridon Louis,and this movie is a heavily fictionalized version of his story. They used Jayne Mansfield to sell the movie and she plays some sipposedly famous Greek actress of the time who has an affair with a Greek athlete. Theres a scene where she is undressing but her part is not very lengthy. What is interesting about this is they shot it on location in Greece and they used the actual stadium where the real games took place. There is a lot of footage of a reenactment of the 1896 games shot in the stadium filled with local crowd which is interesting. The rest is all about, what was to become the american team who actually won most of the gold medals in athletics which were the main event in the main stadium. The americans went there actually representing themselves since nobody in the US at the time thought these games would amount to anything. The IOC has since registered the athletes as representing the USA. One last thng,i wish FOX would release this either on DVD or Bluray in its Cinemascope frame,the actual DVD they are selling is cropped in 4/3 old TV format and missing most of hte original framing which makes it terrible especially in the wide angle scenes of the Olympic stadium.

Awhile ago FMC was showing this film a lot, so I had an opportunity to watch it.

I found it rather difficult to watch this film all the way through. The acting was uninspired, the story was weak, and overall it just dragged.There were moments that were intended to be humorous that just fell flat. The actors don't seem interested in giving there all here for the most part. Maria Xenia makes some effort, but given the weak script there is little she could do.

I do think that it could have been interesting had there been a little more focus on the Olympics aspect and less on Mansfield's character attempting to seduce Colton's character. The seduction falls flat on screen. And it seems the actors are just embarrassing themselves.