Never on Sunday (1960)

Made in 1960 and produced through Melina Mercouri's own production company MelinaFilm in association with Lopert Pictures Corporation, Never on Sunday is a Greek-made comedy romance that arrived at an interesting moment in European cinema. The early 1960s saw a wave of films produced outside Hollywood finding genuine international audiences, and this one, shot on location around the port of Piraeus, is very much a product of that era. It is sun-drenched, loosely structured, and built around a central performance rather than a plot of any great mechanical complexity. The film's tagline, "The Happy Street-Walker of Piraeus", tells you something about how it was marketed, and perhaps also about the mild controversy it courted. The story, in broad terms, concerns an earnest American classical scholar who becomes fixated on a free-spirited Greek woman and sets about trying to, as he sees it, improve her. Whether that project succeeds, or deserves to, is where the film gets interesting.

Jules Dassin, the American director who had been blacklisted in Hollywood during the McCarthy era and subsequently built a career in Europe, both directed and appears in the film as the male lead. His presence on both sides of the camera gives the production an unusual quality, and it is worth noting that by this point Dassin had already demonstrated considerable range as a filmmaker. His collaboration with Mercouri, who was his partner in life as well as his leading lady here, lends the film a warmth that feels unforced rather than manufactured. Mercouri herself had been working steadily in Greek theatre and film before this, but Never on Sunday brought her to the attention of international audiences in a way little else had managed. She received the Best Actress award at Cannes for this performance, and the film's theme song, composed by Manos Hadjidakis, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, making it something of a landmark in terms of Greek cinema's visibility abroad. The supporting cast, including George Foundas, Titos Vandis and Mitsos Lygizos, fills out the Piraeus setting with a gallery of supporting characters who help establish the film's relaxed, port-town atmosphere. For further context on Greek cinema, both old and new, it is worth browsing the site's coverage of All That's Left of You (2025) and Semele (2015), both also from Greece. For other romance films reviewed here, The Bigamist (1953) offers an interesting parallel in its handling of relationships that sit outside conventional social approval, and Persona (1966) provides a broader sense of what European art cinema was doing in the years immediately following this film.

A-Z World Movie Tour Greece A 65 year old Greek film that holds so much charm, wit and even comedy that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Full of all the charm and whimsy of a laid back 60s film but with a duality in it's message. On the one hand it's Homer, the american who can't possibly believe that a woman could be happy in sex work, and there's Iliad, a woman who seeks happiness above all else and tries to make Homer find his own happiness. The music is great, the characters are really varied and fun, the acting from Melinda Mercouri was really impressive. The message is a little dated but it's 65 years old... Would recommend.

What strikes me most, looking back on the film, is how well it wears its age in some respects while being so obviously a product of its time in others. The gender politics embedded in Homer's whole project, this idea that a woman living contentedly on her own terms must somehow need rescuing or educating, would be handled very differently today, and probably should be. But there is something almost self-aware in the way the film frames his certainty as faintly ridiculous, and Mercouri's Iliad never really loses the argument. For a 91-minute film shot with a fairly modest setup, it has a lightness of touch that a lot of more polished but unremarkable comedies from the same period simply do not manage. The music stays with you, too. Sometimes the best thing a film can do is leave you humming.

Rating: ★★★½  | Year: 1960  | Watched: 2025-06-26

View on Letterboxd →

Trailer

▶ Watch the official trailer for Never on Sunday (1960) on YouTube

Where to watch

Watch in the US
Stream: Amazon Prime Video · YouTube TV · ScreenPix Apple TV Channel · Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Physical: Amazon US

Affiliate disclosure: Movies With Macca may earn a small commission on purchases or subscriptions started via these links. It costs you nothing extra.

Related on Movies With Macca

More from Greece: Triangle of Sadness (2022) · Semele (2015)
More from the 1960s: Viy (1967) · Persona (1966) · Carnival of Souls (1962) · Daisies (1966)
More comedy: The Eagle (1925) · The General (1926) · Americana (2023) · The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
More romance: The Eagle (1925) · The Last Picture Show (1971) · The General (1926) · The Docks of New York (1928)