ULYSSES

IRE / GB / US
1967
2hrs 12mins
Dir: Joseph Strick
Starring: Milo O’Shea and Barbara Jefford

Life in Dublin with a Jewish newspaperman and a poet

This drama is loosely based on James Joyce’s 1922 novel of the same name. Although the complex novel was set in Dublin in 1904, the film features the city during the 1960s. Given the fabulous complexity of the original text it is perhaps unsurprising that the film bore little resemblance to Joyce’s work, but the harsh criticism it received is unjustified. It is astonishing and heartening to watch the cream of the Irish acting profession of the 1960s daring to utter and enact Joyce’s hugely transgressive text, the film is downright ‘filthy’, and Barbara Jefford is very sexy. The film includes some shots of CIE Cravens stock and a 2600 Class AEC DMU at Dublin Pearse station, though it seems that some shots were also filmed at another unknown location.

The railway scenes open with an overall shot of Dublin Pearse station, which had been renamed Pearse from Westland Row only the previous year, 1966
Now at platform level, the rear of a coach can be seen in the platform 3 bay
Cravens stock at Dublin Pearse, with vehicle 185N closest to the camera
Here we see an AEC/Park Royal 2600 Class DMU leaving, and it may be No.2654
There is an additional shot of a train passing in the night on an elevated section of line
Passengers leave a train of Cravens stock. Framed by the fretwork of the station footbridge (?) this is unlikely to be Dublin Pearse.