The Vikings *****/*****
Director: Richard Fleischer
Writer: Edison Marshall
Stars: Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Ernest Borgnine, Janet Leigh, James Donald, and Alexander Knox
Genre: Action/Adventure
Length: 114 minutes
Cinema: 1958
Rating: Not Rated
I first saw this film when I was in my early teen years. I remember being in love with the beautiful
Janet Leigh [Who‘s surprisingly mother of another fine actress,
Jamie Lee Curtis]. My first viewing in about 18 years came this past Tuesday. How I missed this movie. People who love historical drama will have a fondness for director
Richard Fleischer's 1958 production of
The Vikings.
Kirk Douglas,
Tony Curtis,
Earnest Borgnine, and
Janet Leigh lead a large cast competently through a pedestrian plot highlighted by some memorable scenes, excellent cinematography, historical accuracy, and extensive production values. The recent DVD release features a featurette with the director, explaining the pains they took to record an accurate portrayal of the 9th century Vikings that terrorized Europe. A year in pre-production, they consulted with Viking historians from the University of Oslo to re-create the culture, obtained blueprints of Viking ships from the Viking Museum to create authentic replicas, and scouted the fjords of Norway to find a suitable filming location.
The film does capture some of the rowdy lifestyle of the Vikings, though it's not nearly as bloody as it would have been had it been filmed post-Peckinpaw. Viking king Ragnar (
Borgnine) pillages northern England, killing the king and impregnating the queen (off screen, of course). This potential heir to the English throne must be secreted away to Italy, only to be identified with a stone that will later show up on the chest of Eric (
Curtis), who has ironically been captured as a slave from another of Ragnar's raids.
Twenty years later we see Princess Morgana [
Janet Leigh] signing papers so she can become wife of King Aella in the first day of spring. In that ceremony, King Aella mentions to everyone that there’s a traitor. Lord Egbert [
James Donald] is accused as the traitor of the English. And so he is a traitor because he’s later sentenced to jail but escapes and goes out to sea to find the Vikings! He joins the Vikings by helping them. King Ragnar accepts Egbert as a mapmaker. Later on we see Einer [
Douglas] heir to the title of Head Viking, showing Lord Egbert one of his hunting hawks. He sees a duck flying in the air and tells his hawk “Kill!” The hawk flies into the air but doesn’t do what his master told him. Einer calls his hawk back in a disappointed way. Egbert sees an unfamiliar hawk come out of nowhere and kill the duck! Einer wonders who’s hawk it is. He follows the unfamiliar hawk and sees that Eric, is the owner of the hawk. Einer asks Eric where he got the hawk from and the slave responded by saying that he found him. Einer doesn’t believe him and later feels insulted because of the disrespect he’s getting from the slave. Eric couldn’t take anymore of Einer’s accusations so he tells his hawk to, “Kill!” Einer suffers badly because his left eye is badly scratched. He bleeds painfully. Lord Egbert commands one of the Vikings to kill Eric but Einer insists by saying that he wants him alive!
This very scene causes tension throughout the rest of the film and forming the basis for moving the plot forward. Meanwhile, Ragnar plots to kidnap the Welsh princess Morgana and ransom her to King Aella. He takes his son Einer with him where we see him covering his left eye with a cloak. And so they accomplish to capture the beautiful princess. Her beauty inflames the desire of Einer and does the same for Eric when he sees her.
One of the film’s memorable moments ... this could be considered a spoiler,
WARNING: "The Vikings" spoilers below
is when Ragnar is captured by the English and leaps into a wolf pit gleefully clutching his sword.
is when Ragnar is captured by the English and leaps into a wolf pit gleefully clutching his sword.
Every Viking has to die with a sword in their hands, which is part of their religion. Odin is mentioned allot, as it is the Vikings God.
Fans of
Douglas will adore his performance here, complete with scarred face and that creepy milk-white eyeball.
Borgnine is all chubby bluster as Ragnar, the friendliest Head Viking you’d ever imagine, while
Leigh is adorable and a little sassy as the beautiful damsel. If there’s one real weak link in the cast, it’s
Curtis as the purportedly heroic Eric. Although he is a fondly remembered movie star, this role is a bit of a stretch for Curtis, who often sounds whiny and occasionally lapses into something resembling a Brooklyn accent. Plus he just doesn’t offer that ‘action hero’ vibe.
Director
Richard Fleischer does an A+ job. Him and
Douglas show us how hard they worked to make this late 1950’s film. If
The Vikings is remembered for offering a lot of ‘campy’ moments full of boisterous overacting and overripe dialogue, I’d say that’s a fairly accurate reputation. But the finest components of this movie easily overpower the sillier bits, and the lion’s share of praise is due to director
Fleischer. Working on location in Norway (among other gorgeous and chilly spots),
Fleischer adroitly balances his massive cast, a few overwhelming set pieces and props, and a screenplay that approaches camp a few times but effectively slips back into melodrama quite nicely. Plus, the visual scope of the Vikings is nothing short of astonishing. If I were to have a Top 100 List like LordSlaytan,
The Vikings would be there. If you’re looking for a good, old-fashioned period epic that offers solid movie stars and a stunning visual scope, I’m betting you’ll have a good time with
The Vikings.