The Vikings (1958)

Touches You

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

While preparing for Hot Toasty Rag's week of Kirk Douglas movie reviews, I rented both Ulysses and The Vikings, among others. I asked my mom what was the difference between those two mentioned flicks, since they seemed extremely similar. Her answer: "In one of them, Kirk Douglas gets his eye poked out. The one-eye movie is terrible." A very succinct distinction.I'll elaborate, though, since my reviews are typically longer than two sentences. Ulysses is an adaptation of Homer's Odyssey; The Vikings is based of Edison Marshall's The Viking. While Ulysses has fantastical elements, like giants, sirens, and sorcery, The Vikings is just a regular old Nordic adventure movie. Except, no one has any trace of an accent. In this one, Kirk Douglas is the legitimate son of Viking warrior Ernest Borgnine. Tony Curtis is the illegitimate son, and in an early scene, he orders his falcon to peck out Kirk's eye. The rest of the movie is a struggle between the brothers as they fight for love of Janet Leigh, inheritance from Ernie, and other Viking-ish issues, like Valhalla, ships, war, and the treatment of prisoners.Personally, I liked Ulysses better, but if you want to see the husband and wife team act together, or if you particularly like Tony Curtis-I don't, really-you might make it through this one relatively unscathed. I found it rather silly and dated, though.

This classic ¨The Vikings (1958)¨ by Richard Fleischer packs a big name cast as Kirk Douglas , Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis . Very well-done adventure movie following the exploits of a group of Vikings sailing on Dragon ships like serpents on the sea , the terrible Northmen led by Ragnar , Einar and Eric . All of them shouting a battle-cry to their awesome god of war , Odin ! This enjoyable picture packs adventures , thrills , good action scenes and being very amusing . But then a slave (Tony Curtis) and a Viking prince (Kirk Douglas) fight for the love of a captive princess (Janet Leigh) and assault an impregnable fortress . Adventure movie full of impressive battles , noisy action , fencing and breathtaking exteriors . Kirk Douglas is pretty good , he gives a nice performance as leader of a band of Vikings driving his ship sets sail for the unknown land in search of Britanny kingdom . Top-drawer cast as Tony Curtis , Ernest Borgnine and Janet Leigh and colorful British and Hollywood secondary casting such as Alexander Knox , Maxine Audley , Frank Thring , and James Donald . Furthermore , as narrator the great Orson Welles . Although full of stupid historical errors and unbelievable events , the film results to be really entertaining and overwhelming . Great location footage with sweepingly photography by the magnificent cameraman Jack Cardiff . Shot on location in Fort La Latte , Côtes-d'Armor, France , Brittany , France , Walchensee, Bavaria , Germany Hardanger , Norway and Lim Fiord , Croatia . Thrilling and evocative musical score by Mario Nascimbene . Well set , in fact screenwriters , producers spent some years researching the Norse civilization in preparation for doing this movie , this included the actual designs for the Viking ships they used and the breed of horse that they rode . The picture was handsomely shot and directed with verve and muscle by Richard Fleischer . Rating : Good , fine battle scenes and wonderful cinematography and locations make the movie a standout . This throughly amusing historical epic stands up to teens and adults viewings . Don't miss for Kirk Douglas fans .This basic costume epic belongs to Viking genre , such as : ¨Eric the conqueror¨ (1961) by Mario Bava with Cameron Mitchell , ¨The long ships¨ (1963) by Jack Cardiff with Sidney Poitier and Richard Widmark ; ¨ ¨The Viking queen (1967)¨ by Don Chaffey with Don Murray and Andrew Keir ; The Norseman (1978) ¨ by Charles B Pierce with Cornel Wilde and Mel Ferrer ; ¨The Viking sagas (1995)¨ by Michael Chapman with Ralph Moeller , among others .

This United Artists movie, directed by Richard Fleischer, has breathtaking beauty since it was produced around the fjords and mountains of Norway; in fact, the fjords were very refreshing-looking. It is, essentially, a "Scandanavian western" with a lot of exciting action all the way through. The movie depicted so well the bitterness and bitter fighting between England and Norway during the Middle Ages. The cast was well-picked. Kirk Douglas was a mean Viking barbarian named Einar, and the blond-haired, blue-eyed prided himself on being so handsome. Ernest Borgnine was a mean man himself named Ragnar, the father of Einar. (In real life,their ages were very close to each other.) Tony Curtis, who was adept at playing either dramatic roles or comedic roles, did a serious turn as Eric, a slave, mistreated but very brave. Janet Leigh, Tony Curtis' wife, was very beautiful as Morgana. The excitement of the movie maintained almost perfectly my attention and thus alleviated any boredom. The love scene in which Einar spoke to Morgana (which was Curtis speaking to his wife) was touching. For many reasons it should be considered a superb classic, since it was that to be sure.

United Artists THE VIKINGS (1958) is one of the great epics of the fifties. Based on the book "The Vikings" by Edison Marshall it was produced by Jerry Brasler for Bryna Productions (Kirk Douglas' own company which he named after his mother).Beautifully photographed in Technirama and Technicolor by ace British cinematographer Jack Cardiff more than 4000 multinational performers and technicians worked on the giant production. Filmed on actual locations in the mountains and fjords of Norway the picture is well remembered for its scenic beauty and authentic sets. The splendid screenplay was put together by Dale Wasserman and Calder Willingham and Richard Fleischer directed with a deft hand an all star cast. The picture is also notable for the fine polished narration spoken by an uncredited Orson Welles. Ragnar (Ernest Borgnine) is the savage Viking chieftain who with his Viking horde rape and pillage along the English coast. On one such raid he rapes an English Queen who later gives birth to a boy they call Eric (Tony Curtis). But his existing son Einar (Kirk Douglas) is unaware he has a half brother and grows to hate Eric especially after the Vikings attack an English ship and abduct the princess Morgana (Janet Leigh) whom both sons desire. Sometime later Eric rescues the princess from the Viking camp and in a small boat makes a dash for England with Ragnar and Einar in hot pursuit. During the chase Ragnar's ship goes aground in the fog but Eric saves him, pulls him aboard and takes him to England as well where the treacherous king Aella sentences Ragnar to die in the dog pit. Later Eric returns to Norway to muster Einer and his men to attack the English castle where Morgana is being held and to avenge Ragnar's death. The picture ends in a marvellous set piece as the Vikings take the castle after a blistering well staged battle and Eric and Einar battle it out to the death in a terrific sword duel atop the dizzying castle parapets.Performances are superb from the entire cast. Douglas himself is a standout in his own production. His facility for knockabout action is a joy to behold. His prowess and unerring skill at stunts is well revealed in THE VIKINGS exemplified in the taking of the castle sequence. Here Douglas, under fire from rocks and arrows, charges and leaps across the open moat grabbing onto the axe handles which his men had already thrown and embedded in the underside of the raised drawbridge. Then using the axes to grip he clambers up and over to let the bridge down. It is a stunning and spectacular piece of stunt work! Again in an earlier scene Douglas can clearly be seen doing what is known as Dancing The Oars whereby he hops from oar to oar outside the ship for the amusement of the camp. Excellent too was Tony Curtis! Here was the emergence of Tony Curtis the ACTOR which manifested itself in Burt Lancaster's "Trapeze" (1956), with Lancaster again in "Sweet Smell of Success" (1957) and then in "The Defiant Ones"(1958). Gone were his pretty boy days at Universal International the studio he started with and where he would become their top pinup male star alongside a young Rock Hudson and Jeff Chandler. Also a standout in THE VIKINGS is Ernest Borgnine giving a powerful portrayal of the Viking leader Ragnar - a part he was born to play. Others in smaller roles are good too such as Alexander Knox as the Friar, Frank Thring as the sly and dubious Aella, James Donald as Egbert the English traitor and Janet Leigh (Mrs. Curtis at the time) as the princess.My only problem with the movie is the staid and laboured music score by Italian composer Mario Nascimbene a composer who never really distinguished himself in anything he did. Despite the haunting and echoing motif that sings out the two words of the film's title on a giant elephant tusk the colourless tinny sounding score is quite insipid and uninspired. It is surprising that a composer the calibre of Miklos Rozsa or Dimitri Tiomkin - two men who could score such epics in their sleep - were not approached to work on Douglas' picture. Their involvement would have added immeasurably to the film giving it a greater buoyancy and density. However, the score not withstanding THE VIKINGS is still a great movie and remains one of cinema's finest blockbuster epics.