The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent

When you consider that this was the 9th film that Corman produced and directed for AIP in 1957 it's a miracle he didn't have a heart attack on the set and have it turn out as entertaining and semi coherent as it is.

Ncholson and Arkoff who were marketing masters basically took the hype from the anticipation of post production Kirk Douglas epic The Vikings and threw in some babes and a monster and beat the big studio release to the punch by almost four months.

It's 0bviously Corman's biggest production until that date with extras and horses and matte paintings and you can tell his energy is mainly concerned with just getting it done on time rather than adding his signature quirkiness that you would find in Attack Of The Crab Monsters,Day The World Ended or Bucket Of Blood. COmpared to it's co-feature The Amazing She Monster the proceeding are intricate and lavish.

Like most low budget drive-in flicks from AIP you just go with the flow and enjoy the goofs and the good looking dames. ANything else and your just fooling yourself into thinking you're a real film critic. ;-)

Despite a meager $65,000 budget, and thanks to Corman's skill in making a little money go a long way, the film looks far more expensive than its actual cost. True, despite his co-star status in the movie's title, the serpent figures very little in the film's action, most of the heavy's duties being taken over by the fascinatingly treacherous Richard Devon and the equally charming Susan Cabot (the Wasp Woman herself). Lithe Abby Dalton plays the Viking leader with appropriate girlish gusto, while twisted but surprisingly ungrateful Jay Sayer has his menacing moments as a petulant prince. The story is absolute nonsense from first to last, but Corman keeps the action moving at such a commendably fast clip from go to whoa, a total lack of conviction doesn't really amount to a factor that will upset rabid American-International fans.

At first glance, "The Saga Of The Viking Women and Their Blah Blah Blah..." looks like it will be a lot of fun. It's an early American-International movie, a studio that even back then pushed for exploitation entertainment in their movies. It's also directed by Roger Corman, whose movies usually prove to be a lot of fun. And the movie starts off being a lot of fun. In the first part of the movie, we get a lot of unintended laughs. The back projection of ocean when the ship is afloat makes it look like the ship is hovering hundreds of feet above the surface, the ship is pretty small yet a stowaway manages to sneak aboard and stay hidden for some time (but later, all of a sudden, he's with the crew, with his exposure never seen.) There's 21th century terms in the dialogue, and the sea serpent effects are laughable. That's the first part. Unfortunately, around the time the viking women wash ashore, the movie quickly turns around and becomes surprisingly boring. It's not campy, just dull. Had the movie kept its focus on the viking women, or the sea serpent for that matter (the movie forgets about the sea serpent after the first appearance until the very end), the movie would probably been a lot more entertaining. At least the movie is short (66 minutes.)

Considering the title and that the film was made by Roger Corman during his "quickie" days (he'd already made something like 679 other films in 1957), this film is about what you'd expect--a very low budget and silly picture. The only decent thing about the movie is the soundtrack--not bad at all. Otherwise, it's pure crap--1950s drive-in movie crap.

The film begins with a bunch of scantily-clad blondes in Scandinavia pining for their lost men. Apparently the men had gone off to sea a few years earlier and never returned. So, these ladies decide to go in search of them. In real life, Viking women were amazingly tough ladies, but I just couldn't see this gaggle of skinny ladies putting up much of a rescue effort--and I turned out to be right. After almost being killed by a giant sea monster, the women wash ashore in the land of dark-haired bad actors where they are taken prisoner. There, they discover that their men are slaves to these dark-haired guys. I loved finally seeing the Viking men, as they all looked like extras from a 1960s beach movie--clean shaven, no chest hair and Troy Donahue hair---exactly like the rugged Vikings must have looked!! Eventually, the well-coiffed Vikings escape and the dark-haired jerks get theirs--the end.

While there is a bit more to the plot than this, I really don't care to elaborate--it's just not that interesting or important. Instead, let's talk about the worst aspect of the film--the writing. Again and again, characters do things that make no sense at all. Why take the Viking women on a wild boar hunt? Why does the only dark-haired lady in the bunch of Vikings (a sure sign of evil) behave so wildly unpredictably as she does (I suspect really, really bad PMS)? Why does a teeny, tiny sword kill a 6000-foot long sea monster? How did the Vikings expect to keep warm wearing outfits that looked like they were left over from American-International's last caveman or jungle film? And, why didn't the writers include anything that was remotely exciting or interesting?

The bottom line is that the film is just barely watchable but why bother unless you are a bad movie fan. Additionally, it seems that Corman must have quickly slapped together this film in anticipation of the soon to be released epic, THE VIKINGS, a film vastly superior in every conceivable way.

With a proclamation of "Our Men Beckon" a group of beautiful Viking women cast their fates to the wind and sail out in search for the men of their village who have been gone for over 3 years. As luck would have it though, they sail upon "the great serpent of the vortex" which causes them to become shipwrecked on the land of savage barbarians known as the Grimaults. Anyway, with a storyline like this, and the fact that it was produced and directed by Roger Corman, it should come as little surprise that this has "Grade B" written all over it. But also true to form he manages to make the most of what little he has to work with to present something that is quite campy but yet fairly entertaining in spite of it all. And while it is hard to overlook the bad dialogue and the silly plot, the action is fast paced and the women were definitely attractive. I especially liked "Asmild" (June Kenney) and "Dagda" (Lynette Bernay) but they were all pleasing to the eye. Likewise, while I don't dislike movies in black and white this one would have been much better in color. But then I suppose that would have been quite a bit more expensive back in 1957 and it probably wasn't feasible at the time.