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

If you don't take it too seriously, you'll enjoy this film that ONLY Roger Corman, or at worst Bert I Gordon, could direct in those times; late fifties. It is totally crazy, daring, incredible, a mix up between historical, monster, and teenage genres. You have to watch it to believe it. It is not a dream, but a true Roger Coman's feature. Not his best, but you can't avoid this one, because in Corman's filmography, this movie is unique. Useless to say that with such a budget, you have to expect something very special. It is fun, never boring, laughable but a bit on purpose. Please watch it, please for Roger Corman's sake.

All of the men of a Viking tribe have disappeared across the great waters, so their lovesick ladies decide to build a boat and go find 'em. They run into a whirlpool and a giant sea monster before sailing their ship to Bronson Canyon, where they find a tribe of mean and cruel barbarians who are keeping the Viking men chained up in a cave.

Believe me, folks, I really would've liked to spend a little more time on the plot, but sadly, that's all we've got to work with here.

The Viking women are all gorgeous 1950s starlets, including such favorites as Abby Dalton (ROCK ALL NIGHT), Susan Cabot (THE WASP WOMAN), June Kenney (TEENAGE DOLL) and Sally Todd (THE UNEARTHLY). Jonathan Haze of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS fame is along for the ride, too, as a hot-headed young Viking anxious to prove his manhood, which you'd think wouldn't be too difficult considering that it's him and three dozen horny and nubile young women living alone in the village, but what do you expect from Seymour Krelboing, anyway?

Brad Jackson plays the leader of the Viking men, and you're surprised that (a) they elected him leader, or (b) that the women went to find him in the first place. He's dull and not very good in a fight. On the other hand, what lonely Norse lady wouldn't want to snuggle up to hunky Gary Conway, sans his TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN makeup, all rippling muscles in his li'l Viking pelts? Richard Devon, who played Satan in Corman's THE UNDEAD, is Stark, King of the Barbarians (Ooh! Good name!) and has a son who's a sissy, which matters not in this report but looms large in the film itself.

The picture is stolen by Miss Cabot, the only dark-haired Viking woman, who first schemes with King Stark to rub out her rival for the dull guy's attentions, then calls down the wrath of Thor when her plans go awry. She's by turns funny, mean, sexy, and pouty, and she blows the higher-billed Abby Dalton out of the water.

VIKING WOMEN AND THE SEA SERPENT is a goofily enjoyable movie despite its many shortcomings (as Corman put it, 'When working on a low budget, you are better off with material that does not depend primarily on spectacular special effects'). The film was originally released as a double-feature with THE ASTOUNDING SHE-MONSTER, so go 'head and treat yourself to a full double helping of freaky '50s female fun.

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.

A Corman cheapie which follows the fortunes of a tribe of Viking women, as they set sail to find their menfolk who have not returned from an earlier voyage.

Women are all statuesque blondes, apart from the evil one who, in the best film-noir tradition, is brunette.

After setting sail in the flimsiest longship imaginable ( a 20 ft canoe ), the women are pulled into a vortex and terrorised by a giant sea-serpent which causes them to be washed ashore in a strange land. Here they find there menfolk, who had followed a similar path and are now enslaved by a barbarian tribe, the Grimaults and forced to work down their mines.

The men are all bottle-blonde surf-dudes, and after some comings and goings the women manage to free their other halfs, and all manage to escape.

Any film with a title this tongue in cheek, particularly a Corman one, is difficult not to have some affection for. That said 'Viking Women....' is very poor in all departments, with script, performances, narrative all out of the bottom drawer. Not of the standard of other Corman films of the period, such as 'Day the World Ended' which despite limitations did have some recognisable strengths.

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.