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

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.

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.

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.)

I laughed myself silly watching this "epic" about several viking women going to sea to find their men, seemingly lost at sea. The women(all very good looking with their blonde hair flowing over their statuesque shoulders) construct a boat and sail only to be caught up in a whirlpool that sends them near a hideous sea serpent(looking like something bought at a five and ten store) and to the land of the Grimolts...a race of people that have enslaved all the unfortunate beings that land on their territory. The Grimolts are savages, and have enslaved the viking men. From here the film chronicles how the viking women get back with their viking men. As another reviewer stated, this is certainly not up to Roger Corman's standard good work with a small budget. Instead, this is a cheap movie with a ridiculous script, poorly acted leads(must be all that blonde hair going to everyone's head), and some of the most unbelievable costumes, sets, and special effects around. Yet, the film has a certain charm to it and I found myself enjoying it quite a bit. Some of the lines and situations are natural knee-slappers. Just wait till you see the scene at the Grimolt banquet when out of nowhere a pretty girl starts dancing to 50's style music in a sheepskin. The scene of the the fire-burning at the stakes is another belly-roller as the two lead vikings profess their love. Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent is a lot of fun to watch...some of the humour intentional and much of it unintentional.