JohnHowardReid NOTES: Number 5 at the U.S./Canadian boxoffice for 1959. The movie did even better in the U.K. where it came in at Number 3. In Australia, however, the movie did virtually no business at all. Quite likely, it actually lost money after deducting advertising expenses, print costs and distribution overheads.Ever since Edison Marshall's 1951 novel hit the bestseller's list, it had been considered prime film material. In 1952 Mike Todd and Edward Small planned a joint venture in producing a film of the bloodthirsty actioner, but it remained for Kirk Douglas' Bryna production company to set the project into expensive actuality. (At the time Douglas was labeled Kirk von Stroheim for his seeming budgetary excesses on The Vikings.) Filmed in Technicolor and Technirama, with location work in Brittany and along the coast of Norway, and Viking ships and village replicas built at Fort La Lotte in Dinard, France, The Vikings cost nearly four million dollars, but grossed $6.049 million in distributors' domestic receipts.COMMENT: Most reviewers have been facetious in dealing with The Vikings, referring to it as a "Norse Opera" and commenting that the great expense and effort spent on the historically accurate sets and costumes is at variance with its probable audience, i.e., the juvenile trade, and admirers of gore and violence on the screen. Provided he is willing to tolerate the banality of the story, the history student will find much to catch his eye, beginning with the film's credit titles. These were designed by the UPA studio, and give animation to figures suggested by the Bayeux tapestry, setting up the historical background of the story. The interiors of the film were shot in the Geiselgasteig Studios in Munich, and the exteriors were shot in Norway and on the coast of Brittany. All this visual grandeur was magnificently color photographed by Jack Cardiff, soon to become a director himself. Some of his shots, especially scenes of the Viking ships in fjords, are mystically beautiful.

jc-osms Big budget, starry-cast, historical, make that almost pre-historical, action movie where a one-eyed Kirk Douglas plays a rumbustious (that's putting it mildly) Viking prince and his unwitting half-brother Tony Curtis (the offspring of Douglas's dad, King Ragnar's, rape of the British queen on a previous raid, years before) a soon-to-be one-handed British slave who are both vying for the love of Welsh princess Janet Leigh, whilst Ernest Borgnine as Ragnar eggs his boy on from the sidelines. There's also a minor sub-plot about the Vikings crossing the water to remove from power the new, cruel, usurping English king who's tricked Curtis's Eric out of his birthright to be king himself and who to seal the deal just happens to get himself betrothed to the young Leigh.The movie is beautifully shot in natural light in and around actual Norwegian fjords which look superb in big-screen colour and the recreation of the Viking long-boats by the film's carpenters is also remarkable, but if I'm starting a review by praising the backgrounds, it probably means there's a want in the foreground, and so it proves.Douglas's boorish Einar looks old enough to be Eric's half-father and his usually drunken behaviour hardly endears him to the viewer. At one point he is determined to rape Leigh's Princess Morgana and is only stopped by Curtis's timely intervention. Curtis's character, unusually, is a man of few words but even with a beard, the young Tony doesn't completely convince playing it strong and silent. The object of their affections, Janet Leigh, appears able to bewitch these two the minute they clap eyes on her, which I suppose is fair enough as she does look lovely in her robes, but she's not really required to do much between simpering and occasionally seething.There are some odd scenes of I presume authentic old Viking customs, if you exclude feasting, drinking and womanising on a Henry VIII scale that is, like "walking the oars" and strangest of all the method of proving a wife's infidelity which involves putting her in a set of stocks, then nailing up her outstretched hair plaits and inviting her allegedly cuckolded husband to free her by throwing axes to sever her plaits. Talk about being saved by a hair's breadth. Elswhere there's no stinting on the crowd scenes and the battle scenes are reasonably exciting if not wholly convincing. This film was reasonably entertaining as a spectacle but for me was let down by the hackneyed plotting, use of extreme coincidence and shallow characterisation. Douglas and Curtis of course would get back into tunics and sandals a few years later, but this time with a better tale to tell and under a master director in Stanley Kubrick. To paraphrase a famous line from that movie however, this film here isn't "Spartacus".

richieandsam THE VIKINGSYeah... another Sunday morning movie. I only recorded this off of the TV because it had the legendary Ernest Borgnine in it. I met Ernest a few years ago, and he was one of the nicest actors I have met so far. A really big character. He has made so many great movies and I watched him in various things whilst growing up. I felt very privileged to have met him.This film is not bad... but not great.Lots of Vikings, lots of violence and lots of sword fights. There were some really good scenes.The cast list was very impressive. It stared Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis. Ernest Borgnine and Janet Leigh. It is unbelievable how much Kirk Douglas looks like Michael Douglas in this film. Michael definitely got his looks from his Dad.Kirk played a great character. He was a Viking who had an awesome scar across his face. He looked really good. Tony Curtis played a slave that was actually the rightful King but didn't know it. Kirk had a score to settle with the slave as it was him that gave Kirk that scar.This film, like a lot of other old movies, was a bit harsh on the animals. I don't think any animals got seriously hurt in it. There is one scene where Tony Curtis was holding a Hawk. The Hawk was clearly tied to Tony's hand... but when Kurt kicked Tony in the chest and knocked him down... that poor bird definitely took a tumble. I just remember thinking to myself "There is no way Hollywood could get away with that now.". And not that they would need to... special effects are so good these days that they can make it look like an animal has died, where really there was no animal at all.Anyway, this film was OK. A pretty good story, not the greatest acting from everyone, but not too bad. Clearly Kirk, Tony, Ernest and Janet did brilliantly... just some of the supporting cast were not that good. Some of the death scenes were comical.I will give this film 6 out of 10.Not a bad daytime movie. For more reviews, please check out my Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ordinary-Person-Movie- Reviews/456572047728204?ref=hl

Spondonman I first saw as an impressionable youngster in 1969, a Star Movie on UK ITV – in not so impressionable middle age it still impresses me: it's a wonderful adventure film. And even with that (afaik) it maintained a remarkable authenticity in the portrayal of the Norsemen and Anglo-Saxons, their customs and manners.Bulging plot basically has Norse buck Kirk Douglas and apparent Saxon Tony Curtis after Welsh Princess Janet Leigh, for ransom, supremacy and passion. It really is a roller-coaster ride, so many, and I really mean too many things happen. A few quick favourite episodes: there's a rape at the beginning that's pivotal but simply glossed over; Douglas's eye is torn out bloodily by a hawk, later roaring drunk he still manages with his other eye not to hurl an axe into his erstwhile girlfriend's head; ever-boisterous Ernest Borgnine gets ripped apart by wolves; Curtis is nearly snapped up by crabs, later his hand is chopped off by the cracked English King; apart from all that (and more) there's a complicated storyline too.There can't be many films more swashbuckling and adventure-bound as this – it shows its age occasionally as decidedly pre-cgi cartoonery, no bad thing, and there are occasional slip-ups as Odin only knows. And seeing Dandy Nichols in it always jarred! But all in all I advise don't hesitate, it's bags of fun and a colourful voyage of entertainment.