Review of Viking Women And The Sea Serpent

Introduction

It may say on the poster in big letters "Viking Women and the Sea Serpent", but the full title of this 1958 Roger Corman drive-in fodder is: "The Saga of the Viking Women and their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent". Obviously the artist was being paid by the letter. "Viking Women" falls into that wonderfully silly category of cod-historical movie that includes the classic Hammer dinosaur pictures, The Black Sword of Falworth and other such delights which have the ones-who-don`t-get-it complaining about historical inaccuracy.

It`s just a dumb adventure movie. Shot on a microscopic budget by a director and crew with a real talent for doing things with chewing gum and bailing wire. If you absolutely have to have scientific veracity, you could convince yourself that Vikings really did reach America before Columbus because every man jack of them speaks Viking like a Southern Californian.

At 65 minutes running time, it isn`t exactly a Norse Epic, and unfortunately it predates both camp and self-awareness so it`s played agonisingly straight.

Video

The movie is presented in its original 4:3 format and black-and-white. Like all the Arkoff American International Pictures collection the movie has suffered from the passage of time.

Audio

Only Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono.

Features

Like every movie in this collection, the disc includes a 50 minute audio only interview with Samuel Z Arkoff. There are also nine theatrical trailers for movies in the collection. The movie is only subtitled in Dutch. Go figure.

Conclusion

One of Roger Corman`s earlier cinematic endeavours and typical of the drive-in variety of budget movie beloved by Studios and Teenagers alike in the 1950s. No deep story, no great acting, no budget to speak of but made with the same kind of gusto that Hammer applied to film-making in the 1960s (usually with Playboy playmates dressed in furry bikinis). Watch out for the rubber monsters and the even more rubbery leading man.