I doubt today we could make a film today with the opening sequence a rape of Queen Enid who is Maxine Audley by Ragnar the Viking Chief played by Ernest Borgnine. And Borgnine's supposed to be one of the good guys.
She's had no kids by her late husband the king and her late husband's cousin, Frank Thring, takes the throne. However Borgnine left something behind and the Queen has her child. She gives the child to some monks, but then the child is captured by that same pack of Vikings.
Some twenty years go by and Borgnine and his son Kirk Douglas are living high off the hog from their raids. They hit on another plan, capture Princess Janet Leigh who is betrothed to Frank Thring and get a hefty ransom for her. But Janet gets the hormones going of both Douglas and slave Tony Curtis.
Kirk Douglas produced The Vikings and he cast himself as the lusty Einar. He's always been an actor not afraid to be seen as less than noble, in fact some times as down right villainous. But here he's a chip off the old Borgnine block and while as a kid I loved this film, as an adult I've got some real problems viewing Borgnine and Douglas as heroes.
In fact the other problem is with Frank Thring. As King Aella, he IS the legitimate heir to the throne. He's supposed to be the bad guy, but the only bad acts we see him doing are to his enemy Borgnine who's done a lot of things he'd have to answer for and to Tony Curtis for disobeying an order. It's a major fault with the story.
The battle sequences and the general atmosphere of pre-Norman England and Viking Norway are well done by Director Richard Fleischer. I still like The Vikings on some level, but not as much as when I was a kid.
And The Vikings as a film should stay with the kid trade.
She's had no kids by her late husband the king and her late husband's cousin, Frank Thring, takes the throne. However Borgnine left something behind and the Queen has her child. She gives the child to some monks, but then the child is captured by that same pack of Vikings.
Some twenty years go by and Borgnine and his son Kirk Douglas are living high off the hog from their raids. They hit on another plan, capture Princess Janet Leigh who is betrothed to Frank Thring and get a hefty ransom for her. But Janet gets the hormones going of both Douglas and slave Tony Curtis.
Kirk Douglas produced The Vikings and he cast himself as the lusty Einar. He's always been an actor not afraid to be seen as less than noble, in fact some times as down right villainous. But here he's a chip off the old Borgnine block and while as a kid I loved this film, as an adult I've got some real problems viewing Borgnine and Douglas as heroes.
In fact the other problem is with Frank Thring. As King Aella, he IS the legitimate heir to the throne. He's supposed to be the bad guy, but the only bad acts we see him doing are to his enemy Borgnine who's done a lot of things he'd have to answer for and to Tony Curtis for disobeying an order. It's a major fault with the story.
The battle sequences and the general atmosphere of pre-Norman England and Viking Norway are well done by Director Richard Fleischer. I still like The Vikings on some level, but not as much as when I was a kid.
And The Vikings as a film should stay with the kid trade.