The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent (1957)

Best movie ever!

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Enjoyable early Corman with California surfers as Vikings and dark-haired beach bums as their enemies. Bradford Hatton is the blandest Viking warrior you will ever see, but the film as a whole is not as bad as people say. Most of the minuscule budget went to the special effects and matte paintings, and the F/X men gave the producers as good as they got, though I must say the serpent is far better than I expected, a serviceable rubber snake with countless teeth, and better looking than Corman's crab monsters, wasp woman or the monster from the haunted sea. After budgeting cast and crew fees, Corman was left with the proverbial three bucks for costumes, sets and props. All this do show but he somehow managed to make it all look decent enough to pass for a drive-in masterpiece. "The Saga of the Viking Women" is a tight, little adventure film with a bit of melodrama for good measure, Jonathan Haze turning into a blond macho action hero out of the little shop of horrors; the Wasp Woman herself, Miss Susan Cabot, as a wicked high priestess; Jay Sayer as a queen-prince still in the closet, Richard Devon as a tyrant with no army but a bunch of soldiers with bad wigs, and a good ending with lovers reunited.

With a proclamation of "Our Men Beckon" a group of beautiful Viking women cast their fates to the wind and sail out in search for the men of their village who have been gone for over 3 years. As luck would have it though, they sail upon "the great serpent of the vortex" which causes them to become shipwrecked on the land of savage barbarians known as the Grimaults. Anyway, with a storyline like this, and the fact that it was produced and directed by Roger Corman, it should come as little surprise that this has "Grade B" written all over it. But also true to form he manages to make the most of what little he has to work with to present something that is quite campy but yet fairly entertaining in spite of it all. And while it is hard to overlook the bad dialogue and the silly plot, the action is fast paced and the women were definitely attractive. I especially liked "Asmild" (June Kenney) and "Dagda" (Lynette Bernay) but they were all pleasing to the eye. Likewise, while I don't dislike movies in black and white this one would have been much better in color. But then I suppose that would have been quite a bit more expensive back in 1957 and it probably wasn't feasible at the time.

Lo, the shield-bearing Norsemen, the wolf-skins of the North, turn in shame, for the shadow of the Corman Film fell over their land, bringing absurdity and scorn.In all seriousness, though, this is a VERY entertaining movie, though I wouldn't recommend it without the MST3K commentary, which handles it well enough to where you can actually follow the story (well, what there IS of a story) and still enjoy laughing with Joel and the bots. As has already been stated, the title really has nothing to do with the movie. I'm not even sure these gals are Vikings, being a descendant of Vikings myself and priding myself on knowing a good deal about Norse history and culture. But since Hollywood is STILL churning out historically inaccurate garbage, I shouldn't even bother touching on that for this movie.First of all, there ARE some positive things about this movie, such as a relatively talented cast (with only a few truly agonizing performances) decent dialog (for the most part) and a running time of only 66 minutes. Also all the Vikings are easy on the eyes, since apparently it's a law to make all Norsemen/women gorgeous and flaxen-haired.Okay, the acting is pretty decent, as I said. Abby Dalton (Desir) was not only gorgeous but also rather capable and Amazonian looking, and her acting was quite natural. Susan Cabot (Enger) was a scene stealer with her dark personality but underlying nobility, great at the cold, silent stare and the fiery outburst of rage. The character of Ottar was supposed to be comic relief, or something, but the actor did a fine job at it. You rooted for the little guy. Um, Vedric was painful to watch. Really...PLEASE ACT. The guy who played Stark was pretty good too. He spends most of his time ogling Desir (not sure if that was his character or just him) or looking like he just got over a hangover, but he was a good blend of creepy and just nasty. I only took issue with the costume. The prince? GIVE THAT MAN AN Oscar.Obviously not much is to be expected of this movie, being low budget and a CORMAN film, but it's entertaining. If you can't get hold of the MST3K version, get a bunch of friends together and just have fun watching it and laughing about it. It goes great with a tall plate of waffles.

A group of luscious and scantily clad '50s Viking babes decide to board a boat to search for their missing men who have disappeared some time ago. They wind up terrorized and shipwrecked by the giant creature of the title and the find themselves prisoners of a tribe of men who want to use them as their slaves.Thanks to director Roger Corman, this cheesy flick is made into something at least watchable. And for me, any chance to see blonde Sally Todd (FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER) and raven-haired Susan Cabot (THE WASP WOMAN) strutting their stuff is a plus.** out of ****