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

Absolutely silly from start to finish, the real problem with this female empowerment adventure is that it goes from episode to episode without really flowing from one plot element to the next. It is a badly written but often funny tale of a group of Viking women (lead by Abby Dalton of "Falcon Crest" and Susan Cabot) who decide to head out onto the Nordic seas to find their missing men and end up finding all sorts of other dangers, often going from one danger to the next without really believable explanation of how they got there. Pretty boy Bradford Jackson, who somehow didn't go off to battle with the Viking men, stows away on the Viking women's ship, and unless I blinked and missed it, went from hiding one moment to being amongst the girls in the next, having been discovered somewhere in between. They fight the winds, swirling sharks, a giant sea serpent who turns their ship over yet somehow they manage to all get to shore. There they come across a Barbaric tribe who place them in further danger, and along th way, Dalton and Jackson are threatened with being burnt to death, face another attack by the sea monster, yet somehow they never manage to look dirty or unshaven or with a hair out of place.Dalton, one of my favorite actors on the long running night time soap opera "Falcon Crest", seems far too modern to be clad in cave women dress, as do most of the other females around her. We are supposed to think that the dark haired men are barbarians simply because they are unshaven, yet they seem to have more of a civilized society than the Nordic looking Viking women and the men they are searching for. The sea serpent is appropriately scary looking, and the effects of its attack on their small but elegant Viking ship are actually pretty good. But the idiotic dialog and weak performances exposes this film for the type of drive-in junk it is where scantily clad females run around like some sort of Amazon women from the moon, but never seem to be really ready for the strenuous adventures they will face. I'm sure that real Viking women were closer to the comic strip character of Helga who was married to Viking Hagar, not the pin-up types presented here. This is worth spending 65 minutes simply for a few good laughs at the expense of the film, but like many early American International films, is quickly forgettable.

Read the title, then, read it again - what sort of quality you'd expect from a movie with such title. 'Viking Women' is very low production even for Corman's standards and it ranks as one of his worst films he has ever directed. It is a bizarre adventure film and not without entertainment value, but the film is silly and feels and seems so rushed (even Corman himself regretted taking such a big scale project on such a shoestring budget) that it is not hard to pass that particular film, although the title might sound intriguing (the title itself is worthy of some award like - Longest and Hardest to Memorize Title Ever).A band of viking women are planning to take a voyage to search their men who went missing while on the sea. Willful and strong women (who are built like underwear models, and almost dressed as one) build a ship, but soon they get into trouble themselves when the storm rises and cheap looking rubber sea serpent crashes their ship. They are cast on the shore of a land ruled by vicious savages who take the women in as slaves.Somehow Corman managed to make it all work and build somewhat coherent movie around half naked viking women, who looked like sorority girls at viking themed costume party, and one lousy cheap looking monster. Still, the final film is ridiculous enough to bear more similarities with the works of Ed Wood rather than better efforts from Corman himself.

Director Roger Corman is arguably the most influential filmmaker of the last fifty years. Not because his films are any good, but because his films and those of his production company have jump- started the careers of dozens upon dozens of actors, directors, and cinematographers. A quick look at his "film school" roster include such household names as, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda, Robert De Niro, Sylvester Stallone, William Shatner, John Sayles, Jonathan Demme, Nicolas Roeg, and the list goes on and on. Not only did Corman teach new and exciting techniques to a slew of modern filmmakers, he did so with economy of means and a lack of pretension that still holds to this day. My all time favorite Corman film is the original Little Shop of Horrors (1960) which was quite incredibly shot in 24 hours with a budget of only $27,000.Whatever time, money, and effort Corman spent making The Saga of the Viking Women..., it was too much. The plot revolves around a group of viking women who are awaiting the return of their men from a hunting expedition. After weeks of no word, a group of scouts got out into the North Atlantic in search of their beaus. Their adventures on the seas include tempests, barbarian hordes, shipwreck and their own jealousies; not to mention the sea serpent briefly mentioned in the title.Whatever style and substance used to make Corman's Edgar Allan Poe movies (1959-1964) is completely absent in this mess. Despite lead actress Abby Dalton's remarkable beauty her uncomfortable mannerisms betray a person completely out of her depth. Several moments of the film call for strong, brawny viking women hoisting sails and attacking barbarians with broad swords but I'm afraid no movie magic can make someone as slight as her strong and powerful. Having Abby "Joey Bishop Show" Dalton play a viking is like having Powder (1995) play Othello, it just doesn't work. The affable Susan Cabot fairs better playing the vamp; a talent she would later put to good use in The Wasp Woman (1959) two years later. Unfortunately the object of her desire Vedic the Viking (Jackson) is as robotic an Aryan rumba and ultimately sinks her and the film.It is said Corman was inspired to do the picture by the special effects work of Jack Rabin, Irving Block and Louis DeWitt. Opting for the special photographic effects used in Rocketship X-M (1950) and Flight to Mars (1951), Corman found the price tag of his film skyrocketing. As a result the famed sea serpent makes a fleeting appearance at the beginning and climactic end of the movie in a battle that rivals Bela Lugosi's giant octopus demise in Bride of the Monster (1955) in level of camp.Yet to call Saga of the Viking Women campy is a bit of an overreach. As mismatched as the leads are and a cheap as the special effects get, the story itself takes itself seriously. So seriously in-fact that there is no unintended laughter; only absolute and utter boredom. One can't help but think that with a couple more re-writes and a lot, LOT more money, this stinker of a movie might be as exciting as its poster.

Viking Women and the Sea Serpent, The (1957) ** (out of 4) Some viking women head off to locate their missing mates when they're attacked by a sea serpent and thrown on shore where they are taken hostage by some dumb King. The viking women must then fight to save their men and return home before one more battle with the sea creature. This is another ultra low budget picture from AIP and director Roger Corman but it remains slightly fun throughout. The look of the "sea serpent" is actually pretty good and I'd say it's probably the best looking creature from any of Corman's low budget films. The cast including Abby Dalton, Susan Cabot, Brad Jackson and Jonathan Haze is charming as well. The original (and on screen) title of this is The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent.