BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

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

mark.waltz 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.

Uriah43 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.

MartinHafer Considering the title and that the film was made by Roger Corman during his "quickie" days (he'd already made something like 679 other films in 1957), this film is about what you'd expect--a very low budget and silly picture. The only decent thing about the movie is the soundtrack--not bad at all. Otherwise, it's pure crap--1950s drive-in movie crap.The film begins with a bunch of scantily-clad blondes in Scandinavia pining for their lost men. Apparently the men had gone off to sea a few years earlier and never returned. So, these ladies decide to go in search of them. In real life, Viking women were amazingly tough ladies, but I just couldn't see this gaggle of skinny ladies putting up much of a rescue effort--and I turned out to be right. After almost being killed by a giant sea monster, the women wash ashore in the land of dark-haired bad actors where they are taken prisoner. There, they discover that their men are slaves to these dark-haired guys. I loved finally seeing the Viking men, as they all looked like extras from a 1960s beach movie--clean shaven, no chest hair and Troy Donahue hair---exactly like the rugged Vikings must have looked!! Eventually, the well-coiffed Vikings escape and the dark-haired jerks get theirs--the end.While there is a bit more to the plot than this, I really don't care to elaborate--it's just not that interesting or important. Instead, let's talk about the worst aspect of the film--the writing. Again and again, characters do things that make no sense at all. Why take the Viking women on a wild boar hunt? Why does the only dark-haired lady in the bunch of Vikings (a sure sign of evil) behave so wildly unpredictably as she does (I suspect really, really bad PMS)? Why does a teeny, tiny sword kill a 6000-foot long sea monster? How did the Vikings expect to keep warm wearing outfits that looked like they were left over from American-International's last caveman or jungle film? And, why didn't the writers include anything that was remotely exciting or interesting? The bottom line is that the film is just barely watchable but why bother unless you are a bad movie fan. Additionally, it seems that Corman must have quickly slapped together this film in anticipation of the soon to be released epic, THE VIKINGS, a film vastly superior in every conceivable way.

michaeldukey2000 When you consider that this was the 9th film that Corman produced and directed for AIP in 1957 it's a miracle he didn't have a heart attack on the set and have it turn out as entertaining and semi coherent as it is.Ncholson and Arkoff who were marketing masters basically took the hype from the anticipation of post production Kirk Douglas epic The Vikings and threw in some babes and a monster and beat the big studio release to the punch by almost four months.It's 0bviously Corman's biggest production until that date with extras and horses and matte paintings and you can tell his energy is mainly concerned with just getting it done on time rather than adding his signature quirkiness that you would find in Attack Of The Crab Monsters,Day The World Ended or Bucket Of Blood. COmpared to it's co-feature The Amazing She Monster the proceeding are intricate and lavish.Like most low budget drive-in flicks from AIP you just go with the flow and enjoy the goofs and the good looking dames. ANything else and your just fooling yourself into thinking you're a real film critic. ;-)