The vikings and barbarians would be wearing cowboy hats and using colt .45's.
Good 'ol Roger Corman, he's not anything if not entertaining. Sure, the majority of his movies are terrible and often don't make any sense and having a coherent story is somewhat of an afterthought, but there's rarely been a time that I have not been entertained by one of his movies.
At just barely over 60 minutes long, you don't get much to watch and what there is just isn't all that great, but it's good for a laugh and to watch just how ridiculous a movie can be.
Everyone cast in this movie looks like they were handpicked straight from New York, California and New Jersey. From the blond hair and blue eyed vikings (I'm assuming, since it's black and white) to the portly and bowl haircut barbarians, everything about this screams "highschool drama class". No effort was made to make this seem like it took place in the time it says it does, what with the vikings perfectly permed hair and almost complete lack of body hair and the barbarians looking more like a weekend renfest extras group. The outfits could be used in nearly any kind of Greek, Roman or even pirate story, given a few changes here and there.
The dialogue it so woefully modern (well, modern for the time it was made). I understand that many movies of this time were mainly English speaking actors and rarely an accent to fit the role, but it was what was written in the script that made the difference. Most movies would use a lot less of abbreviations, such as "do not" instead of "don't".
Don't expect much in the way of special effects, the serpent shows up at the beginning and the end and with the exception of a rain machine there just isn't much else.
I will say that one thing I enjoyed was the inclusion of Thor (no, he doesn't actually show up), but too often in Greek and Roman movies, you get to see all the gods and what they can do, it was nice to have a movie focus on some norse mythology, even if it was short-lived and more of an deus ex machina (literally).
It certainly is a movie of the time, even with female leads, it ends up de-evolving into the typical "women can't do what men can" trope even though there is a very strong sense of female empowerment here. There is a time and place for women to say to a man "hey, I can do this without your help" and I do kind of wish they had just done that, but (again), this was the 50's and it wasn't meant to be. Besides, it's Roger Corman, who knows what he had in mind anyway. The women are all meant to be pretty and jiggle about in their almost-scantly clad outfits while spouting off viking-esque dialogue that just makes you cringe. I'm all for pretty women doing women things, but they're supposed to be vikings. Act like vikings.
A fun, short movie for when you're bored with nothing to do on a rainy day.
Good 'ol Roger Corman, he's not anything if not entertaining. Sure, the majority of his movies are terrible and often don't make any sense and having a coherent story is somewhat of an afterthought, but there's rarely been a time that I have not been entertained by one of his movies.
At just barely over 60 minutes long, you don't get much to watch and what there is just isn't all that great, but it's good for a laugh and to watch just how ridiculous a movie can be.
Everyone cast in this movie looks like they were handpicked straight from New York, California and New Jersey. From the blond hair and blue eyed vikings (I'm assuming, since it's black and white) to the portly and bowl haircut barbarians, everything about this screams "highschool drama class". No effort was made to make this seem like it took place in the time it says it does, what with the vikings perfectly permed hair and almost complete lack of body hair and the barbarians looking more like a weekend renfest extras group. The outfits could be used in nearly any kind of Greek, Roman or even pirate story, given a few changes here and there.
The dialogue it so woefully modern (well, modern for the time it was made). I understand that many movies of this time were mainly English speaking actors and rarely an accent to fit the role, but it was what was written in the script that made the difference. Most movies would use a lot less of abbreviations, such as "do not" instead of "don't".
Don't expect much in the way of special effects, the serpent shows up at the beginning and the end and with the exception of a rain machine there just isn't much else.
I will say that one thing I enjoyed was the inclusion of Thor (no, he doesn't actually show up), but too often in Greek and Roman movies, you get to see all the gods and what they can do, it was nice to have a movie focus on some norse mythology, even if it was short-lived and more of an deus ex machina (literally).
It certainly is a movie of the time, even with female leads, it ends up de-evolving into the typical "women can't do what men can" trope even though there is a very strong sense of female empowerment here. There is a time and place for women to say to a man "hey, I can do this without your help" and I do kind of wish they had just done that, but (again), this was the 50's and it wasn't meant to be. Besides, it's Roger Corman, who knows what he had in mind anyway. The women are all meant to be pretty and jiggle about in their almost-scantly clad outfits while spouting off viking-esque dialogue that just makes you cringe. I'm all for pretty women doing women things, but they're supposed to be vikings. Act like vikings.
A fun, short movie for when you're bored with nothing to do on a rainy day.