The Vikings was an action/adventure film directed by Richard
Fleischer in 1958, produced by and starring Kirk
Douglas, and based on the novel The Viking by Edison Marshall. Other actors
included Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh and
Ernest Borgnine. The film made notable use of natural locations in Norway, crisply captured on film by cinematographer Jack Cardiff.
Despite being derisively called a "Norse Opera" by New York Times critic
Bosley Crowther, the film proved a major box office success and spawned the television
series Tales of the Vikings, directed by the film's editor, Elmo Williams, but which
included none of the original cast or characters.
The Vikings was the second and, as it turned out, last collaboration between Fleischer and Douglas (the first was
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea). According to the
All-Movie Guide, the director and star disagreed on the approach to the material and "for
years thereafter would hold each other responsible for the film's falling short of its potential."
Plot synopsis
The film begins with the King of Northumbria being killed during a Viking raid led by the
fearsome Ragnar (Ernest Borgnine). After a ferocious battle between Swedish Vikings led
by David the Bloody-Fingered and Norwegians led by Jeffry Web-Toed, the king finally succumbs. Because the king had died
childless, his cousin Aella (Frank Thring) ascends the throne. He appoints Jeffry as
chancellor but he is quickly killed by an insurgency committed by David and his Swedes. The king's widow, however, is pregnant
with what she knows is Ragnar's child, and to protect the infant from her cousin-in-law's ambitions she sends him off to
Italy. By twist of fate, the ship is intercepted en route by the Vikings, who are not aware of the
child's kinship and forces him into slavery.
The child, Erik (Tony Curtis), grows up, and nobody knows his true parentage until Lord Egbert (James Donald), a Northumbrian
ally of the Vikings exposed by Aella, is saved by Ragnar and sent to Norway. Shortly after meeting Erik, Egbert recognizes the
Northumbrian royal sword's pommel stone that Erik's mother had placed as an amulet around the
child's neck, and decides to use the slave to achieve his own ambitions of overthrowing Aella. Egbert reveals his finding to no
one.
Erik, however, had incurred the wrath of his half-brother Einar (Kirk Douglas), Ragnar's legitimate son and heir, after the
former had commanded his falcon to "kill" Einar, taking out one of his eyes. The enmity was
exacerbated by both men falling in love with Princess Morgana (Janet Leigh), who was set to marry King Aella but whose ship had
been captured in a raid devised by Egbert.
Using a primitive compass, Erik and Morgana escape to England shortly after her capture, with Einar and Ragnar in pursuit. In
the process, Ragnar's longboat hits a rock and sinks. Einar, in another longboat, believes
Ragnar dead and grudgingly abandons the chase. Ragnar, in fact, had been rescued by Erik and taken prisoner to England, where
Aella ordered the Viking bound and thrown to his death in his pit of starved wolves.
To give Ragnar a Viking's death (so that he could enter Valhalla), Erik, who had been given
the honor of forcing him down the pit, cuts his bonds and gives him his sword, with which the Viking chieftain jumps to his
death. In response to Erik's "treason", Aella cuts off his left hand, puts him back on his ship and casts him adrift.
Erik returns to the only place where he could find allies, Einar's settlement, and tells his half-brother how his father died,
and what had been Aella's reward for allowing Ragnar to die a Viking's death. Upon hearing Erik's testimony, Einar's Vikings
decide to invade Northumbria. Putting their mutual hatred of each other aside, Einar and Erik sail for England, but it is clear
that once their common cause is achieved, nothing will prevent them from settling their accounts.
In the climax of the film, the Vikings storm the castle of Aella. In a bold move, Einar leaps across the moat to the inner
part of the castle and opens up the drawbridge paving the way for the Vikings to attack the out-numbered English. Erik and Einar,
however, aren't concerned about the battle, and they both set off to find Morgana. Erik finds Aella instead and shoves him into
the pit of wolves.
Einar meanwhile has climbed up the highest tower of the castle where Morgana is praying with a monk at the castle. Einar
quickly kills the monk and grabs Morgana for himself. Erik sees Einar with Morgana at the tower, and he quickly runs to rescue
Morgana. Einar and Erik swordfight on top of the tower. Erik's sword breaks, giving Einar the chance to kill him, but Einar
hesitates, having recently learned that Erik is his brother. The hesitation allows Erik enough time to stab Einar with his broken
sword. Erik doesn't understand the hesitiation, but he allows Einar a Viking funeral by handing him a sword to hold in his
hand.
The Vikings, victorious in battle, put Einar's body on a longboat and set fire to the boat using flaming arrows. Thus ends
The Vikings.
External links
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