The Vikings

Plot synopsis:
The King of Northumbria is killed during a Viking raid led by the fearsome Ragnar (Ernest Borgnine). Because the king had died childless, his cousin Aella (Frank Thring) takes the throne. The king's widow, however, is pregnant with what she knows is Ragnar's child because he had raped her during that fateful raid, and to protect the infant from her cousin-in-law's ambitions, she sends him off to Italy. By a twist of fate, the ship is intercepted by the Vikings, who are unaware of the child's kinship, and enslave him.
The boy grows into a young man named Erik (Tony Curtis). His parentage is finally discovered by Lord Egbert (James Donald), a Northumbrian nobleman opposed to Aella. When Aella accuses him of treason, Egbert finds sanctuary with Ragnar in Norway. Egbert recognises the Northumbrian royal sword's pommel stone on an amulet around Erik's neck, placed there by Erik's mother when he was a child, but tells no one.
Erik incurs the wrath of his half-brother Einar (Kirk Douglas), Ragnar's legitimate son and heir, after the former orders his falcon to attack Einar, taking out one of his eyes. Erik is saved from immediate execution when the royal Court Völva Kitala (who loves Erik as a son) warns that Odin will curse whoever kills him. He is left in a tidal pool to drown with the rising tide by Ragnar's decree to avoid the curse, but after Kitala calls out to Odin making Erik himself to invoke his mercy, a strong wind shifts and forces the water away, saving him. Lord Egbert then claims him as his slave property to protect his rights, before Einar keenly aware of the weather shift can return and finish him. Egbert hopes to find an opportunity to take advantage of Erik's unknown claim to the Northumbrian kingdom.
The enmity between Erik and Einar is exacerbated when they both fall in love with the Christian Princess Morgana (Janet Leigh), who was to marry King Aella but is captured in a raid suggested by Egbert, to demand ransom and bring shame and political unpopularity pressure upon the Northumbrian monarch. During a drunken feast in the "great hall", Einar confesses his feelings to Ragnar, who tells Einar that women often need to be taken by force and grants his son to take the prisoner as his. Einar throws the guards off the ship Morgana is being held on, and begins to rape her — defying his expectations and hope for resistance, she offers none, denying him his wish to take her by aggressive force. Before things can go any further, Erik grabs Einar from behind and knocks him out easily as he was very drunk, then takes Morgana away on a small ship he had constructed for Egbert.
Erik and Morgana flee to England, along with Sandpiper (Erik's friend and fellow slave), Kitala and Morgana's maid Bridget (Dandy Nichols). Einar regains consciousness and gives the alarm, and several pursuing longships quickly gain on the fugitives. In thick fog, Ragnar's longship hits a rock and sinks, while Erik's boat is guided safely by a primitive compass, a piece of magnetite in the shape of a fish that Sandpiper obtained in a distant land. Einar, in another longship, believes Ragnar to be dead and grudgingly abandons the chase. Ragnar, however, is rescued by Erik and taken prisoner to Aella. Erik and Morgana become lovers during the trip, and she agrees to seek release from her pledge to marry Aella.
Aella orders the Viking leader bound and thrown into a pit filled with starved wolves. To give Ragnar a Viking's death (so that he can enter Valhalla), Erik, who is granted the honour of forcing him into the pit, cuts the prisoner's bonds and gives him his sword. Laughing, Ragnar 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 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. With this revelation, and the promise that Erik will guide their ships through the fog (thus making a surprise attack possible), Einar is finally able to persuade the other Vikings to mount an invasion of Northumbria. Putting their mutual hatred aside for the moment, Einar and Erik sail for England.
The dragon longships land and the Vikings begin to move inland in force. The alarm is sounded and the terrified peasants abandon their fields and flocks and flee to take refuge within the castle. Soon the Vikings are arrayed in front of the fortress in full battle armour.
Shouting the name of "Odin!", the Vikings storm Aella's castle. In a bold move, Einar has several Vikings throw axes at the closed drawbridge that bars entrance to the castle's keep. Several of the axe-throwers are killed, but enough survive to throw their axes that a "ladder" is created for Einar to climb after he leaps across the moat to the drawbridge. He gains entry to the keep and lowers the drawbridge so that the other Vikings can overwhelm the outnumbered English. Erik and Einar both set off in search of Morgana. Erik encounters Aella instead and shoves him into the wolf pit.
Einar finds Morgana in the highest tower of the keep, he grabs and accosts her, telling her she will be his Queen. Morgana tells Einar she hates him, and loves Erik. Enraged, Einar drags her outside and calls Erik to their long-delayed battle. The two bitter rivals engage in a sword fight on top of the tower. Erik is defeated, his sword broken, but as Einar prepares to deliver the killing blow, he hesitates, having learned the truth from Morgana, and suddenly seeing Ragnar in Erik's defiant face. This gives Erik (who does not yet know they are brothers) the opportunity to fatally stab Einar with his sword's broken blade. Echoing the scene with Ragnar, Erik gives Einar a sword, so that he too can enter Valhalla. In the final scene, Einar is given a Viking funeral: his body is placed on a longship, which is set on fire by flaming arrows.

Tags: cult, action, murder, violence, historical fiction

Review:
Call me a fool, but I feel strongly that the Richard Fleischer/ Kirk Douglas 1958 film THE VIKINGS is a waiting-to-be-rediscovered masterpiece.Of the costume drama spectaculars of the 1950s-1960s, it has the most coherent script and theme.
I saw this film at the pictures a long, long time ago.I was a kid and was as wide eyeyed as any kid seeing a spectacular of comparable impact as Star Wars or Harry Paintpot or any derivative.How on earth could any little lad be less than profoundly moved by the images of of eyes being ripped out by a hawk, people being eaten by crabs, wild wolves eating people in a pit, hands being chopped of.This was a bloody massive movie and still is.I just bought it on VCR and feel like a kid again.I cannot imagine any modern kid being as equally moved but I'm sure they will come across it one day the same way I see impressive movies on TV made way before I was around.Trouble is, for some reason this film never seems to get shown on either satellite or terrestrial TV.
I highly recommend this film to those who enjoy watching Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Ernest Borgnine and the others..
As the kingdom of Northumbria becomes ripe for the taking, both men, with a fancy for Princess Morganna, are heading for the revelation right in amongst their bitter rivalry.Kirk Douglas (Einar) and Tony Curtis (Eric) would both re-team for Spartacus two years after this sword and sandal swasher had hit the screens in 1958.
These Vikings may not totally convince as mead swigging, women chasing, pillagers of England, yet running along side Mario Nascimbene's terrific score and Jack Cardiff's excellent photography (the Norway location scenes are breath taking), it doesn't take much for the discerning genre fan to get swept away in it all.Douglas and Curtis give it a good blast, while Janet Leigh as Morganna perks her breasts out and actually becomes believable as a lady lusted after by two rough and ready ruffians.
Pic is often violent and features some genre moments never to be forgotten (Einar losing his eye, Ragnar and the Wolf Pit, The Running the Oars tradition), while it's also pleasing to find a director overseeing some attentive research that opens up the craftsman side of the Viking hoards.So all in all it's a fine and entertaining genre picture that's arguably more fun than dramatic gold, a film that was a fave of many who got lost in its charms all those years ago.
I hope I never get so old that I think like him and can't enjoy 'The Vikings'."It was the thrill of my brother's life as an adult to ask Kirk Douglas on a New York studio talk show,  "Did you actually jump across the moat to grab onto the axes in the drawbridge door, or did a stunt man do that?"Kirk's answer was,  "I wanted to do it but the insurance company wouldn't let me."Even now I love the film but two things about it bother me.
Edison Marshall's  book "The Viking" on which the film is based portrays him by the name of Hastings more like the character of Barnes as played by Tom Berringer in "Platoon."    In "The Vikings", Ragnar introduces his son Ainar as someone who is "so vain of his beauty, he scrapes his face like an Englishman."  Hastings is not charming or vain  but tough and so cruel and even sadistic that after Eric's  hawk tears up his entire face (not just his eye), Hastings delights in the horrifying effect his facial scars has on the victims he kills and rapes.
But in the film, Ainar is just a good looking, charismatic, fun guy we actually pity when after crossing the poison sea, storming the castle, jumping over the moat, climbing the tower, and crashing through the stain glass window to get to the love of his life, Morgana tells him he isn't her type.The other thing that bothers me about "The Vikings" is the miscasting of blond, buxom Janet Leigh as the Welsh princess, Morgana.
This film actually holds up very well in today's show-too-much and CGI blanding effect environment.Douglas, Curtis and Borgnine run away with it all, and Janet Leigh is rather breathtaking.......Combat scenes are coarse and brutal, not "300" level, but tough nonetheless.
His son 'Ivar the Boneless' raised a Viking army,  invaded Northumbria and killed Aelle.The film builds on this to include an illegitimate half-brother and rivalry over a beautiful Welsh princess to create a story of rousing, full-blooded action.The film has a great atmosphere which is hard to put into words.
But many other things happen in the meanwhile: pillaging, the boss and the prince's father (Ernest Borgnine) that dies with a sword in his hands and devoured by wolves, the Vikings go on a rampage in the castle and all the English are killed, and then the final showdown between Curtis and Douglas!
This classic ¨The Vikings (1958)¨ by Richard Fleischer packs a big name cast as Kirk Douglas , Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis .
Very well-done adventure movie following the exploits of a group of Vikings sailing on Dragon ships like serpents on the sea , the terrible Northmen led by Ragnar , Einar and Eric .
But then a slave (Tony Curtis) and a Viking prince (Kirk Douglas) fight for the love of a captive princess (Janet Leigh) and assault an impregnable fortress .
There's other more obvious and impersonal connections like they both star Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis where a sword fight takes place between their characters , everyone seems to speak in either British or American accents no matter where their character is supposed to be from and there's a fight between the good guys and bad guys at the end Having said all that SPARTACUS is by far the better movie because it's got a better story , production values and cast .
Kirk Douglas plays Einar, son of the great Viking warrior Ragnar (Ernest Borgnine).
Big budget, starry-cast, historical, make that almost pre-historical, action movie where a one-eyed Kirk Douglas plays a rumbustious (that's putting it mildly) Viking prince and his unwitting half-brother Tony Curtis (the offspring of Douglas's dad, King Ragnar's, rape of the British queen on a previous raid, years before) a soon-to-be one-handed British slave who are both vying for the love of Welsh princess Janet Leigh, whilst Ernest Borgnine as Ragnar eggs his boy on from the sidelines.
There's also a minor sub-plot about the Vikings crossing the water to remove from power the new, cruel, usurping English king who's tricked Curtis's Eric out of his birthright to be king himself and who to seal the deal just happens to get himself betrothed to the young Leigh.The movie is beautifully shot in natural light in and around actual Norwegian fjords which look superb in big-screen colour and the recreation of the Viking long-boats by the film's carpenters is also remarkable, but if I'm starting a review by praising the backgrounds, it probably means there's a want in the foreground, and so it proves.Douglas's boorish Einar looks old enough to be Eric's half-father and his usually drunken behaviour hardly endears him to the viewer.
The object of their affections, Janet Leigh, appears able to bewitch these two the minute they clap eyes on her, which I suppose is fair enough as she does look lovely in her robes, but she's not really required to do much between simpering and occasionally seething.There are some odd scenes of I presume authentic old Viking customs, if you exclude feasting, drinking and womanising on a Henry VIII scale that is, like "walking the oars" and strangest of all the method of proving a wife's infidelity which involves putting her in a set of stocks, then nailing up her outstretched hair plaits and inviting her allegedly cuckolded husband to free her by throwing axes to sever her plaits.
In the genre of adventures, this is an excellent film, which has acting of good actors, such as Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis together with the usual supporting work of Ernest Borgnine and then beautiful Janet Leigh.
There's also lots of action, a very well developed final sword duel in the towers of a castle and a romantic mix that has to do with the plot.Kirk Douglas (Einar) is perfect as the fearless and arrogant viking warrior that gets obsessed with a Welsh princess and will do anything to have her.
Frank Thring's vicious king of England (Aella) is perfect too (you can easily imagine where and how he will end and you look forward to it).If you like action and adventure epics this is one film you can't miss.
The rest of the movie is a struggle between the brothers as they fight for love of Janet Leigh, inheritance from Ernie, and other Viking-ish issues, like Valhalla, ships, war, and the treatment of prisoners.Personally, I liked Ulysses better, but if you want to see the husband and wife team act together, or if you particularly like Tony Curtis-I don't, really-you might make it through this one relatively unscathed.
Whether your gag reflex or giggle switch kicks in first with 1958's The Vikings, a thoroughly ridiculous, laughable, and nauseating plundering of Scandanavian history, is completely up to your taste in such moronic nonsense.Odin-and hopefully you-will cringe at the embarrassing spectacle of Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, and Janet Leigh (plus Ernest Borgnine) making complete fools of themselves in a tenth century love triangle.
this film is adapted from about 20% of Marshall's novel"The Viking".And ,like some many adaptations,looses a great deal in the translation.The original story involves brutality,lust,incest,murder,fratricide,regicide,infanticide,and parracide.(The only one it doesn't have is suicide.)If you anything about Freud's postulated "Oedipus Complex',you wouldn't have any trouble picking it up in that book;it practically jumps out and bites you on the nose.Most of this is left out(thank goodness)of the film.Most of the characters are much more wholesome than the originals,for which let us thank heaven.Borgnine,as Ragnar,is brutish and rough,but nowhere near as malevolent as his blueprint.Much the same can be said of Douglas,as Einar.And if you can accept Douglas and Curtis as Jewish vikings(Issur Danielovich and Bernie Schwartz,respectively)it goes a long way in accepting this film.Those points aside,it's really quite well done.The vikings act like a gang of bikers on Halloween(which is most likely the way they really lived),and Leigh is splendidly cast as the Princess.(Obviously based on her heroine in Prince Valiant).Thring,as Aella,however,is much more slimey and evil than was the novel's,and he drips venom in a performance that is a joy to watch.Not at all subtle,but he adds a new dimension to the term'"scenery-chewing".I wondered why,after Borgnine's jump into the wolfpit,Thring cuts off Curtis' hand.Maybe it's because Curtis gave Ernie the sword,and,as a consequence,several of the pet wolves were killed.Maybe Aella should have contacted the SPCA,and then sued him ,instead..
Kirk Douglas is my favorite living actor, and despite the fate of hischaracter in this film, "The Vikings" is one of my all-time favorites.Like many of the reviewers, I saw it when I was about 11.
This movie is guaranteed to set the pulses of any red blooded viewer racing.It pulsates with vibrant action and splendid period atmosphere; Kirk Douglas was born to play the role of Einar and he extracts every bit of menace and finally pathos as a warrior whose love for the wrong woman finally destroyed him.Tony Curtis shows restraint in his role and is free of the too eager to please grinning and mugging which marred his later performances.The action is the thing here,however,and what action it is;the final attack by the vikings on the English castle is a stupendous spectacle with swords,axes,grappling hooks used aplenty as a horde of expert stuntmen have the time of their lives whilst the truly magnificent score by Mario Nascimbene provides suitable accompaniment to their lusty adventures.With wonderful scenery,convincing performances and enough testosterone to launch a 100 longships,"THE VIKINGS" is a gloriously sadistic and savage experience that belies its 1958 vintage,disengage your brain and revel in this serio-comic romp which should be in the video collection of any true action fan..
Trust me, if you like adventure movies, especially historically rooted ones, you'll get a big thrill out of this flick.THE STORY: Einar (Kirk Douglas) and Eric (Tony Curtis) are -- unknowingly -- half-bothers, the sons of Ragnar (Earnest Borgnine), a Viking leader.
Although the Norman-style stone castle is anachronistic, as are the Brit defender's apparel & equipment, viewing "The Vikings" is the next best thing to going back in time and seeing real Vikings.Here are some miscellaneous thoughts on the picture: The film is very brutal: hands get chopped off, faces get mutilated, people are thrown into a pit of wolves, etc.I never knew how beautiful Janet Leigh was until I saw this movie (she doesn't appear very attractive, for instance, in "Psycho").Watch out for Kirk Douglas' "running of the oars" scene.
Tony Curtis has one of his finest dramatic roles in movies, and Kirk Douglas and Ernest Borgnine give first rate performances.
Orson Welles provides some opening narration about the 9th century Northumbria setting, but doesn't reveal much about the plot of "The Vikings" - it isn't easy, but we are supposed to gather enough information, early on, to figure out co-stars Kirk Douglas (as Einar) and Tony Curtis (as Eric) are half-brothers, due a Viking rape by bacchanalian Ernest Borgnine (as Ragnar).
Back then, "men were men, and women were women"; you tried to hold on to your life and body parts, but didn't fret about on losing either.****** The Vikings (6/11/58) Richard Fleischer ~ Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, Ernest Borgnine.
In Vikings, we see a group of those Norse explorers and warriors that worseship Odin and battle till the end.The king of Northumbria is killed during a Viking raid, led by Ragnar.The king died childless, therefore his cousin Aella takes the throne.But queen Enid bears a secret, she's carrying a child.But the child is not procreated by the king, but by Ragnar who raped her.She has to protect the child from her cousin-in-law, so she sends the child to Italy.But she puts a sword's pommel stone on an amulet around her son's neck.Twenty years later the son, Erik, is a Viking slave.He incurs the wrath of his half-brother Einar, after he orders his falcon to attack Einar, taking out one of his eyes.Both of the brothers also fall for the same woman, princess Morgana, who is supposed to marry King Aella.Einar captures the princess in a raid.The Vikings (1958), a great movie directed by Richard Fleischer.Some legendary names in this movie.Kirk Douglas plays Einar.Tony Curtis is Erik.
Too bad Janet Leigh isn't.Leigh, who was married to Curtis at the time, does a terrific job playing Morgana in the movie.This movie is loaded with big and massive moments.One of them is when Tony escapes with Janet on a boat and the ship of the vikings is wrecked.Or when they attack the king's castle with the rocks keep coming on them from the catapults.And when Kirk and Tony have their final battle with swords.This movie makes you feel like you are there, in the age of the Vikings..
Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Ernest Borgnine, and Janet Leigh (along with a strong supporting cast) helped make this one of the best movies of its kind in the late fifties.
As others have pointed out, the role of bullying, aggressive Einar was tailor-made for a natural athlete like Kirk Douglas, while Ernest Borgnine does an equally convincing job as his ebullient, barbaric father, the Viking king, Ragnar.
The three leading roles are played by three of the most versatile actors of the day, namely Kirk Douglas who plays Einar, the boisterous elder son of Ragnar (Ernest Borgnine) the Chiefton of the Clan and Tony Curtis who is Eric, the illegitimate son from the same father.
There certainly was a sense of adventure and grand epic about the movie."The Vikings" had a pretty impressive cast, which included two of the biggest Hollywood stars of the day; that being Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis, of course.
Little does he realise, but slave Eric (Tony Curtis) is not only illegitimate heir to the throne of Northumbria, but also half-brother to viking warrior Einar (Kirk Douglas), with whom he has a bitter feud.
When the Norsemen kidnap Welsh princess Morgana (Janet Leigh) and hold her for ransom, the unknowing half-brothers fight for her affection.In 1960, Stanley Kubrick directed celebrated historical classic Spartacus, starring Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis; two years earlier, Douglas and Curtis had appeared together in another historical adventure, The Vikings, which, as far as I'm concerned, is the superior film—less epic, perhaps, but far more entertaining than Kubrick's movie.
It's got a testosterone-fuelled performance from Douglas, Curtis as the dashing hero, Ernest Borgnine as a lovable viking rogue, a marvellous villain (Frank Thring as loathsome King Aella), and Janet Leigh as a beautiful princess, as well as stunning locations, wonderful cinematography, great production values, and, best of all, a huge sense of fun, the action and adventure imbued with humour.Highlights include Kirk Douglas hopping across the oars of a viking long-ship, the use of throwing axes to prove the innocence of an unfaithful viking woman, Eric's daring escape by boat on a foggy fjord, and the rousing finale, in which Eric and Einar temporarily put their differences aside to storm King Aella's castle..
Douglas and Tony Curtis as Erik both make dashing heroes, and there are also good performances from Curtis's real-life wife Janet Leigh as the lovely Morgana, Ernest Borgnine as Ragnar and Frank Thring as the villainous Aella.
But his existing son Einar (Kirk Douglas) is unaware he has a half brother and grows to hate Eric especially after the Vikings attack an English ship and abduct the princess Morgana (Janet Leigh) whom both sons desire.
Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis play half-brothers Einar and Eric, sons of Ragnar, portrayed with his usual flair by Ernest Borgnine.