Viking chieftain Ragnar (Ernest Borgnine) destroys an English village, killing the King of Northumbria and impregnating his widow. Ragnar unknowingly enslaves the resultant child, Erik (Tony Curtis) on another raid; full-blood son Einar (Kirk Douglas) awaits his chance to succeed Ragnar. Wooed by treacherous English Lord Egbert (James Donald), Einar convinces Ragnar to kidnap Princess Morgana (Janet Leigh), unhappily betrothed to Northumbria's scheming King Aella (Frank Thring). Erik rescues Morgana from his brother, only to be targeted by Aella. Erik must convince Einar to join forces with him and thwart Aella.
The Vikings opens with portentous Orson Welles narration, relating dubious facts about Viking history, then dives into fantasy land. This is a Boys' Own Viking story, packed with exciting fights, treacherous baddies and amoral but friendly Vikings more Jack Sparrow than Leif Erikson. Fleischer wins the approval of ten year old boys everywhere with his simple storyline and grisly violence. Two characters are thrown into a pit of ravenous wolves, while Einar gets his eye pecked out by a falcon! Even without explicit gore, it's rough stuff for what's essentially a kid's movie.
It's good the violence is there, because dramatically the film's a dud. Scenarists Calder Willingham and Dale Wasserman barely bother with a story, relying on a silly "rescue the princess" plot that barely hangs together. Erik's constant switch sides makes little sense except to back Fleischer out of dramatic corners. Potentially interesting side plots - King Aella's scheming, and especially Egbert's treachery - are back-grounded when not ignored. Not to mention the hysterically overripe dialogue. "Love and hate are horns on the same goat," a sorceress sagely informs. Later, Erik woos Morgana by inquiring: "What's your father's word compared to Odin's will?"
But viewers aren't coming for plot or artful dialogue, any more than a history lesson. The Vikings excels in rough-and-tumble mayhem. Fleischer's direction is relatively straightforward, helped by Jack Cardiff's expressive photography. What the fight scenes lack in realism they make up for roughness: well-choreographed swordplay, arrows impaling throats, catapulted rocks crushing . And the end battle is a doozy, with Einar scaling a castle wall using a ladder made of axes! Things culminate in a nifty sword fight and Viking funeral that are too cool to second-guess.
Kirk Douglas puts his serious actor pretensions aside, playing a compromised tough guy with gusto. Tony Curtis isn't any more out of place here than in The Black Shield of Falworth or Spartacus, while Janet Leigh (the one-time Mrs. Curtis) makes for respectable eye candy. Ernest Borgnine steals the show, given a mangy beard and raucous laughter that plays to his hammy strengths. James Donald (Bridge on the River Kwai) and Frank Thring (El Cid) get supporting roles that, with a little more effort, could have amounted to something.
The Vikings makes for fun viewing. It's hard not to snicker at the ludicrous dialogue, the overwrought bloodshed and the idea of Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis and Ernest Borgnine as exemplars of the Nordic race. But it's got something for the adolescent in all of us, and that's surely worth applauding.
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