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7 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Is that the title or the script?, 5 August 2004
Author: Laughing_Gravy from Sacramento, CA

All of the men of a Viking tribe have disappeared across the great waters, so their lovesick ladies decide to build a boat and go find 'em. They run into a whirlpool and a giant sea monster before sailing their ship to Bronson Canyon, where they find a tribe of mean and cruel barbarians who are keeping the Viking men chained up in a cave.

Believe me, folks, I really would've liked to spend a little more time on the plot, but sadly, that's all we've got to work with here.

The Viking women are all gorgeous 1950s starlets, including such favorites as Abby Dalton (ROCK ALL NIGHT), Susan Cabot (THE WASP WOMAN), June Kenney (TEENAGE DOLL) and Sally Todd (THE UNEARTHLY). Jonathan Haze of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS fame is along for the ride, too, as a hot-headed young Viking anxious to prove his manhood, which you'd think wouldn't be too difficult considering that it's him and three dozen horny and nubile young women living alone in the village, but what do you expect from Seymour Krelboing, anyway?

Brad Jackson plays the leader of the Viking men, and you're surprised that (a) they elected him leader, or (b) that the women went to find him in the first place. He's dull and not very good in a fight. On the other hand, what lonely Norse lady wouldn't want to snuggle up to hunky Gary Conway, sans his TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN makeup, all rippling muscles in his li'l Viking pelts? Richard Devon, who played Satan in Corman's THE UNDEAD, is Stark, King of the Barbarians (Ooh! Good name!) and has a son who's a sissy, which matters not in this report but looms large in the film itself.

The picture is stolen by Miss Cabot, the only dark-haired Viking woman, who first schemes with King Stark to rub out her rival for the dull guy's attentions, then calls down the wrath of Thor when her plans go awry. She's by turns funny, mean, sexy, and pouty, and she blows the higher-billed Abby Dalton out of the water.

VIKING WOMEN AND THE SEA SERPENT is a goofily enjoyable movie despite its many shortcomings (as Corman put it, 'When working on a low budget, you are better off with material that does not depend primarily on spectacular special effects'). The film was originally released as a double-feature with THE ASTOUNDING SHE-MONSTER, so go 'head and treat yourself to a full double helping of freaky '50s female fun.

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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Long title for a short movie, 11 October 2004
6/10
Author: dbborroughs from Glen Cove, New York

This has to be one of the dumbest titles ever. Granted it tells you what the plot of the movie is but that seems to be where the cleverness began and ended.

This is really low rent Roger Corman. Its far from a good film, but the chuckle factor and the fact that it has different setting makes it worth giving a try for those who like bad films or at least want to see something different than the typical movie setting.

The plot has the viking women going off to find their men who have disappeared. They end up finding them after crossing dangerous waters and running into a rubber sock puppet sea serpent. The men are being held captive by an evil tribe of men who soon capture our heroines, making escape seem possible.

Running a brief 66 minutes this film is so full of clunky film making that you'll wonder how it ever got released. Costumes look like costumes, the sea monster looks dumb and the special effects aren't. Rarely has rear projection been put to worse use than here.

Still, somehow, its manages to avoid being a truly awful movie. Sure its not good but at least its not the same old same old, which here gives it three or four points in its favor.

6 out of 10, just for being off beat, though it probably deserves a 3 in a more realistic frame of mind.

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
A Real Hoot, 4 August 2000
Author: BaronBl00d (baronbl00d@aol.com) from NC

I laughed myself silly watching this "epic" about several viking women going to sea to find their men, seemingly lost at sea. The women(all very good looking with their blonde hair flowing over their statuesque shoulders) construct a boat and sail only to be caught up in a whirlpool that sends them near a hideous sea serpent(looking like something bought at a five and ten store) and to the land of the Grimolts...a race of people that have enslaved all the unfortunate beings that land on their territory. The Grimolts are savages, and have enslaved the viking men. From here the film chronicles how the viking women get back with their viking men. As another reviewer stated, this is certainly not up to Roger Corman's standard good work with a small budget. Instead, this is a cheap movie with a ridiculous script, poorly acted leads(must be all that blonde hair going to everyone's head), and some of the most unbelievable costumes, sets, and special effects around. Yet, the film has a certain charm to it and I found myself enjoying it quite a bit. Some of the lines and situations are natural knee-slappers. Just wait till you see the scene at the Grimolt banquet when out of nowhere a pretty girl starts dancing to 50's style music in a sheepskin. The scene of the the fire-burning at the stakes is another belly-roller as the two lead vikings profess their love. Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent is a lot of fun to watch...some of the humour intentional and much of it unintentional.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
You read the title,you want quality too?, 25 November 2007
Author: michaeldukey2000 from United States

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. ;-)

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Campy, but entertaining adventure from cult director Corman, 13 December 2006
5/10
Author: mlraymond from Durham NC

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Anyone looking for sheer fun with a movie should enjoy this Corman classic. Some of the most unconvincing Viking women ever seen set out on a dangerous voyage to rescue their lost men. Blonde Hollywood starlets like June Kenney and Abby Dalton do their best to portray fierce Viking women. They look great, especially Betsy Jones-Moreland as a stunningly sexy beauty.

The always reliable Susan Cabot slinks around amongst the blonde maidens with her unique brand of sexy villainy. She gets to sneer and smirk and raise her eyebrows a lot, and manages to seduce just about any man she meets, with her come-hither eyes and menacing purr. She steals the picture from all the " good girls". In the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 version, one of the robots remarks that : "You can tell she's the bad one, 'cause she's got black hair!"

Richard Devon is fairly impressive as the warrior king, though his palace suggests a high school cafeteria with a few strategic wall hangings for atmosphere. Jay Sayer, who was a total creep as one of the gang members in Corman's Teenage Doll, plays another total creep here, as the obnoxious son of the king. Jonathan Haze gets to display plenty of virile vigor, as he continually leaps on the bad guys ,and wrestles everyone in sight.

The title sea serpent isn't really that bad, considering the extremely low budget. Overall, this movie is quite enjoyable, if you like Fifties drive-in flicks and Corman movies. The Viking women are a really foxy bunch of gals, too!

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Corman's historical epic....?, 14 July 2000
5/10
Author: Wilbur-10 from London

A Corman cheapie which follows the fortunes of a tribe of Viking women, as they set sail to find their menfolk who have not returned from an earlier voyage.

Women are all statuesque blondes, apart from the evil one who, in the best film-noir tradition, is brunette.

After setting sail in the flimsiest longship imaginable ( a 20 ft canoe ), the women are pulled into a vortex and terrorised by a giant sea-serpent which causes them to be washed ashore in a strange land. Here they find there menfolk, who had followed a similar path and are now enslaved by a barbarian tribe, the Grimaults and forced to work down their mines.

The men are all bottle-blonde surf-dudes, and after some comings and goings the women manage to free their other halfs, and all manage to escape.

Any film with a title this tongue in cheek, particularly a Corman one, is difficult not to have some affection for. That said 'Viking Women....' is very poor in all departments, with script, performances, narrative all out of the bottom drawer. Not of the standard of other Corman films of the period, such as 'Day the World Ended' which despite limitations did have some recognisable strengths.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
What did you expect----Shakespeare?!, 24 June 2009
2/10
Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida

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.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Fair, 29 February 2008
Author: Michael_Elliott from Louisville, KY

Viking Women and the Sea Serpent, The (1957)

** (out of 4)

Some viking women head off to locate their missing mates when they're attacked by a sea serpent and thrown on shore where they are taken hostage by some dumb King. The viking women must then fight to save their men and return home before one more battle with the sea creature. This is another ultra low budget picture from AIP and director Roger Corman but it remains slightly fun throughout. The look of the "sea serpent" is actually pretty good and I'd say it's probably the best looking creature from any of Corman's low budget films. The cast including Abby Dalton, Susan Cabot, Brad Jackson and Jonathan Haze is charming as well. The original (and on screen) title of this is The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
"See how the Storm God licks his lips at the coming feast!", 4 September 2007
3/10
Author: bensonmum2 from Tennessee

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I'll try, but I'm not sure I can write a plot summary that's as long as that crazy title. A band of Viking women set out in search of their missing Viking men. Along the way, they run into a sea serpent and a whirlpool (I'm not really sure how it all happened. The women meet this really horrible looking sea serpent that terrorizes them when all of a sudden, they are being pulled into a whirlpool. Are the two things related? – Honestly, I don't know.) The Viking women find themselves washed up on the shores of a strange land where they are to be slaves. They discover their men are also being held as slaves and are working in the mines. Can the women free the men and escape to their homeland?

The Viking Women and the Sea Serpent (the name I actually saw the movie under) is a Roger Corman quickie – and it shows. I'd be shocked to learn that it took more than a weekend to shoot the movie. And I'd be even more shocked to find out that anyone spent more than 10 minutes writing the thing. The plot is utterly ridiculous. The sets and costumes seem to have been leftovers from other Corman movies. The special effects in the form of the sea serpent are as low rent as you'll likely run across. And the acting, with the exception of Susan Cabot, is nothing to write home about. Overall, not one of Corman's better early efforts.

And to make matters worse, The Viking Women and the Sea Serpent does not make for a very good episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 either. I cannot remember laughing even once. Very much below average and worthy of a 2/5 on my MST3K rating scale. (However, the short that precedes the movie in Episode 317 called "The Home Economics Story" is often laugh-out-loud funny. I'd give the short a 4/5 on its own.)

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
The Viking Women and the Sea Serpent (1957) **, 18 October 2006
5/10
Author: JoeKarlosi from U.S.A.

A group of luscious and scantily clad '50s Viking babes decide to board a boat to search for their missing men who have disappeared some time ago. They wind up terrorized and shipwrecked by the giant creature of the title and the find themselves prisoners of a tribe of men who want to use them as their slaves.

Thanks to director Roger Corman, this cheesy flick is made into something at least watchable. And for me, any chance to see blonde Sally Todd (FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER) and raven-haired Susan Cabot (THE WASP WOMAN) strutting their stuff is a plus.

**/****

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