Country: USA
Year: 1958
Duration: 114'
In the 10th Century, England is divided into a myriad of
kingdoms and the Vikings, led by the two sons of King Ragnar, are
fighting against King Aella. These two young men, the rival princes
Einar and Eric, are both in love with Princess Morgana and they are
destined to a bloody showdown. To make this grand adventure movie, that
was shot on location where the historical facts took place, and which is
filled with intense epic spirit, Fleischer uses Technirama photography
like a palette of colors and, thanks in part to the performances of
Douglas and Curtis, brings back all the strength and violence of the
spirit of the ancient times.
"It was a fascinating project because it took a long time to carry out
the necessary research on the era in question. I had the support of
marvelous people, like the Director of the Museum of Oslo, the head of
the History department at UCLA and the library of the British Museum. I
learned surprising details about the habits of the Vikings, their
sexuality, their morality, their environment. And I was able to use most
of these details in the film. This is why it feels so authentic. We used
the maps in the Viking Museum of Oslo for the construction of the Viking
boats. Shooting on location in the fjords was awfully tiring, but it was
worth the effort for the scenographic splendor. I was carried away by
the almost mystical beauty of the places and this inspired me
enormously. […] During filming, we were 'possessed' by the Viking spirit
by a strange alchemy, and everybody was inspired. The Vikings is a sort
of high-class comic book: the 'bad guys' are worse than in real life,
and the heroes seem like 'superheroes'." (R. Fleischer)
Biography
film director
Richard Fleischer
Richard Fleischer (New York, 1916), son of producer and director Max Fleischer and grandson of Dave, a famous cartoonist of the 20's and 30's, began studying medicine but then enrolled at the Yale school of drama. After founding and directing a theatrical company, he joined RKO at the beginning of the 1940's, first as an editor and journalist, and then, starting in 1944, as a director. His medium-length film Design for Death won an Oscar in 1948, launching a long career which, in view of his ability to manage large budgets and to pass from one genre to another with great professionalism, led him to collaborate with the Hollywood majors. For RKO, he directed mainly taut and alienating B noir films, like Follow Me Quietly(1949), Trapped (1949) and The Narrow Margin (1952). He brought Jules Verne's novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea to the big screen for Walt Disney (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, 1954). He directed many different types of films for 20th Century Fox, maintaining the originality and the vigor of his style, which was able to give new life to the stylistic features of the classical cinema with which he regularly confronted himself. Fleischer adapted gangster movies to Cinemascope in Violent Saturday (1955); he reconstructed turn-of-the-century New York in the melodramatic The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955) and ancient civilizations in the historical film The Vikings (1958). He dealt with psychological mystery stories in Compulsion(1959), The Boston Strangler (1968) and Ten Rillington Place (1971, produced by Columbia), science fiction in Fantastic Voyage (1966), peplum in Barabbas (1962), comedy in Doctor Dolittle (1967) and war films in Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970). During the 1970's he divided his time between the United States and England, and continued his versatile and often experimental productions, including the futuristic Soylent Green (1973), and the thrillers Blind Terror (1971) and The Last Run (1972). During the 1980's he was once again successful with the adventure films Conan the DestroyerRed Sonja (1985), starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
FILMOGRAFIA
Memo for Joe (1944), Flicker Flashbacks No. 1, Series 1 (1945), Child of Divorce (1946), Banjo (Piccolo cuore, 1947), Flicker Flashbacks No. 1 (1947), Mr. Bell (1947), Flicker Flashbacks No. 2 (1948), Flicker Flashbacks No. 3 (1948), Flicker Flashbacks No. 4 (1948), Flicker Flashbacks No. 5 (1948), Bodyguard (Squadra mobile 61, 1948), Flicker Flashbacks No. 6 (1948), Flicker Flashbacks No. 7 (1948), Design for Death (Progetto di morte, mm, 1948), So This Is New York (Così questa è New York, 1948), The Clay Pigeon (Bersaglio umano, 1949), Follow Me Quietly (Seguimi in silenzio, 1949), Make Mine Laughs (1949), Trapped (1949), Armored Car Robbery (Sterminate la gang!, 1950), His Kind of Woman (Il suo tipo di donna, 1951), The Narrow Margin (Le iene di Chicago, 1952), The Happy Time (Tempo felice, 1952), Arena (1953), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (20.000 leghe sotto i mari, 1954), Violent Saturday (Sabato tragico, 1955), The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (L'altalena di velluto rosso, 1955), Bandido! (id., 1956), Between Heaven and Hell (I diavoli del Pacifico, 1956), The Vikings (I Vichinghi, 1958), Compulsion (Frenesia del delitto, 1959), These Thousand Hills (Il re della prateria, 1959), Crack in the Mirror (Dramma nello specchio, 1960), The Big Gamble (Il grosso rischio, 1961), Barabbas (id., 1962), Fantastic Voyage (Viaggio allucinante, 1966), Doctor Dolittle (Il favoloso dr. Dolittle, 1967), Think Twentieth (1967), The Boston Strangler (Lo strangolatore di Boston, 1968), Che! (id., 1969), Tora! Tora! Tora! (id., 1970), Ten Rillington Place (L'assassino di Rillington Place n. 10, 1971), The Last Run (L'ultima fuga, 1971), Blind Terror (Terrore cieco, 1971), The New Centurions (I nuovi centurioni, 1972), Soylent Green (2022: i sopravvissuti, 1973), The Don Is Dead (Il boss è morto, 1973), The Spikes Gang (La banda di Harry Spikes, 1974), Mr. Majestyk (A muso duro, 1974), Mandingo (id., 1975), The Incredible Sarah (Sarah Bernhardt - La più grande attrice di tutti i tempi, 1976), Crossed Swords (Il principe e il povero, 1978), Ashanti (id., 1979), The Jazz Singer (Il cantante di jazz, 1980), Tough Enough (Il duro più duro, 1983), Amityville 3-D (id., 1983), Conan the Destroyer (Conan il distruttore, 1984), Red Sonja (Yado, 1985), Million Dollar Mystery (Il mistero da 4 milioni di dollari, 1987), Call from Space (1989).