The Viking Queen (1967)

To honour her father's dying wish, Queen Salina shares the rule of Icena with Justinian, a fair and just Roman. This displeases the bloodthirsty Druids on one side and the more hard-line ... See full summary »

Director:

Don Chaffey

Writers:

Clarke Reynolds, John Temple-Smith (story)

Stars:

Don Murray, Carita, Donald Houston

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Don Murray	...	Justinian
Carita	...	Salina
Donald Houston	...	Maelgan (as Don Houston)
Andrew Keir	...	Octavian
Adrienne Corri	...	Beatrice
Niall MacGinnis	...	Tiberian
Wilfrid Lawson	...	King Priam
Nicola Pagett	...	Talia
Percy Herbert	...	Catus
Patrick Troughton	...	Tristram
Sean Caffrey	...	Fergus
Denis Shaw	...	Osiris
Philip O'Flynn	...	Merchant
Brendan Matthews	...	Nigel
Gerry Alexander	...	Fabian

Storyline

To honour her father's dying wish, Queen Salina shares the rule of Icena with Justinian, a fair and just Roman. This displeases the bloodthirsty Druids on one side and the more hard-line Romans on the other. As Salina and Justinian fall in love their enemies start to plot, and blood soon stains the green hills of Britain.

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Plot Keywords:

love | dying wish | druid | queen | blood | 

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Taglines:

No man could tame her savage passions!

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Genres:

Adventure

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 August 1967 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Rainha dos Vikings

Filming Locations:

Ardmore Studios, Herbert Road, Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland

Box Office

Budget:

£471,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hammer Film Productions, Seven Arts Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min 80 min (censored)

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The last film role of Wilfrid Lawson.

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Goofs

Druids did not worship Zeus.

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Connections

Featured in The World of Hammer: Lands Before Time (1994)

User Reviews

Strictly for Hammer completists and those bored on a Sunday afternoon

Never a company to let something like historical accuracy get in the way of some good ol' fashioned blood shed and some barely covered breasts, Hammer Studios went all-out anachronistic in 1967, telling the tale of The Viking Queen, Salinas (Carita), a British druid who was not a Viking and seemed to worship the Greek god Zeus. It's a rather dull tale about Salinas' love affair with invading Roman general Justinian (Don Murray), whose truce causes both the Druids and the Romans to heavily oppose it and wage war against each other. With Justinian raising taxes of the rich merchants, and lowering them for the poor small-folk, a plot is forged between the merchants and the usurping Roman Octavian (Andrew Keir) to overthrow Justinian and conquer the Druids.

Shot with an almost sickening lucidity, The Viking Queen is certainly an example of Hammer's strives for visual lushness and oily-skinned beauties, possibly to compensate for the sheer monotony on show. This was Finnish fashion model Cairta's only starring role (she appeared in small roles in a couple of other productions), and although she certainly looks the part (in terms of what Hammer were obviously looking for), her inexperience shows and zones in a rather flat performance. The wildly historical inaccuracy can certainly be forgiven if the film was entertaining, such as it was in Hammer's Rasputin The Mad Monk (1966), but there is nothing going for this film apart from the odd amusing camp performance, and the sight of Nita Lorraine's (credited as Nubian Girl Slave) shiny flesh. Strictly for Hammer completists and those bored on a Sunday afternoon.

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