The Viking Queen (1967)

User Rating:

4.8/10   

Director:

Don Chaffey

Writers:

Clarke Reynolds (writer)
John Temple-Smith (story)

Release Date:

16 August 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure

Tagline:

SEE! Bladed chariots of death! Occult terrors of the druids! Men roasted alive in the cage of hell! Mighty legions of Rome! Barbarism of the mad emperor! Savage rites of the Icena!

Plot:

To honour her father's dying wish, Queen Salina shares the rule of Icena with Justinian, a fair and just Roman...

Plot Keywords:

Ancient Rome | Whipping | Beautiful Woman | Historical

Cast

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

Runtime:

91 min | Portugal:80 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Portugal:M/12 | Sweden:15

Company:

Hammer Film Productions

Trivia:

The last film role of Wilfrid Lawson.

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: Contrary to the title, the movie is about a Celtic queen and her people.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Killing Zoe (1994)

Middle-of-the-woad.

When Don Chaffey directed the historically ludicrous and rather camp dinosaur epic One Million Years B.C., he cleverly distracted viewers from the film's sillier aspects through the use of stunning stop-motion creature effects, and Racquel Welch's even more stunning chest. The result was a completely daft, but thoroughly entertaining piece of schlock cinema.

With The Viking Queen, an equally silly and factually inaccurate sword and sandal movie, he once again uses 'big breast diversion tactics'—only this time with less successful results. Perhaps Chaffey should have thrown caution to the wind and chucked in a T-rex or two!

Beautiful, pillow-chested model Carina plays Celtic Queen (yes... Celtic!) Salina of the Iceni, who is forced to pick up a sword and fight the Romans, despite the fact that her lover, Justinian, is their leader. Carina sure is gorgeous, but even her breath-taking looks and marvellous physique are not enough to prevent one from noticing her wooden acting, the dreadful script, and plodding direction.

Stay the course, and you will be treated to a couple of unintentionally hilarious scenes (of which the lowering of Romans into a fiery pit was my favourite), a smattering of partial nudity (nipple tassles spoil the fun), and a silly battle with Boudicca-style warrior women in chariots (with blades on the wheels) attacking Romans with glee.

But even these enjoyably dumb moments cannot stop The Viking Queen from being a merely mediocre effort.