'THE SAGA OF THE VIKING WOMEN AND THEIR VOYAGE TO THE WATERS OF THE GREAT SEA SERPENT'.....SO WHAT'S THIS MOVIE ABOUT, ANYWAY?

The Saga Of The Viking Women And Their Voyage To The Waters Of The Great Sea Serpent' (1958) 

            We're well aware the shorthand for this movie's title was "Viking Women And The Sea Serpent'.......but we just love silently snickering every time we type out the original title. 

              Who else could have directed this  10.95-and-change quickie besides the legendary God Of All Shlock, Roger Corman?

               Normally, Viking epics (like "The Vikings" and the new "The Northmen")require massive crowds, huge battles, vast effects, and multi-million dollar budgets to pay for it all.

               Not Roger Corman.  Corman-ized to the max, "Viking Women" looks like it was dashed off in a few days........with a sturdy little bunch of actors running around in either the well trod Bronson Canyon or in front of a rear-view projection screen lit with a one-volt bulb. 

               Familiar faces abound, but unlike in other Corman cheapies, you won't spot any future super-dooper stars like Jack Nicholson.  Even Vincent Price is nowhere in sight......

               Our tiny band of Viking gals, all sun-kissed California blondes, is headed up by the plucky Desir (Abby Dalton , later a popular sitcom/game show star). Desir coiffed like a high school Prom queen wants the group to sail off in search of their missing Main Squeezes, who haven't returned since their last ocean jaunt. 

              But whoa.....who's that smoldering raven haired Liz Taylor look-alike  amid the the sea of platinum pulchritude? It's the group's official ominous sorceress Enger,  played by the very star-crossed Susan Cabot (later to become Corman's "Wasp Woman")

              Enger's no pal of Desir's, since she's got the secret hots for Desir's missing boytoy, yet she surprises the bunch by voting to set sail and go rescue their missing hunks. 

              So off the cuties go, in a boat bobbing in front of  a rear projection screen unspooling an 8mm loop of pounding surf and a rubber sea serpent that glides, slides and sometimes pops up fir a roar or two......

              Making landfall, they're promptly captured by a nasty tribe of primitive, dark-haired warriors led by evil fur clad Stark (Richard Devon) and his whimpering cowardly son Senya (Jay Sawyer)

               The warrior guys do a whole of inappropriate manhandling of the Viking babes, not to mention imprisoning their long lost boyfriends in a cave. But battles, escapes and other assorted scrapes unfold.......

                And if you can't figure out who ends up as Sea Serpent chow, you haven't been watching enough cheesy Roger Corman movies. 

                Though blatantly idiotic, ridiculous and embarrassing for the poor actors, the film's so  forthright and winning in its amateurish cornball innocence and enthusiasm, we ended up charmed by it......as we realized, to our own amusement, we'd begun nursing a crush on Abby Dalton. 

               For those who love and cherish the glorious cheapo filmography of Roger Corman, "The Saga...blah-blah-blah..." is a 3 star (***) essential, whether you take it in to mock it or marvel at the sheer chutzpah of its making. 

               And everybody else?  Read the film's title and......what the hell, park all common sense in a shelf and watch it anyway.....and it'll save you a $12.00 ticket to the "The Northmen", which doesn't, to our knowledge, feature any toy store rubber sea serpents......