Poster from TMDB
OverviewAI-generated
The Vikings is a 1958 American epic action and swashbuckler film directed by Richard Fleischer, from a screenplay by Calder Willingham and Dale Wasserman, with Kirk Douglas serving as executive producer as well as starring. Set in Norway, it also stars Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh and Ernest Borgnine, and features the characters Ragnar Lodbrok, Ecgberht I of Northumbria, Ælla and Björn Ironside. Jack Cardiff was director of photography, Elmo Williams edited the film, Mario Nascimbene composed the score, and Orson Welles narrated.
Distributed by United Artists and Netflix, the film had a budget of $3,500,000 and a box office of $6,000,000.
Synthesized by Vinony from 43 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, TMDb, OMDb, IMDb. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Film · TMDB
7.0Einar, brutal son of the viking Ragnar and future heir to his throne, tangles with clever slave Eric, for the hand of a beautiful English maiden.
Cast
- Kirk Douglas as Einar
- Tony Curtis as Eric
- Ernest Borgnine as Ragnar
- Janet Leigh as Morgana
- James Donald as Lord Egbert
- Alexander Knox as Father Godwin
Themes
- based on novel or book
- scandinavia
- vikings (norsemen)
- norway
- unknown father
- slave
- swashbuckler
- one eyed man
- sailing ship
- one armed man
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Ratings
IMDb
7/10
16,024 votes
Rotten Tomatoes
77%
- Year
- 1958
- Runtime
- 116 min
- Genres
- Action, Adventure, History
- Rated
- Approved
- Awards
- 2 wins & 2 nominations
via OMDb · IMDb
Key facts
- Directed by
- Richard Fleischer
- Screenplay by
- Calder Willingham , Dale Wasserman (adaptation)
- Based on
- The Viking , 1951 novel, by Edison Marshall
- Produced by
- Jerry Bresler
- Starring
- Kirk Douglas , Tony Curtis , Ernest Borgnine , Janet Leigh , James Donald , Alexander Knox
- Narrated by
- Orson Welles
- Cinematography
- Jack Cardiff
- Edited by
- Elmo Williams
- Music by
- Mario Nascimbene
- Production companies
- Brynaprod Curtleigh Productions
- Distributed by
- United Artists
- Release date
- June 11, 1958 ( 1958-06-11 ) (New York)
- Running time
- 116 minutes
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Budget
- $3.5 million
- Box office
- ~$15 million (incl. $6.2 million US and Canada rentals, and $7 million overseas rentals)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- film
- Genre
- epic film
- Country of origin
- United States
- Original language
- English language
- Director
- Richard Fleischer
- Screenwriter
- Calder Willingham
- Cast member
- Paul Préboist
- Composer
- Mario Nascimbene
- Cinematographer
- Jack Cardiff
- Narrative location
- Norway
- Duration
- 112
- FilmAffinity ID
- 300725
- Distribution format
- video on demand
- Image
- Vikings moviep.jpg
Show 12 more facts
- publication date
- 1958-06-28
- Commons category
- The Vikings (1958 film)
- film editor
- Elmo Williams
- title
- The Vikings
- distributed by
- Netflix
- capital cost
- 3500000
- box office
- 6000000
- narrator
- Orson Welles
- assessment
- Bechdel test
- review score
- 77%
- characters
- Björn Ironside
- executive producer
- Kirk Douglas
Sources (12)
via Wikidata · CC0
~11 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Vikings is a 1958 American epic historical fiction swashbuckling film directed by Richard Fleischer, filmed in Technirama, and printed in Technicolor. It was produced by Jerry Bresler and Kirk Douglas (who also starred in the film), through Douglas' Brynaprod company. It is based on the 1951 novel The Viking by Edison Marshall, which in turn is based on material from the sagas of Ragnar Lodbrok and his sons. Other starring roles were taken by then husband-and-wife Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh as well as Ernest Borgnine. The film made notable use of natural locations in Norway. It was mostly filmed in Maurangerfjorden and Maurangsnes, captured on film by cinematographer Jack Cardiff, although Aella's castle was the real Fort-la-Latte in north-east Brittany in France.
Despite being derisively called a "Norse Opera" (a pun on 'Horse Opera,' common term for Westerns used by critics of the time) by New York Times critic Bosley Crowther, the film proved a major box office success and spawned the television series Tales of the Vikings, directed by the film's editor, Elmo Williams, which included none of the original cast or characters.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “The Vikings” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.