The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent

The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent (1957)

Runtime: 66 minutes

Directed by: Roger Corman

Starring: Abby Dalton, Susan Cabot, Bradford Jackson, June Kenney, Richard Devon

From: AIP

Yes, I watched this due to its title.

Things are now more back to normal for me. The preceding week had some bad times and it took quite the mental toll but I won’t dwell on this and instead just move on. Returning to a regular routine is rather rad for my mind. My schedule for what I’ll see the last week of May is completely screwed-up now yet that is OK. It seemed to be the right time to check out a motion picture best known for its absurdly long full title, and its appearance on MST3K.

Director/producer Roger Corman was pitched quite the spiel by special effects artists Irving Block and Jack Rabin; he fell for it and spent more money than usual to present this. Of course, the promised special effects were too ambitious so what we got instead was dumb hokum with bad acting and laughable moments such as pathetic-looking spear tosses where the titular “great” sea serpent only makes a few brief appearances.

Yet this was not unwatchable dreck—instead it’s just a product that has too many dull and forgettable stretches for something only 66 minutes long. To its credit there’s the real life aspect of Viking women actually holding much power in their society, and there’s also GIRL POWER for those that dig such things. The women do go on a journey to try and find their men, and find them help captive by barbarian jerks. Whether it was accidental or on purpose that the prince of the barbarians is played as a whiny petulant dunce, that did provide some much-needed laughter. That said, this is probably best seen on MST3K.