The Vikings Blu-ray Review

3.5 Stars Glorious 1950s epic comes to Blu-ray at last

The rough and rowdy world of the ancient Norsemen comes to life both vividly and brutally in Richard Fleischer’s The Vikings.

The Vikings (1958)
Released: 28 Jun 1958
Rated: N/A
Runtime: 116 min
Director: Richard Fleischer
Genre: Action, Adventure
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Ernest Borgnine, Janet Leigh
Writer(s): Calder Willingham (screenplay), Dale Wasserman (adaptation), Edison Marshall (novel)
Plot: A slave and a Viking prince fight for the love of a captive princess.
IMDB rating: 7.1
MetaScore: N/A

Disc Information
Studio: MGM
Distributed By: Kino Lorber
Video Resolution: 1080P/AVC
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audio: English 2.0 DTS-HDMA
Subtitles: English SDH
Rating: Not Rated
Run Time: 1 Hr. 56 Min.
Package Includes: Blu-ray
Case Type: keep case
Disc Type: BD50 (dual layer)
Region: A
Release Date: 03/08/2016
MSRP: $29.95

The Production: 3.5/5

The rough and rowdy world of the ancient Norsemen comes to life both vividly and brutally in Richard Fleischer’s The Vikings. Filmed on an epic scale with a huge cast, several top stars in showy roles, and some of the most breathtaking scenery on the globe photographed by a legendary Oscar-winning cinematographer, The Vikings is one of the more fondly remembered popcorn movies from the 1950s.

Viking king Ragnar (Ernest Borgnine) returns from a raid on Northumbria having killed their King Edwin and impregnated their queen (Maxine Audley) who secretly gives birth to a son who is spirited away to Italy to escape discovery by the new tyrannical king Aella (Frank Thring). Twenty years later, the young man Eric (Tony Curtis) is captured by the Vikings as a slave to serve Ragnar’s legitimate son Einar (Kirk Douglas). Also escaping from Northumbria is Egbert (James Donald) who had been giving the Vikings inside information on vulnerable English territories in exchange for his lands being left unharmed. Now in Norway, he offers to draw detailed maps of all of the strategic weak points on the Northumbria coasts and strongholds and also furnishes them with information on how they can take captive Princess Morgana (Janet Leigh) from Wales who is to be King Aella’s wife. Once in the Vikings’ hands, however, both Einar and Eric decide they can’t live without her, a rivalry that must eventually play out once the Vikings have finally subdued the English in Northumbria.

The film takes quite a long time getting started as Calder Willingham’s screenplay (based on the novel by Edison Marshall) must establish all of the key players in the drama and show the tangled relationships that exist between them (and never addresses the fact that the Norse and the English understand one another’s languages). Key to the conflicts between the principals working dramatically is that for most of the film, only two people are in possession of the knowledge that Douglas’ Einar and Curtis’ Eric are half-brothers: Egbert and an English priest Father Godwin (Alexander Knox). So the murderous relationship between the two really carries tremendous ironically dramatic weight even into the final showdown between the two men, staged and filmed beautifully in one of the more realistic battles between stars in that particular era of filmmaking. Throughout the film, however, director Richard Fleischer has allowed cinematographer Jack Cardiff to capture both the astounding beauty of the Norwegian fjords as well as the brutality and violence that was part and parcel of the life of the Norsemen. We see a vicious hawk attack (which gives Kirk Douglas’ Einar his signature look for the movie), a possible death in a crab pool, ax throwing as a means of determining guilt or innocence, a typical Viking burial, and all of the brawling and brutality incumbent to those people and their way of life. Fleischer also handles the final attack on the English adroitly with the hundreds of extras shooting and dodging arrows and boulders galore and some impressive shots of Douglas scaling the outside castle walls (occasionally with the camera above shooting downward showing us it’s really him doing the stunts). It’s big and burly and almost completely captivating only occasionally losing its pacing in the middle sections as Morgana struggles with her feelings in the romantic interludes which can’t possibly match the interest drummed up with the various action set pieces like sea battles and suicide by jumping into a pit of ravenous wolves.

Working with director Richard Fleischer for a second time after their experience with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Kirk Douglas gives a robust performance though allegedly it was not a harmonious shoot (Douglas was the producer here and thus felt free to exert his power frequently). Tony Curtis handles the action stuff quite skillfully and certainly gains audience sympathy enduring the taunts from his rival throughout the movie. Ernest Borgnine throws himself into the film with gusto tossing his head back continually with hearty laughter as he beams with pride over his aggressive son Einar. Frank Thring makes a fittingly sneering yet spineless tyrant while James Donald as the pragmatic Egbert offers reliable support. Janet Leigh is certainly beautiful as the center point of the movie’s love triangle, but the script doesn’t present her with much in the way of dramatic opportunity. Eileen Way has some wonderful scenes as the soothsayer Kitala.

Video: 4/5

3D Rating: NA

The film has been framed at 2.35:1 and is presented in 1080p resolution using the AVC codec. At its best, the images are bright, crisp, and startlingly beautiful, and close-ups reveal nice detail in facial features and hair. Color is generally excellent with realistic and appealing skin tones. Black levels, however, aren’t the transfer’s strongest element, and there are dust specks and little bits of debris off and on throughout the presentation. The movie has been divided into 8 chapters.

Audio: 4/5

The sound mix offered here is DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono. Dialogue has been expertly recorded and comes through loud and clear, and Mario Nascimbene’s memorable music themes add another layer of class to the production even if the low end is occasionally lacking a bit in impact. Atmospheric effects also blend nicely with the other elements without dominating them for a well-balanced sound mix. No age-related problems with hiss or crackle make themselves known.

Special Features: 2/5

A Tale of Norway (28:16, SD): director Richard Fleischer shares many of his behind-the-scenes photos of the production as he reminisces about the arduous two years of pre and post production work on the movie. Numerous film clips are also used as he recalls memorable moments from the filming.

Trailer Gallery: a series of trailers from Kino Lorber Studio Classics Blu-ray releases featuring the stars and director of the movie: The Vikings (3:26, SD), The Devil’s Disciple (2:56, HD), Taras Bulba (3:34, SD), Marty (2:59, SD), and Mr. Majestyk (1:33, SD).

Overall: 3.5/5

One of the most fondly remembered and most popular of the 1950s screen epics, The Vikings comes to Blu-ray in a fine looking high definition transfer that was worth the wait.

Matt has been reviewing films and television professionally since 1974 and has been a member of Home Theater Forum’s reviewing staff since 2007, his reviews now numbering close to three thousand. During those years, he has also been a junior and senior high school English teacher earning numerous entries into Who’s Who Among America’s Educators and spent many years treading the community theater boards as an actor in everything from Agatha Christie mysteries to Stephen Sondheim musicals.

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Alan Tully

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Would it kill MGM to spend a couple of bob to do a bit of a clean-up when using old masters. What was acceptable & not too noticeable 15 years ago on SD DVD, really shows up on HD Blu-ray (esp. with the bigger screens we have now), nearly every MGM review mentions dirt & sparkle.
 

Ronald Epstein

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Never seen this film, but thanks to recommendations on HTF, my copy will be in hand Tomorrow.

Very much looking forward to seeing this film. Thank you for the review, Matt.
 

OliverK

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Would it kill MGM to spend a couple of bob to do a bit of a clean-up when using old masters. What was acceptable & not too noticeable 15 years ago on SD DVD, really shows up on HD Blu-ray (esp. with the bigger screens we have now), nearly every MGM review mentions dirt & sparkle.
I would not trust low cost tools to not mess this up. Better some dirt and debris than missing textures, arrows, flames etc.
 

Alan Tully

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I would not trust low cost tools to not mess this up. Better some dirt and debris than missing textures, arrows, flames etc.

Just a days manual de-spot session would work wonders, & automatic de-spot tools have come on a fair bit since my days of just turning up the DVNR & running the film through it in real time. My problem is a lifetime of looking out for this stuff, first in the lab & then on telecine, these days I notice every tiny little splodge. I mean we're not talking about a small three man company, this is MGM.
 

Dr Griffin

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Would it kill MGM to spend a couple of bob to do a bit of a clean-up when using old masters. What was acceptable & not too noticeable 15 years ago on SD DVD, really shows up on HD Blu-ray (esp. with the bigger screens we have now), nearly every MGM review mentions dirt & sparkle.

This sounds like one of the better transfers from MGM. You don't know what you are going to get with them, but they may be getting better. I fully understand any skepticism. I've accepted that we are at the mercy of the penny-pinchers; I never pre-order anymore, especially a catalog title.
 

OliverK

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Just a days manual de-spot session would work wonders, & automatic de-spot tools have come on a fair bit since my days of just turning up the DVNR & running the film through it in real time. My problem is a lifetime of looking out for this stuff, first in the lab & then on telecine, these days I notice every tiny little splodge. I mean we're not talking about a small three man company, this is MGM.

MGM does not care. This is a 8perf large format film but you could easily miss it if you compared it to Spartacus or King of Kings. Image would have to pay for the cleanup and obviously they do not care that much either which I agree with as a certain amount of film artefacts does not bother me that much with the other obvious shortcomings in place.
 

john a hunter

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The Vikings was ,of course, shot in Technirama or as it was then billed "horizon spanning Technirama ".
Matt does this benefit the transfer and the clarity that the process possessed,for instance, is obvious?
The grain structure should also benefit if the transfer is good enough.
 

Matt Hough

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In his reminiscence about making the film, Richard Fleischer talks about the cumbersome camera used for Technirama, but I'm not certain this transfer was taken from 70mm elements. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can enlighten us.
 

Matt Hough

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Robert Harris, who is far more knowledgeable about Technirama and the elements this transfer was taken from, explains his thoughts on image quality for The Vikings in his write-up which can be found here.
 

john a hunter

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I recall that quote from the director which is misleading. There were never any 70mm elements only the 8 perf horizontal elements to which I presume he was referring.
 
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