The Vikings | 1958
- DIRECTOR |
- Richard Fleischer
Two years before Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus, Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis slug it out as Viking brothers in this boisterously butch Norse saga, filmed largely on the spectacular southwest coast of Norway. Meticulously researched and designed, the Viking village was built southwest of Gjetingsdalen, on the Maurangerfjord, across from the Fureberg waterfall, southeast of Bergen.
The longboat scenes were filmed a little to the north, on the spectacular Sogne fjord, Nærøyfjord, near Balestrand.
The castle of Northumbrian king Aella (über-camp villain Frank Thring), from which Princess Morgana (Janet Leigh) is finally rescued, is the 14th century Fort-La-Latte, perched spectacularly atop cliffs on the north Brittany coast of France, between St Brieuc and St Malo.
The castle, which is open to visitors, is also featured in Philippe de Broca’s 1988 period adventure Chouans!, with Philippe Noiret, Sophie Marceau and Lambert Wilson.
