The Vikings (1958)
While preparing for Hot Toasty Rag’s week of Kirk Douglas movie reviews, I rented both Ulysses and The Vikings, among others. I asked my mom what was the difference between those two mentioned flicks, since they seemed extremely similar. Her answer: “In one of them, Kirk Douglas gets his eye poked out. The one-eye movie is terrible.” A very succinct distinction.
I’ll elaborate, though, since my reviews are typically longer than two sentences. Ulysses is an adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey; The Vikings is based of Edison Marshall’s The Viking. While Ulysses has fantastical elements, like giants, sirens, and sorcery, The Vikings is just a regular old Nordic adventure movie. Except, no one has any trace of an accent. In this one, Kirk Douglas is the legitimate son of Viking warrior Ernest Borgnine. Tony Curtis is the illegitimate son, and in an early scene, he orders his falcon to peck out Kirk’s eye. The rest of the movie is a struggle between the brothers as they fight for love of Janet Leigh, inheritance from Ernie, and other Viking-ish issues, like Valhalla, ships, war, and the treatment of prisoners.
Personally, I liked Ulysses better, but if you want to see the husband and wife team act together, or if you particularly like Tony Curtis—I don’t, really—you might make it through this one relatively unscathed. I found it rather silly and dated, though.
Want to watch it? Click here to watch it on ok.ru. And thanks "Juhi Thaker" for posting!
More Kirk Douglas movies here!
I’ll elaborate, though, since my reviews are typically longer than two sentences. Ulysses is an adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey; The Vikings is based of Edison Marshall’s The Viking. While Ulysses has fantastical elements, like giants, sirens, and sorcery, The Vikings is just a regular old Nordic adventure movie. Except, no one has any trace of an accent. In this one, Kirk Douglas is the legitimate son of Viking warrior Ernest Borgnine. Tony Curtis is the illegitimate son, and in an early scene, he orders his falcon to peck out Kirk’s eye. The rest of the movie is a struggle between the brothers as they fight for love of Janet Leigh, inheritance from Ernie, and other Viking-ish issues, like Valhalla, ships, war, and the treatment of prisoners.
Personally, I liked Ulysses better, but if you want to see the husband and wife team act together, or if you particularly like Tony Curtis—I don’t, really—you might make it through this one relatively unscathed. I found it rather silly and dated, though.
Want to watch it? Click here to watch it on ok.ru. And thanks "Juhi Thaker" for posting!
More Kirk Douglas movies here!