Erik The Conqueror (1961)

In the late Eighth Century, invading Vikings are driven away from British shores by the forces of King Loter (Franco Ressel).

However during the battle, Loter is assassinated by the machinations of treacherous Sir Rutford (Andrea Checchi), while the leader of the Vikings, King Harald (Folco Lulli) is also killed, stranding his two young twin sons, Erik and Eron.

While Eron is whisked away by his fellow Vikings, young Erik is left alone, floating in the sea, only to be later found and adopted by the widowed Queen of England, Alice (Françoise Christophe).

It has to be said that in the few shots of young Erik in the sea, child actor Loris Loddi looks genuinely distressed and it is actually quite upsetting.

The story then jumps ahead 20 years, and we watch as Eron (The High Chaparral's Cameron Mitchell, who has an air of Daniel Craig and early Robert Shaw about him) is named as Viking war chief to lead a mass raid on Britain, while simultaneously Erik (Giorgio Ardisson) is named Duke of Helford and leader of the English sea forces (to defend against the impending Viking invasion).

In their first sea battle, Erik's ship is sabotaged by Sir Rutford (who is pissed that Erik has taken his job, and has eyes on marrying The Queen in a power grab) and sinks.

Erik washes up on the shores of "the land of the Vikings" and is rescued by priestess Rama (Alice Kessler), the identical twin sister of Eron's beloved, the priestess Daya (Ellen Kesler).

Unfortunately, Erik is captured when he sneaks into Eron's wedding ceremony and mistakes Eron's bride for his own love interest.

Eventually, Erik escapes with Rama, and the kidnapped Queen Alice, makes it back to England where he teams up with some Scottish nobles to besiege the castle of the treacherous Sir Rutford.

Only to find Eron and his Vikings are already there, and seemingly in league with Rutford.

Not to be confused with Erik The Viking, Erik The Conqueror is a 1961 Italian rip-off the fantastic 1958 Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis film, The Vikings.

Much to my surprise though, given that this is the work of Mario Brava, who is primarily known for his work in the overrated giallo genre, Erik The Conqueror is a pretty decent, low-budget swashbuckling romp. 

However, it veers way more towards fantasy than pseudohistory, particularly in its depictions of the Vikings, with their cavernous, subterranean palace and decidedly un-Viking "Vestal Virgins" (Brava clearly drawing on his Italian heritage here).

And while there are elements clearly lifted direct from the far superior earlier film, The Vikings - from the story of two estranged brothers to the climactic confrontation, and resolution - Erik The Conqueror also charts its own course on occasions or tries to obfuscate its lifts with minor changes (for example, the legendary axe climb of the original film is a ridiculous arrow climb here).

A fun, 90-minute non-stop action movie (with pretty decent dubbing on the English language version and glorious crisp imagery on the Arrow Video blu-ray), Erik The Conqueror is an enjoyable - very unhistorical and not wholly original - Viking yarn.

The Vikings (1958)

The Vikings, one of the most iconic movies from my youth, has been given a blu-ray upgrade in 2017, which I immediately pulled the trigger on.

While not laden with extras, it's still a worthwhile investment if you have such fond memories of this as I do.

Based on the 1951 novel by Edison Marshall and echoing the stories retold in The History Channel's Vikings series, this action-packed 1950's epic primarily focuses on the seething resentment between churlish and vain Einar (the immortal Kirk Douglas) - son of legendary Viking king Ragnar Lodbrok (Ernest Borgnine) - and strong-willed slave Eric (Tony Curtis).

Einar is already pissed at Eric for disfiguring his face (one of many stand-out moments in this marvellous movie), but then they both find themselves drawn towards the kidnapped English princess Morgana (Psycho's Janet Leigh), who is, in turn, betrothed to the odious King Aella (Frank Thring) of Northumbria.

Treacherous Northumbrian nobleman Lord Egbert (James Donald), a long-time ally of Ragnar, happens to know that Eric is actually the heir to the throne of Northumbria... as well as a son of Ragnar (and therefore half-brother of Einar).

He hopes to use this knowledge to his own advantage, while exacting revenge on Aella through Ragnar's Vikings.

Beautifully filmed in vivid Technicolour by Oscar-winning Sevenoaks cinematographer Jack Cardiff (who I interviewed while I was working for the local paper there), the Blu-Ray makes The Vikings look as fresh and new as possible.

Kirk Douglas has never looked more menacing, Tony Curtis more handsome, and Janet Leigh more gorgeous.

Supported by an incredible cast, with breathtakingly detailed practical sets, and shot at a variety of eye-catching locations around Europe, under the guidance of director Richard Fleischer (Conan The Destroyer; 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea; Fantastic Voyage; Soylent Green; Doctor Dolittle; The Boston Strangler etc), it's no wonder that this movie has stayed with me since I saw it on TV as a young kid.

As was the fashion with many vintage films, the ending is rather abrupt (once its central storyline has concluded) and leaves a lot of points unresolved that would have 21st Century audiences racing to the Internet to moan about or resolve through fan-fiction.

But this doesn't distract from the non-stop adventure that drives the narrative from the opening narration of Orson Welles to the final credits.

To modern sensibilities, raised on the likes of Game of Thrones, the largely bloodless fight sequences and the occasionally theatrical acting may feel a bit dated, but truly this is a wonderful, engrossing, two-hour historical romp.

And any gamer worth his salt, once he's seen Einar's "axe climb", will be wanting to recreate that sequence in his next Dungeons & Dragons adventure...

Biblical Epics

Every now and again in my non-stop viewing calendar I like to take a moment to return to the big screen epics of my youth, the grandiose Bible stories that were a staple of vintage cinema.

In those benighted, pre-VHS days, when there were only three TV channels available in the UK, I would get my large-scale fantasy fix from 1950's movies like The Ten Commandments (which I'm watching at the moment), Ben-Hur, The Robe, Quo Vadis etc which were played, it seemed, pretty much on rotation at the weekends.

I have an embarrassing childhood memory of a very young me (possibly five or six) standing in the garden with a large stick - doubling as a staff - pretending to be Moses at the top of my lungs!

Never once did I think these were anything more than pseudohistorical, sword-and-sandal, fantasy stories but there was something there that piqued my young imagination.

In parallel with my unwavering love of Ray Harryhausen films and coupled with Kirk Douglas in The Vikings and, of course, Spartacus, these movies were already shaping my "swords-and-???" tastes even before I was introduced to the works of JRR Tolkien and then Dungeons & Dragons. 

Dungeons & Dragons provided me with a way to quantify ("stat up") the things I was seeing in these movies and hearing at school during our compulsory "religious education" (which meant trying to force Christianity onto us, rather than teaching us about all the religions of the world).

At prep school, I recall excitedly going through the hymn book we were given, hunting for potential magic items: "Bring me my bow of burning gold, bring me my arrows of desire!"

In recent times, harkening back to this mini-obsession of my tween and pre-tween years, I even sought out (I think from Noble Knight Games in the  States eventually, when it didn't cost an arm and a leg to ship something across The Atlantic), the Green Ronin d20 supplement Testament, for running games in the Old Testament era.

No, it doesn't have stats for God (unlike the Fantasy Wargaming book, by the late Bruce Galloway, published in the early 1980s, which has stats for both God and the Virgin Mary) but it does go into a lot of historical detail about life and beliefs in that ancient era.

The most recent "Biblical Epic" of the peplum variety that I've seen was 2018's Samson, a pretty decent retelling of one of the few Bible stories that ever held my interest.

Although they seem to be few and far between these days, I always keep half-an-eye out for any competent "Biblical Epics" that skirt the edges of my geeky radar.