I avoided this one for
the longest time, mostly because I'm not a big fan of Italian peplum. However, the combination of Mario Bava and
Cameron Mitchell is tough to resist. It’s not as good as their next collaboration,
Blood and Black Lace, but it’s better than your average Italian Viking movie. That’s not exactly saying much though.
The Vikings are
betrayed by power-hungry English general and a battle ensues. During the fracas, the two orphaned sons of the
Viking king are separated. Erik is found
by the Queen of England and raised as her own.
Meanwhile, Eron is found by his own people. When he becomes full grown, he becomes
Cameron Mitchell and leads the Viking army into battle against England. In the end, the two brothers (predictably)
realize they’re flesh and blood and team up to fight the evil general.
Most of these Italian
peplum movies look weird. The color is
always a bit off; almost as if someone’s been futzing with the color settings
on your TV. Since this is a Mario Bava
picture, Erik the Viking looks beautiful.
The naval battles are atmospheric and Bava gives us a little of his
patented horror imagery during an execution scene.
The opening battle is
pretty hardcore. There's a particularly
gnarly bit where a woman and her child get speared together. After the solid start, things get kind of draggy
and all the dance numbers, coronations, and romance shit don’t exactly help. The third act has a few nice moments, like
when Erik’s girlfriend is tortured with a spider. It’s these little moments that make you wish
Bava had injected a little more of his personality throughout the rest of the
picture.
Mitchell does a good
job here. His performance is different
than what you’d see in a lot of these movies.
With his broody swagger, he’s more James Dean than Steve Reeves. He also has what has to be one of the longest
death scenes in movie history, which is a perfect fit for his level of
theatrics.
AKA: The Invaders.
No comments:
Post a Comment