The Viking Women and the Sea Serpent (1957)

"See how the Storm God licks his lips at the coming feast!", 4 September 2007

I'll try, but I'm not sure I can write a plot summary that's as long as that crazy title. A band of Viking women set out in search of their missing Viking men. Along the way, they run into a sea serpent and a whirlpool (I'm not really sure how it all happened. The women meet this really horrible looking sea serpent that terrorizes them when all of a sudden, they are being pulled into a whirlpool. Are the two things related? – Honestly, I don't know.) The Viking women find themselves washed up on the shores of a strange land where they are to be slaves. They discover their men are also being held as slaves and are working in the mines. Can the women free the men and escape to their homeland?

The Viking Women and the Sea Serpent (the name I actually saw the movie under) is a Roger Corman quickie – and it shows. I'd be shocked to learn that it took more than a weekend to shoot the movie. And I'd be even more shocked to find out that anyone spent more than 10 minutes writing the thing. The plot is utterly ridiculous. The sets and costumes seem to have been leftovers from other Corman movies. The special effects in the form of the sea serpent are as low rent as you'll likely run across. And the acting, with the exception of Susan Cabot, is nothing to write home about. Overall, not one of Corman's better early efforts.

And to make matters worse, The Viking Women and the Sea Serpent does not make for a very good episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 either. I cannot remember laughing even once. Very much below average and worthy of a 2/5 on my MST3K rating scale. (However, the short that precedes the movie in Episode 317 called "The Home Economics Story" is often laugh-out-loud funny. I'd give the short a 4/5 on its own.)

3/10