AIP/Corman Double Feature
U.S.A. | 1957, 1958
Directed by Roger Corman
Starring
Abby Dalton, Susan Cabot
Jonathan Haze, Robert Vaughn
Sarah Marshall, Frank DeKova
B&W | Not Rated
VIKING WOMEN: 66 Min.
TEENAGE CAVEMAN: 65 Min.
Format: DVD
Double Feature Disc | R1 - NTSC
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Hold your mouse pointer over an image for a pop-up caption
Review by
Brian Lindsey
  
Viking
Women
  
  5
Teenage
Caveman
  
  4  
  4    
With the ultimate fate of MGM's excellent Midnite Movie line of DVDs still in question, Lionsgate Home Entertainment has lately stepped into the breach to offer low-priced double feature discs of cult B-movies originally distributed by American International Pictures (AIP). These DVDs — four at the time of this writing — have been released under the moniker Samuel Z. Arkoff Collection Cult Classics. While it's great that these films are finally making it to DVD, their presentation (so far) leaves a bit to be desired.
    One of the new Lionsgate discs pairs the Roger Corman cheapies Saga of The Viking Women and the Great Sea Serpent (1957) with the better known Teenage Caveman (1958). Both were made during the low budget auteur's most prolific period as a director, when he was cranking out one Z-grade genre pic after another, usually shot in a matter of days for very little money. Although Teenage Caveman boasts a 'name' star and a twist ending that seems to have resonated in the annals of sci-fi cinema, Viking Women is actually the more entertaining film — if only in a so-bad-it's-good sort of way.
    The movie's full onscreen title is The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage To the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent... which is laughably pretentious considering the actual content and threadbare production. Statuesque Abby Dalton plays Desir, headstrong leader of a group of lonely Nordic gals who've been pining for three years over the disappearance of their menfolk, presumed lost at sea. They vote "in true Viking fashion" — by casting spears — to build their own ship and sail into the unknown in search of the missing men. Casting off in one of the chintziest dragon boats to ever insult a movie audience, the ladies soon discover they have a stowaway on board: Otar (Jonathan Haze), 'the littlest Viking'. What he lacks in stature he more than makes up for in pluck; Otar hopes to win the heart of one of the gals, who, though not betrothed, volunteered for the voyage anyway.
    If getting caught in a fierce storm wasn't bad enough, Otar and the Viking women spy a huge, monstrous sea serpent (an όber-pathetic hand puppet) swimming straight for them. The boat is capsized and sucked into an underwater maelstrom (the "Vortex"), though the crew somehow survives to wash up on the shore of a strange country. They're promptly captured by the Grimolts, a boorish race of ragtag warriors led by the sardonic, badly dressed King Stark (Richard Devon). After toying with them awhile, Stark — who has parenting issues with his fey, mincing heir, Prince Senya (Jay Sayer) — announces that the women will serve his soldiers as sex slaves (actually, the sex part is implied; this was made in the '50s, after all). Otar is to join his fellow Norsemen in the mines... Ja, the boyfriends of our heroines are still alive, having been imprisoned by the Grimolts these past three years.
    Can the girls escape their sordid fate at the hands of such barbarians? Are their men doomed to die toiling in Stark's mines? Will dark-haired Inger (Susan Cabot), the group's only brunette, end up betraying them all for her own selfish ends? (Blonde = Loyal & Virtuous, don'tcha know.) Will Prince Senya ever come out of the closet? Will feisty Otar ever stop getting his ass kicked by Stark's whip-happy henchman, Zarko (Michael Forest of Beast from Haunted Cave)? Are we gonna get to see that pitifully cheesy sea monster again?
    All these questions are resolved, one way or the other, by the end of Viking Women's brisk 66 minute running time. It's a silly but enthusiastic movie, with none of the participants seemingly deterred by the certain knowledge that there was simply no way they were ever really going to pull this off. Corman's content to serve up the discount cheese while keeping things lively; plenty of fights, escapes and chases propel the thin plot. (Only those ubiquitous, interminable walking scenes that Corman's so fond of — cynically used to pad short running times — slow down the story.) That 'Master of Bombast', music composer Albert Glasser, cranks it up to 11 (didn't he always?) in an effort to add energy and majesty to the scrawny production values. The cast is fun to watch. Corman stock player Jonathan Haze pretty much steals the movie as the plucky, never-say-die Otar. (He gets a long, energetic fight scene, all of which is done with only two edits.) The domain of the Grimolts is actually Bronson Canyon, just outside Los Angeles, and I kept expecting to see Ro-Man — or any of the other monsters and space aliens to have hung out there in a gazillion different movies and TV shows — come strolling around one of those familiar-looking boulders at any moment. (As for Viking Women's own monster, the briefly seen "great sea serpent" makes Reptilicus look positively awe-inspiring.)
    Teenage Caveman: Along with some of the same cast members and yet another overly-strident Glasser score, our second feature also makes extensive use of Bronson Canyon locales. (Not to mention long, drawn-out walking sequences.) The then 26-year old Robert Vaughn (The Bridge at Remagen) is our titular teenage Cro-Magnon protagonist, and a decidedly clean-cut one at that — he sports the exact same hairstyle as his Napoleon Solo character from The Man from UNCLE. A sensitive, intelligent youth, he questions the meaning and worth of his tribe's age-old laws and traditions, even though he knows such inquisitiveness will likely bring him trouble. Which it does, of course, especially when he defies the ancient edict against crossing the river to explore the lush jungle beyond. His logical argument that the people need to secure new sources of food, offered in abundance by the forbidden territory, fails to sway the tribal elders, including his own father. He's warned that the land across the river is teeming with fearsome creatures and ruled by the terrible "God Who Brings Death with Its Touch". Even were he to survive such an expedition, tribal law proscribes the death penalty to any who venture there and return. Yet the yearning of this 'boy' for new horizons and hidden knowledge compels him to break the taboo for the betterment of his clan — and his own sense of self.
    Referred to by Vaughn as the worst film he ever appeared in (I wouldn't be so sure about that, Bob...), Teenage Caveman plays like an extremely low rent episode of The Twilight Zone. The costumes, wigs and fake beards are quite cheap-looking, the few special effects sequences lifted from other films. (The same lizard-wrestling 'dinosaur' scene used by countless other '50s flicks turns up once again; the monster suit used for the God Who Brings Death with Its Touch was featured in a previous Corman pic.) Vaughn and the rest of the actors gamely try to bring some dignity to the proceedings, but the impoverished production values and tedious script — which actually attempts to make some meaningful points about the necessity of questioning authority — sabotage them at every turn. Corman, for one of the few times in his career, has so little to work with in terms of money, story and locales that even he can't get any extra mileage out of the ingredients.
    Both Viking Women and Teenage Caveman served as 'experimental' subjects on the cult cable comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000, during the show's third season. Quite honestly, the films are significantly more enjoyable with Joel and his robot sidekicks silhouetted in the corner of the screen, hurling rapid-fire jokes flavored with heaping helpings of scorn... Committed cheese lovers, however, should still find things in the original films to mildly amuse them, particularly with Viking Women. It's just too bad that, with this Lionsgate release, the chances of the MST3K versions ever making it to DVD are now pretty much slim and none.

While costing about the same, this Lionsgate DVD falls short of any MGM Midnite Movie double feature disc you'd care to name. It's not a "flipper" (a plus), but neither Viking Women nor Teenage Caveman are presented in their correct aspect ratios — both transfers are fullframe. The open-matte Viking Women is the least affected by this since its intended AR is 1.66:1; picture-wise it looks pretty good, with generally sharp detail and no print damage to speak of. (The few outdoor night scenes look overly dark but this could well be symptomatic of poor day-for-night photography.) Teenage Caveman definitely gets the short end of the stick here. Shot at 2.35:1, the fullscreen cropping utterly destroys Corman's widescreen framing... At times only half of Vaughn's head is visible when he's addressing another actor. At least the mono audio tracks for both films are adequate. There are no bonus features. 5/07/06

HOME | REVIEWS | TOP