The Vikings 1958

Damn those Norsemen. They are really nothing but a bunch of troublemakers. I know I am going to dislike a movie where the guys are I are the villains. I am not a fan of their sea related punishments. Just kill me already. Tying me to a rock at low tide is just pissing me off.

Earnest Borgnine - Ragnar makes the trouble of raping Tony Curtis' mother, something that will come back to influence his life in the future - especially when his two sons, the Kirk Douglas who is legitimate and the bastard Tony Curtis become involved in a Viking power struggle.

This movies comes from a time when they actually had to build a workable viking ship and train the actors aboard her how to be sailors. It must have been a glorious time. For a long time, the bulk of what I knew about Viking culture came from this movie and World Book Encyclopedia.  It took movies like 13th Warrior and Beowulf to learn me the more subtle contradictions of the culture.

I love how lusty and drunken and drunken and lusty they make this way of life seem. Unless of course you are not a male Viking then you suffer more than most. Wild sex with a viking maiden is on my bucket list.

It was one of the many that was show often at the weekend matinees as an A or B movie depending on that week's selections. My Father was a fan because he remembered it from when he was a teen. It was one of those movies he could share with his son whenever the opportunity arose. It was a rare thing the days before vcrs.

It's at times like this that I wish I had some friends to watch these movies with. This afternoon while waiting for my ceiling fan (which does not work) to be installed I watched Troy and wish I had others around to goof on the film with me. I love being alone most of my days but sometimes I wish I still had a group of people who could tolerate my presence for all to ten minutes. I can spend the heat alone when when the rains come, I want to share the cool.

I have two big tubs of action figures that I am going to put on my shelving complete with the acessories they came with. It's a project I would love to share with a local visitor. I don't care who you are. Please contact me and enjoy my company if you live close enough to me to make the drive worth it

If not for me, do it for poor dead Ernest Borgnine.