[Regia-NA] Film "The Vikings" trivia.

[rmhowe]

Kim Siddorn wrote:

> Useless things to know about The Vikings
> 
>             Trivia for
>             The Vikings (1958)
>               a.. At the end of the film, a Viking ship is set afire by
> flaming arrows in a rendering of a traditional Viking funeral. Director
> Richard Fleischer took great care to have the archers practice the moment,
> training them to release the arrows on the count of "three," and hoping at
> least some of the arrows would arc properly to hit the sail of the ship and
> set it on fire. When the time came for the live shot, the director only
> reached the count of "two", when one over-eager archer loosed his arrow. As
> luck would have it, the arrow arced perfectly and hit the sail. Then,
> Fleischer called, "Three!" and the other archers loosed their arrows.
> Fleischer decided that he liked the one, single arrow being launched first,
> and kept the shot in the film because it looked like part of the ceremony.

That was a bit neat.

When they were shooting the castle siege scene in Robin Hood with Errol
Flynn they ran out of prop arrows and someone went and got some regular
ones which were piercing the prop battlements sides causing some
panic in the 'soldiers' stationed behind them.

Similarly when Douglas Fairbanks did Robin Hood a decade earlier he
was afterwards in NYC doing a promotional tour. At one point he was
in a building fairly high up, and in doing a shot demonstration,
fired an arrow wild up into the sky. It came down and hit a tailor
in the ass. Fairbanks later paid him a substantial sum. The fickle
finger of fate strikes and having struck moves on.  I'm fairly
certain that tailor didn't expect an arrow in the ass sitting
working at his bench in downtown 20th C New York. Wot the 'ell!
or something perhaps similar in Italian.

I have quite a few movie books illustrating most of the epics.
I have a few bibliographies or movie books dedicated soley to
folks like Errol Flynn or Charleton Heston. Similar old magazines.
I am sure many of us were hit with the medieval bug watching such
things.

As a boy in the 1950's we had Robin Hood and Zorro on television
every day. Not bad when we only got 3-4 channels. In fact we had our
own group of knights in my neighborhood. Some pretty fierce battles
with wooden swords and board shields. Primitive bows of sourwood with
unfletched arrows. The wonder is we never really blinded anyone with
them. Came really close twice.

>               b.. The three Viking ships in the film were designed using
> blueprints for an actual Viking ship salvaged from the water and restored by
> a Viking museum in Norway. It turned out that the boats built for the film
> were too accurate, because the modern actors were taller than their
> historical counterparts. Every other oar hole had to be plugged so the
> modern men would have room to row with a full oar stroke. Otherwise, they
> would hit the backs of the oarsmen seated in front of them when pushing the
> oar handles forward to start each new stroke.

So, does Regia dance upon the outboard oars coming into the dock?

Loved that silly part myself. As a kid I attended a summer camp
in the mountains where everyone was expected to strip and plunge
into the icy water every moring about six. This must have been
a great source of amusement to the counselors' wives who were
usually working in the mess hall right across the rather short
dam. I can tell you the nuts in the polar bear clubs have my
respect. They say some martial artists can withdraw their
testicles with practice into the body. They should try an icy lake.
Up north they dig through the ice to do it in the winter.
Mountain water is cold in the summer. And an idiot once overturned
three of us in a somewhat ice covered lake in a canoe a good
mile from the dormitories which were heated only three hours a
day. I think I can relate to the missed oars and the sudden
plunge into the fjord minus a good smack with the head into
the oars on the way down.

I also wonder where they managed to find the huge auroch's horn for the
watch tower. The things died out in Poland about 1600, although I have
read that they have been back-bred from other cattle to about 80% of
the gene type. Said to be as mean as the originals. The drinking horns
found on the Sutton Hoo ship were estimated to have held about
five quarts.

Whatever else the Vikings film did it stretched our imaginations.
There are a lot of rather ugly movie marquee posters from it in
multiple languages on eBay. Same for many other movies we loved as kids.

Truly bizarre was the sequel, The Longships, and the ride upon the
Mare of Steel.

> Regards,
> 
> Kim Siddorn

Magnus