The
lowdown: Hammer Studios is best-known
for its horror films, but it often branched out into pseudo-historical
dramas
such as 'The Viking Queen', which was made in 1967. I say pseudo-historical
because this film bears little
resemblance
to history as we know it. Set in Roman-occupied Britain, it stars Carita
(no last name) as Salina, who
becomes
head of the Iceni tribe of Celts after the death of her father, King Priam.
His dying wish is for Queen Salina
to
rule the Iceni jointly with a Roman general, Justinian (played by Don Murray,
complete with an American accent).
This
upsets the local Druids, while the Romans too are not exactly pleased about
this power-sharing arrangement.
Despite
being on opposing sides, romance soon blossoms between Salina and Justinian
(which again upsets Druids
and
Romans alike).
The
local Druid leader, Maelgan (Donald Houston) forbids any marriage between
the two, and warns Salina that she
must
eventually take up arms against the Romans (it has been prophesied by the
Druids, so it must be true). Conflict
seems
inevitable after a group of local traders rebel against the Romans' decision
to significantly increase their taxes.
Meanwhile,
Justinian's second-in-command, Octavian, uses his bosses' absence to try
and seize total ownership of
the
Iceni lands using a fake will purported to have been written by Priam.
The Romans attack the Iceni, intending to
send
them to Rome to become slaves, and Salina is strung up and whipped for
her insolence. She finally agrees to
take
up arms against the Romans, leading to a not-so-epic battle to the death.
Justinian returms to Iceni just in time
to
see Salina die in his arms. Patrick Troughton plays an Iceni warrior named
Tristam, who is one of Salina's closest
and
wisest advisors, and his acting is one of the highlights of a film that
otherwise has very few.
The
verdict: Where
does one begin? As a bit of lightweight entertainment this film is a good
way to spend 90 minutes
on
a wet Sunday, but as a historical drama it really misses the mark. There
were of course no actual Vikings in Britain
during
the Roman occupation, and they weren't going to be around for another 700
years (but maybe this was more of
the
Meddling Monk's work!). It is explained that Salina's mother was a Viking,
hence she is called the Viking Queen
rather
than the much more historically accurate 'Celtic Queen', but the former
does sound better as a film title. Then
there
are the Druids, who seem to worship the Greek god Zeus, and the fact that
the characters have names like Nigel
and
Tristam (very common names in Roman Britain, no doubt). This film is also
famous for a scene in which an actor
playing
a Roman centurion accidently leaves his wristwatch on when filming begins
(perhaps it was the Monk again?)
In
short, this is a film that is worth watching once, if only to demonstrate
that horror films really were Hammer's forte.
Video
Clips: Tristam
9.8mb
The fake will
7.9mb
The Druids 6.6mb |
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