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«The Vikings»

The Vikings was an adventure film directed by Richard Fleischer in 1958, produced by and starring Kirk Douglas, and based on the novel The Viking by Edison Marshall. Other actors included Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh , Ernest Borgnine and Frank Thring. The film made notable use of natural locations in Norway. It was mostly filmed in Maurangerfjorden and Bondhus, captured on film by cinematographer Jack Cardiff.

Despite being derisively called a "Norse Opera" by New York Times critic Bosley Crowther, the film proved a major box office success and spawned the television series Tales of the Vikings, directed by the film's editor, Elmo Williams, which included none of the original cast or characters.

The Vikings was the second and, as it turned out, last collaboration between Fleischer and Douglas (the first was 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea). According to the All-Movie Guide, the director and star disagreed on the approach to the material and "for years thereafter would hold each other responsible for the film's falling short of its potential." Much of the plot was later appropriated by Mario Bava for his own Viking epic, Erik the Conqueror.

Mali, 1994, Kirk Douglas in «The Vikings»