Far too good to be slammed as a mere imitation of Richard Fleischer’s The Vikings, Mario Bava’s exciting Erik the Conqueror is one of the best of the Italian-made sword ‘n’ shield costume epics that became big export items after the huge success of Pietro Francisi’s Hercules and Hercules Unchained. Mario Bava handled the special cinematography and visual effects on those two pictures, giving us our first look at his deliriously stimulating approach to screen color — watching a color Bava picture on the big screen is practically a physiological experience.
Sergio Leone’s borrowings from other directors have verged on plagiarism, but Bava doesn’t attempt to go one-on-one with Kirk Douglas’s major stars, giant ships, real castles and distant locations in Norway. Armed with a high-momentum story and a dynamic performance from Cameron Mitchell, Bava delivers prime matinee entertainment from modest production values and a great deal of brilliant creative input.
The show has three credited screenwriters instead of the Italian average of six. In the Ninth Century, ambitious Brit Sir Rutford (Andrea Checchi) defies his King and attacks a Viking settlement on the English coast. Viking chief Harald (Folco Lulli) falls, and his two sons are separated. One escapes back to Denmark and the younger is adopted by Queen Alice (Françoise Christophe). Years later, older brother Eron (Cameron Mitchell) defeats Garian (Joe Robinson) to command a new Viking raid on the Britannic Isles. Raised by Queen Alice and re-dubbed the Duke of Helford, younger brother Erik (George Ardisson) fights on the side of the Anglos. Several battles later, the two brothers are in love with beautiful Viking maiden twins Daya and Rama (Ellen and Alice Kessler) and still unaware of their common heritage. The real villain is the wicked Sir Rutford, who murdered the previous king. He’s intent on taking the throne from Queen Alice, even if he has to turn traitor to do it.
From descriptions by James Ursini decades before I saw Erik the Conqueror, I expected a minimalist effort on the order of a Roger Corman production, with ten costumed extras, a prop to serve as the prow of a boat and maybe an oxcart or two. Bava’s picture is instead an impressive surprise, a reasonably large-scale sword ‘n’ axe bash-o-thon dripping with Mario Bava’s striking visuals — dazzling color effects and energetic, expressive direction. Bava doesn’t have real Norwegian fjords or a full castle to play with, but he makes excellent use of a castle set, several Viking boats and a sizeable number of extras. There’s no lack of energetic battles and sword duels, even if some of the better set pieces are borrowed from Richard Fleischer’s playbook. Kirk Douglas assaulted a castle by climbing a ladder of axes hurled at a raised drawbridge; Bava’s Erik does the same on a wooden tower, using arrow-hits as handholds.
Sword ‘n’ sandal costume pictures frequently suffer from dull passages: pinched-face bad guys plot against a feeble old king, or the writers take up slack with goonish comedy relief. Erik the Conqueror’s exposition, conspiracy and kissing scenes benefit from Bava’s seemingly unlimited visual resourcefulness. A sleek craning shot rises past a cluster of skulls, revealing a pair of unlucky lovers chained back-to-back to a post and wrapped in barbed wire. The shot continues up to reveal a chorus of dancing beauties fanning out behind them, to entertain at their trial! Bava’s camera circles a Viking love embrace, finding new contrasts between skin & fur and the cold blues and electric greens of rock walls. Visually, the movie is a candy store — there’s always an arresting new sight to ‘taste.’ What motivates the phantasmagoria of color? Try undiluted fantasy imagination.
As in his delirious Hercules in the Haunted World, Bava’s visuals still do the heavy lifting. But the cast is much better overall, in characterizations defined by externalized action, not interior logic. Run ragged from playing cowboy rapists, gangsters and wife stealers in ’50s Fox CinemaScope productions, Cameron Mitchell fills the role of a heroic brute, looking masculine as all get-out in an abbreviated leather outfit and blonde crew cut. He also acts up a storm, taking the fighting and the kissing seriously. When the shoe finally drops on the issue of mistaken identities, and Eron re-discovers the brother he thought he’d lost, the emotional effect equals that of Kirk & Tony in the highfalutin’ United Artists picture.
Giorgio Ardisson’s Erik has the shoulders and neck of an ox, topped by a terrific head of blonde hair. His face is a morph of Buster Crabbe and Dirk Bogarde. He’s also convincingly idealistic, a necessary quality for a fantasy pitched at this storybook level. The knockout Kessler twins, cabaret performers-turned actresses, are more than an invitation for audience hecklers to sing, ‘double your pleasure, double your fun.’ They carry themselves with the poise of Grace Kelly and exhibit a modicum of acting ability to back up their graceful Nordic looks. As the beleaguered queen, Françoise Christophe has very expressive eyes. Add Andrea Checchi as a supremely perfidious villain, and Erik the Conqueror’s acting ensemble is complete.
The majority of Italian sword ‘n’ sandal pictures at this time were produced in the half-frame Techniscope format. But Bava filmed almost all of his pictures flat-widescreen, using his personal cameras and lenses. Erik the Conqueror is said to be in anamorphic Dyaliscope, as were the original Hercules pictures, but it maintains Bava’s typically deep focus and exhibits little or no anamorphic distortion. Bava’s camera tricks give the violence an edge, changing camera speeds and shooting in reverse now and then. Although HD allows us to see a few arrow-wires, the effects overall are pitched at a realistic level. Sure, most of the scenes aboard boats are done dry-for-wet, but Bava never lets the screen go stale for a minute. A few zooms are used, but his camera moves add regal authority to the throne room proceedings and wicked trials. A pagan dance is set under a giant purple tree that the Vikings use as a gathering hall.
The wonder of Mario Bava is the way his colors come alive. Rooms hung with fabrics and tapestries exhibit multiple levels of texture. A sword on a Viking table appears to rest on a blue plaster surface formed by hand. Daya and Rama’s flaring green eye shadow reminds us of Bava’s ‘special effects’ lighting for the exotic women of the Hercules movies, especially Sylvia Lopez in Hercules Unchained.
Erik the Conqueror’s emotional storyline is clear and uncomplicated. These fantasy barbarians have human flaws, as seen when Eron is shown committing the same sacred sin for which another couple is executed. But they do believe in fair play and have a great sense of camaraderie. When things go bad for Eron, we want to ask, why not a happy ending, like those Hercules movies we loved? Why not make room for a sequel, Eric & Eron in the land of the Dragons?
