One of my favourite movies of all time is the Kirk Douglas-produced adventure saga THE VIKINGS.  I love that movie.I've known of the Viking film ERIK THE CONQUEROR for years but just never got round to watching it.  I suspect I thought there was no way this Italian-produced spectacle could come anywhere near Douglas' vision.  After all, ERIK THE CONQUEROR is a film that intentionally invites comparisons to the Douglas film.Well I'm sorry I waited so long! With a beautiful new Blu-ray and DVD transfer from Arrow Video, ERIK THE CONQUEROR can now be enjoyed in all its restored glory.And what a magnificent film it is!  Directed by the Cinematographer-turned-Director Mario Bava, a cult favourite whose reputation is predominantly based on his being a master of horror films--sort of a Grand Guignol/Italian Alfred Hitchcock--ERIK THE CONQUEROR is packed with glorious compositions, opulent colours and action and spectacle galore.And of course, being one of the first "Sex & Sandal" films, it has beautiful women in skimpy outfits.  It is when pursuing some of these more questionable elements that it becomes apparent that ERIK THE CONQUEROR is not as good a film as THE VIKINGS.  But it is still a superb film in its own right. (And I have nothing against women in skimpy outfits--I'm just saying that sometimes giving sway to more sensational content can compromise the artistic intent of a film. Sometimes.) Instead of watching with a critical attitude: "Oh, that's a rip-off of THE VIKINGS", it makes much more sense to simply enjoy the comparisons.  One of the extras on the new release does just that, it compares the two movies, sometimes with segments from each film shown side by side.  This is almost as fun as watching the movie.  Yes, there are two brothers at the core of the story whose strained relationship accounts for much of the drama.  Yes, there is a stunning sequence when Erik climbs a drawbridge with the help of strategically-placed arrows from his dead-eye archers, a sequence that is so obviously inspired by (better than "a rip-off of") the scene in THE VIKINGS when Kirk Douglas climbs a drawbridge with the help of several battle axes which have been thrown by his men to help him gain access to the enemy's castle.  ERIK THE CONQUEROR is full of segments like this.If there is one element that stood out for me as being superior to THE VIKINGS it was the way several shots of the sky looked like paintings, especially during battle scenes.  It is one of the major achievements of ERIK THE CONQUEROR. It brought to mind Kubrick at his visual best, i.e. BARRY LYNDON.But when you get right down to it, THE VIKINGS remains a superior movie to ERIK THE CONQUEROR.  Why?  Sheer star power.  Kirk-Tony-Ernie-Janet, as well as some solid supporting actors like James Donald and Frank Thring give THE VIKINGS a weight that ERIK THE CONQUEROR simply can't match.  Cameron Mitchell is the only star of note.  He is terrific, though saddled by being 20 years too old for the part. That and having his lines dubbed into Italian while the English subtitles and his mouth movements clearly match.  Some of the Italian actors are terrible, including one sad attempt at comic relief.  Were Cameron Mitchell (a really wonderful actor who never got his big break) supported with actors of greater or equal talent, ERIK THE CONQUEROR may have transcended its status as a B movie.  A brilliant B movie, but a B movie, nonetheless.Still, ERIK THE CONQUEROR will appeal to action fans as being one of the very best of its kind.

Mario Bava's first credited viking movie (after he worked as an uncredited director on LAST OF THE VIKINGS, made in the same year and also starring Mitchell and Ardisson), is an above average entry for the genre enlivened by stylish direction from Bava which makes it a cut above the rest. The plot is different and involving and the characters fleshed out enough to make you interested in their actions. Primarily noted as a horror director, Bava can't resist inserting a scene involving a girl chained in a dank dungeon being terrorised by a tarantula held over her face in a glass tank towards the end of the movie, a macabre treat for his loyal horror fans. Elsewhere, he shoots imaginative scenes involving men climbing up ladders made out of freshly-shot arrows and the like which make for entertaining and surprising viewing.Cameron Mitchell stars as Aaron, a just and noble viking warrior. George Ardisson is his younger brother Erik (after having also played Mitchell's brother in LAST OF THE VIKINGS), the film's real hero character, and is surprisingly good in the role. Meanwhile Andrea Checchi makes for a convincing but underused villain and the addition of real-life twins Alice and Ellen Kessler to the cast makes for novelty value. Bits parts come from the muscular Joe Robinson (TAUR THE MIGHTY) as a viking rival of Aaron's, and Tony Kendall - later a Euro action man appearing in all kinds of genres - amusingly showing up before he was famous, acting and looking very odd.The photography is as good as ever, the movie is ambitiously made on a low budget and often cuts back and forth between England and Norway, and the music effective. What makes this film work, though, is the inventive plot - as involved as you're going to get with this viking sub-genre - and the characterisation, which combined with the strong cast helps to make an intelligent, straightforward, and largely entertaining action-adventure yarn, offering up just about everything you could want from the genre without ever resorting to silliness. Bava's final viking movie was 1965's KNIVES OF THE AVENGER, which throws a unique spaghetti western slant on the genre.

Mario Bava really outdoes himself with this story of two brothers separated in infancy, who grow to be rival leaders in a battle between Scandanavia and Britian.This yarn, replete with monumental battle sequences on both land and sea, magnificent coastal and interior castle settings, and bravura use of color simply amazes in its ambitious achievements.The film opens with a battle sequence on the seashore, by turns both thrilling and horrifying as the soldiers meet with death by spear while the nearby coastal village is burned, with women and children scattering to their doom.With this breathless sequence, Mr. Bava introduces the audience to a breakneck pace that never lets up.The story such as it is, is played engagingly on the level of an Errol Flynn film, intelligent enough for adults, but close enough to a comic book for whatever youngsters may be in the audience.It is, however, the visuals that linger in the mind: a grotto with an enormous twisted tree upon which are bound two captured adulterers, bathed in that phosphorescent green light that Mr. Bava was so adept at casting; a stunning vista of the seashore at twilight with two women in billowing robes silhouetted against a sky banked with tempestuous cloud formations, Georges Ardisson and his mother flanked by flaming braziers, amidst tall stalagmites, in a setting that might be from Dante's Inferno, (and recalls a similar setting in Orson Welle's "Macbeth" and countless others.Mr. Bava painted his masterpieces not on canvas but on celluloid.The cast is both attractive and serviceable, with Mr. Ardisson and the luscious Kessler Twins deserving of special commendation. Indeed the Misses Kessler, (as Vestal Virgins) perform a sword dance with such delicacy and intricate footwork that it is easy to see why their cabaret act was once the toast of Europe.Highly enjoyable for fans of the genre.

Mario Bava's viking epic Gli Invasori is rumoured to have been picked up by Anchor Bay for a digital overhaul sometime in 2007, and their disc can't arrive a moment too soon. Currently unavailable on home video, this film was granted a perfunctory video release by Panther Entertainment in the late 1980s, and that's the version this review is based upon. From the badly pan and scanned evidence displayed on the tape, it's a film that will benefit hugely from a correctly formatted, correctly colour coded, and complete widescreen print. Like many Bava films, Gli Invasori (re-titled The Invaders here) features magnificent action sequences, intense colours, and over the top art design--all of it badly compromised by careless telecine work on this tape. Though the film hews fairly closely to the narrative arc of most sword and sandal features, it also includes some spooky Bava touches, including an ominous tarantula (in Britain, no less!) and a crucifixion scene. Star Cameron Mitchell acquits himself well, though his close-cropped strawberry blonde locks seem somewhat out of place, and the Kessler sisters make for pleasant eye candy. All in all, it's an obscure treat that will, with any luck, get some mass market exposure in the not too distant future.