The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent.  That’s the title of this one and it’s far too long for a 67-minute drive-in feature.  Maybe Roger Corman thought he could fool people into thinking the movie was better than it was by giving it a pompous sounding title.

A group of Viking men leave on a voyage and never come back.  After waiting nearly a year, the remaining Viking women vote to set sail and look for them.  Leading them is Desir (Abby Dalton) and she even welcomes the bad-tempted Enger (Susan Cabot) onto their boat.  The last remaining male Viking, Ottar (Jonathan Haze), also joins the quest.

The Viking women (and Ottar) have barely set sail when a “giant” sea serpent rises out of the water and strands them on an island.  The Viking women discover that their men are being held prisoner on the island.  Even if they can rescue their men from King Stark (Richard Devon), the sea serpent still waits for them to try to return.

The Saga of the Viking Women and yadda yadda yadda is a remarkably cheap-looking epic.  A major film about the Vikings was scheduled to be released by United Artists and Corman, determined to get his movie into theaters first, shot the film in ten days and for $65,000.  Irving Block and Jack Rabin, two special effects experts, promised Corman an amazing sea serpent and instead delivered what appeared to be a water-proof puppet.  The Sea Serpent only appears in two scenes and Corman doesn’t allow us a very good view of it.  It looks like something you could have picked up at Toys ‘R Us back in the day.

There’s nothing convincing about the movie, from the costumes to the combat to the serpent.  This was one of Roger Corman’s early misfires though, released on a double bill with the Astounding She-Monster, it still made money.  People love Vikings.