ERIK THE CONQUEROR

1961
Italy
Aka Gli Invasori, Fury of the Vikings, The Invaders, La Ruée des Vikings, Viking Massacre
Director: Mario Bava
Galatea film (Madrid), Criterio Film (Paris), Societe Cinematographique Lyre (Paris)
Screenplay: Oreste Biancoli, Piero Pierotti, Mario Bava
Music: Roberto Nicolosi
Cast : Cameron Mitchell (Iron), Alice Kessler (Rama), Ellen Kessler (Daja), Giorgio Ardisson (Eric), Andrea Checchi (Gunnar), Francoise Christophe (Queen Alice), Folco Lulli (Aello), Franco Giacobini (Rustichello), Raf Baldassarre (Blak), Enzo Doria (Bennet), Franco Ressel (King Lothar), Joe Robinson (Garian), Livia Contardi (Hadda), Jacques Delbo, Gianni Solaro.

Although filmed in the same year as Hercules in the Haunted World (Ercole al centro della terra, 61) and reutilising many of the same sets, actors and crewmembers, this is a very different undertaking. While that was an exercise in creating a disconcertingly warped view of reality, this abandons the hallucinogenic quality and relies upon script and pace. To Bava and his accomplices' credit, it does this very well indeed.

A Viking settlement on the coast of England is mercilessly attacked by soldiers who conduct a massacre. A few escape, amongst them the young sons of the slaughtered leader, but one of them is unfortunately lost overboard their escaping vessel. The leader of the attack Aello, meanwhile, is furthering his deviousness by murdering the King when he is reprimanded for ignoring the order to bargain rather than kill. The grieving Queen, whilst walking along the shores in despair, comes across the barely alive body of the boy, identifiable by the regal tattoo on his chest, and decides to raise him as her own.

Many years later, the lives of the two brothers intersect again. Iron, now a Viking leader, leads a naval attack upon his old enemies - partly motivated by the fact that he has to become a King before he can marry his love Daja, a vestal virgin. Eric is in command of the sea defenses, but his country is England and his religion is Christianity. The Norsemen are successful in this first battle. With the aid of the thoroughly nasty Aello they storm the castle and carry the Queen off as a hostage, leaving their deceitful ally in charge.

Whilst this is happening, Eric has again been shipwrecked, but is this time washed up on the shores of his true forefathers. Conveniently enough, he bumps into Rama, the twin sister of Daja, and, hey whaddayaknow, they both fall in love. Soon they are hatching a plot to rescue his adoptive mother. This backfires somewhat because he doesn't realize that his muse has an identical twin, and becomes understandably irate when he thinks that she's just married his sworn nemesis! They do eventually get away, returning to the green fields of albion, where they begin to stir up a rebellion against their conquerors. However, the Vikings too have returned, and it is inevitable that the brothers will meet again.

As can be gathered from the scenario, this is a derivation of Richard Fleischer's classic The Vikings, starring Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis as similarly warring siblings. However, despite it's debts the plotting is nicely paced, the characters are well developed and there are a brace of action scenes to keep the viewers happy. The fights and duels are well handled, as are the sea battles - especially considering that there wasn't even the budget to stretch to real boats. The waterbound skirmishes were in actuality a mix of stagebound filming and the use of model ships made of pasta! There is also one great sequence whereby Eric attempts to scale a wooden turret by using arrows fired from the ground by his accomplices to pull himself up.

In the details, too, this is almost a polar opposite to Hercules in the Haunted World. The same locations become less like deliberately artificial stage sets (a la Company of Wolves), basing the characters in a more recognizable form of reality. There are no filters distorting land or sky, and the photographic effects are constrained to those that solely deceive the viewer by increasing the spectacle and scale of the production. The performances are less narcoleptic. Giorgio Ardisson appears vaguely human (despite retaining the same frightening quiff from the former film) and Franco Giacobini reduces his mugging to an acceptable level. There are also good turns from a number of old favorites - Andrea Checchi, Raf Baldassarre - as well as the Kessler sisters, whose vaudeville background doesn't prevent them from being rather good. Strangest of all, however, is the fact that Cameron Mitchell - who more commonly gives definition to the term wooden - shows himself to be a real honest-to-God actor.

Despite, this, a lot of Bava's obsessions are already evident in a nascent form that would be developed over the next decade. The sea is a virtually constant part of the background, predicting it's almost creditable role in Five Dolls for an August Moon (5 bambole per la luna d'agosto, 70) and The Bay of Blood (Ecologia del delitto, 71). Maybe it's symbolic association with the womb ties with the recurrent resurrections within his films. Eric is cast from its birthing waves not once but twice into a new life. The end scene, too, shows Iron's corpse being sailed into the ocean in a funeral that merely points to the idea that he will be regenerated within its depths and cast out in another form.

There are also the myriad deceptions that form such an essential component of his work. Both leads are deceived by not knowing the true identity of their enemy, whilst Aello attempts to disguise the truth of his motivations from everyone in the pursuit of his own ambitions. The presence of twins or reflections is also noticeable (as in Barbara Steele's double role in Black Sunday (La Maschera del demonio, 60), although the good verses evil aspect is reduced here in that neither of the dual sets of couplets reflects a polarization of character. The idea of external manipulation, that the actions of the participants in the plot are governed not by their own intentions but according to the infernal designs of some other force, can also be detected in the references s to how it was predetermined that certain things should come to pass.

Erik the Conqueror is, therefore, a film that is worth searching out if you have any interest in Bava's canon. It also happens to be hugely entertaining, consistently watchable effort that is possibly less difficult to accept for a mainstream audience who would simply look perplexed at some of his more adventurous works.

Matt Blake