The Vikings, 1958
Director
Cast
- Kirk Douglas
- Tony Curtis
- Janet Leigh
- Frank Thring
- Ernest Borgnine
- James Donald
- Alexander Knox
- Orson Welles
visit the film locations
Bergen: Flights: Bergen Airport Flesland
Visit: the Sognefjord
France:
Visit: Fort-La-Latte, 28, place des Lices, Rennes. (tel: +33 (0) 296.41.57.11). Airport: Dinard-Pleurtuit-St Malo, 30 km (flights from London, Nottingham, Bristol, Birmingham, Jersey or Guernesey) or Rennes St-Jacques, 110 km.
Visit: Brittany
Trivia
Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis team up again two years later for another historical epic, Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus.
The Vikings location: the castle of Northumbrian king Aella: Fort LaLatte, Brittany, France
Photograph: Fort-La-Latte
Two years before Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus, Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis slug it out as Viking brothers in this boisterously butch Norse saga, filmed largely on the spectacular southwest coast of Norway. Meticulously researched and designed, the Viking village was built southwest of Gjetingsdalen, on the Maurangerfjord, across from the Fureberg waterfall, southeast of Bergen.
The Vikings location: the longboats: Nærøyfjord, near Balestrand, Norway
Photograph: iStockphoto / alexm156
The longboat scenes were filmed a little to the north, on the spectacular Sogne fjord, Nærøyfjord, near Balestrand.
The Vikings location: the final fight on the castle roof: Fort LaLatte, Brittany, France
Photograph: Fort-La-Latte
The castle of Northumbrian king Aella (über-camp villain Frank Thring), from which Princess Morgana (Janet Leigh) is finally rescued, is the 14th century Fort-La-Latte, perched spectacularly atop cliffs on the north Brittany coast of France, between St Brieuc and St Malo.
The castle, which is open to visitors, is also featured in Philippe de Broca’s 1988 period adventure Chouans!, with Philippe Noiret, Sophie Marceau and Lambert Wilson.
