The Vikings is a 1958 American epic historical fiction swashbuckling film directed by Richard Fleischer and filmed in Technicolor. It was produced by Jerry Bresler and stars Kirk Douglas. It is based on the 1951 novel The Viking by Edison Marshall, which in turn is based on material from the sagas of Ragnar Lodbrok and his sons. Other starring roles were taken by then husband-and-wife Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh as well as Ernest Borgnine. The film made notable use of natural locations in Norway. It was mostly filmed in Maurangerfjorden and Maurangsnes, captured on film by cinematographer Jack Cardiff, although Aella's castle was the real Fort-la-Latte in north-east Brittany in France. Despite being derisively called a "Norse Opera" by New York Times critic Bosley Crowther, the film proved a major box office success and spawned the television series Tales of the Vikings, directed by the film's editor, Elmo Williams, which included none of the original cast or characters. Plot The King of Northumbria is killed during a Viking raid led by the fearsome King Ragnar Lodbrok. Because the king had died childless, his cousin Aella takes the throne. The king's widow, however, is pregnant with Ragnar's child. To protect the infant from her cousin-in-law's ambitions, she sends him off to Italy. By a twist of fate, the ship is intercepted by the Vikings, who are unaware of the child's kinship and enslave him. The boy grows into a young man named Eric. His parentage is finally discovered by Lord Egbert, a Northumbrian nobleman opposed to Aella. When Aella accuses him of treason, Egbert finds sanctuary with Ragnar in Norway. Egbert recognises the pommel stone of the Northumbrian royal sword Requiter on an amulet around Eric's neck, placed there by Eric's mother when he was a child, but tells no one. Eric incurs the wrath of his half-brother Einar, Ragnar's legitimate son and heir, after the former orders his falcon to attack Einar, taking out one of his eyes. Eric is saved from immediate execution when the royal court Völva Kitala (who loves Eric as a son) warns that Odin will curse whoever kills him. He is left in a tidal pool to drown with the rising tide by Ragnar's decree to avoid the curse, but after Eric calls out to Odin, the wind shifts and forces the water away, saving him. Lord Egbert then claims him as his slave