''The Norseman'' is a 1978 American

adventure film The adventure film is a broad genre of film. Some early genre studies found it no different than the Western film or argued that adventure could encompass all Hollywood genres. Commonality was found among historians Brian Taves and Ian Cameron in ...

starring

Lee Majors Lee Majors (born Harvey Lee Yeary; April 23, 1939) is an American actor. He portrayed the characters of Heath Barkley on the American television Western series '' The Big Valley'' (1965–1969), Colonel Steve Austin on the American television sc ...

and directed, produced and written by Charles B. Pierce.

Plot

An 11th-century Viking prince sails to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

to find his father, who was captured by Native Americans during a previous voyage.

Cast

- Thorvald *

Cornel Wilde Cornel Wilde (born Kornél Lajos Weisz; October 13, 1912 – October 16, 1989) was a Hungarian-American actor and filmmaker. Wilde's acting career began in 1935, when he made his debut on Broadway. In 1936 he began making small, uncredited ap ...

- Ragnar *

Mel Ferrer Melchor Gastón FerrerAncestry Library Edition (August 25, 1917 – June 2, 2008) was an American actor, director, and producer, active in film, theatre, and television. He achieved prominence on Broadway before scoring notable film hits with ...

- King Eurich *

Jack Elam William Scott "Jack" Elam (November 13, 1920 – October 20, 2003) was an American film and television actor best known for his numerous roles as villains in Western films and, later in his career, comedies (sometimes spoofing his villaino ...

- Death Dreamer * Susie Coelho - Winetta *

Christopher Connelly Christopher Connelly (September 8, 1941 – December 7, 1988) was an American actor, best known for his role as Norman Harrington in the successful prime time ABC soap opera '' Peyton Place''. He stayed with the series during its entire f ...

- Rolf *Jimmy Clem - Olif *

Deacon Jones David D. "Deacon" Jones (December 9, 1938 – June 3, 2013) was an American professional football defensive end who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons. He played for the Los Angeles Rams, San Diego Chargers, and Washin ...

- Thrall *

Denny Miller Denny Scott Miller (born Dennis Linn Miller; April 25, 1934 – September 9, 2014) was an American actor, perhaps best known for his regular role as Duke Shannon on ''Wagon Train'', his guest-starring appearances on ''Gilligan's Island'' and ''C ...

- Rauric *

Kathleen Freeman Kathleen Freeman (February 17, 1923August 23, 2001) was an American actress. In a career that spanned more than 50 years, she portrayed acerbic maids, secretaries, teachers, busybodies, nurses, and battle-axe neighbors and relatives, almost i ...

- Old Indian Woman * Jesse Pearson - Narrator (voice)

Production

The film was a co-production between Charles Pierce and Lee Majors, with AIP handling the distribution. It was Pierce's first film with a major Hollywood studio. Majors said it "took a lot of guts" to play a Viking but was persuaded by a fee of $500,000 and 10% of the profits. He later remarked, "I had a little time off, and they said, "It shoots in Florida, on the coast there, out of Tampa," and they had a bunch of Tampa Bay Buccaneers that were gonna play Vikings, so ... I don't know, I thought it'd be fun, so I did it." The film was shot in Tampa, Florida. Postproduction was done at Pierce's $2 million facility at Shreveport, Louisiana. "There is no character to develop here and hardly any dialogue," said Majors, "this is a formula film."

Reception

The ''Los Angeles Times'' called it "tedious business".

References

External links

''The Norseman'' review
at The Guardian
The Norsemen
at Letterbox DVD * 1978 films 1970s adventure films American adventure films Films set in the Viking Age Films set in pre-Columbian America Films shot in Florida Films directed by Charles B. Pierce Films scored by Jaime Mendoza-Nava American International Pictures films Films about Native Americans 1970s English-language films 1970s American films English-language adventure films {{1970s-adventure-film-stub