The Viking Queen (1967)

To state the obvious first: there are no Vikings in this film.  The title has misled many over the years.  I suspect that the word 'Viking' is only in there for the purposes of box office - more people internationally would have known what a 'Viking' was rather than a 'Celt' or a 'Briton'.  What The Viking Queen actually is, is a highly fictionalised retelling of the Boudicca story.  As can be seen from the trailer, all the ingredients are there: proud warrior Queen out for revenge after being humiliated by the Romans, the Iceni tribe, chariots with blades on their wheels, druids, uprisings against the Romans, human sacrifices.  The main innovation is that in this version, Queen Salina (rather than Boudicca), not only gets on the wrong side of the Romans, but also that of the druids, when she agrees to co-rule her kingdom with a Roman,  In true Hammer style, there are also added whippings, depravities and skimpy costumes, not to mention a cast list that reads like a who's who of British supporting actors.  That said, the film is headed by two imports: US actor Don Murray as the Roman lover and Carita in the title role.  Carita was actually Finnish model and sometime actress Carita Jarvinen, who appeared in only three films.

Viking Queen was one of three films that Don Chaffey directed for Hammer, being preceded by One Million Years BC in 1965 and followed by Creatures the World Forgot in 1971.  Despite directing a number of hit movies, including the aforementioned One Million Years BC and Jason and the Argonauts (1963), Chaffey's career never quite hit the big time, with his career petering out in a welter of underwhelming lower budgeted movies in the seventies. (A late career highlight was Pete's Dragon (1977) for Disney, not to mention a superior sexploitation piece in he form of 1971's Sex Clinic).  Shot in Ireland, the trailer illustrates the relatively high production values enjoyed by The Viking Queen.  Hammer undoubtedly had high hopes for the film, having enjoyed success with a string of similar  fantasy/historical themed films, like One Million Years BC, Devil Ship Pirates, Stranglers of Bombay and Sword of Sherwood Forest, for instance.  The Viking Queen, however, proved to be a major disappointment at the box office.  These days, it is little seen on TV, although available on DVD.  One claim to fame the film does have is that, while working on it, Patrick Troughton (something of a regular for Hammer), was offered the role of The Doctor in Dr Who.