Samuel Z. Arkoff Collection Cult Classics - The Viking Women and the Sea Serpent/Teenage Caveman (1957)

THE VIKING WOMEN AND THE SEA SERPENT: This low-rent epic chronicles the adventures of some beautiful blonde Viking women in "the days when the world was young, and the gods had not yet abandoned the race of men." They sail off into the unknown in search of their missing husbands but instead encounter the dreaded Monster of the Vortex, a gigantic sea serpent that destroys their ship. They wash up on a strange shore where they are enslaved by a group of hairy, unattractive warriors led by the evil Stark (Richard Devon) and his sniveling son (Jay Sayer). Lots of whip-cracking, lip-smacking human sacrifice and sword-swinging follows. Director-producer Roger "King of the Bs" Corman allegedly shot this classic quickie in a hectic 10 days. Susan Cabot is Inger, the Viking priestess who is obviously evil because she's the only brunette; she tries to steal the shirtless husband of leader Dezir (Abby Dalton). June Kenney, Betsey Jones-Moreland, and Sally Todd are the other Viking women, and Jonathan Haze is a young Viking male who tags along with the girls and participates in most of the film's funniest fight scenes.TEENAGE CAVEMAN: Before he was in THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E, Robert Vaughn starred in this intelligent quickie directed by Roger Corman in 10 days for $70,000. As the restless son of the caveman tribe's symbol maker (Leslie Bradley), Vaughn hunts for food, romances a blonde maiden (Darrah Marshall), and is warned by the elders not to venture beyond the river to the land of the monster "that Gives Death with its Touch." Of course, he's a teenager, so he goes anyway and discovers some pretty shocking secrets. Before that, there are dinosaurs (recycled footage from ONE MILLION B.C.), wild dogs, and a giant-bear attack. Actor Beach Dickerson plays a bear in addition to several other roles. (He even beats a tom-tom at his own funeral.) Frank De Kova is the villain in the tribe, and June Joceylyn, Robert Shayne, and Jonathan Haze hunt and gather as needed. Corman originally called this PREHISTORIC WORLD, but the producers at AIP wanted to cash in on the success of their hits I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF and I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN, so they changed the title. Corman and scriptwriter R. Wright Campbell didn't approve; they were proud of their story, which includes inventive dialogue and a nifty surprise ending.