Susan Cabot recalled an incident that happened during the scene where the Viking women first set out in the boat to look for their men. She said that there were 11 women in the "Viking ship," which was being towed out to sea by a boat that was out of camera range. When the scene was over and the towing boat was supposed to stop, they discovered that the man piloting the tow boat had fallen asleep, and no matter how loudly they yelled at him to wake up, the sounds of the ocean drowned them out. The bottom of the "Viking ship" began to fill up with water, and out of the 11 women on the sip, only Cabot and Abby Dalton could swim. They finally caught the attention of two passing surfers, who took a couple of the girls and headed to shore, but by the time the rest of the girls and the boat reached land, which was the base of a cliff jutting out into the ocean, the tide was beginning to rise and the sand at the base of the cliff was quickly being covered over by water. The girls had to climb up the face of this cliff, with the water slowly rising after them, until they got to the top of it. There they ran into some film-crew members who had been searching for them, and they took the girls back to the set on buses.
The rudder braking off the boat was not in the script. It just happened and Corman made it work for the film.
"Viking Women" is a classic example of Corman's campy, low budget, exploitation film, with earmarks such as: clean shaven male actors with 20th century haircuts, actresses with makeup and hair styles straight out of LA modeling agencies, costumes with no soiling or discoloration and often from centuries and empires totally out of place, scenes shot at Bronson Caverns and Malibu beaches with matte paintings to suggest exotic locations, and dialogue full of modern phrasing and references.
Another early Corman spoofed by the MST3K (Mystery Science Theater 3000) crew in 1991, Season 4, Episode 17.