Help me ID these old movies, based on one scene each

Cafe Society
1

I’m remembering two movies I saw as a young boy. This would have been sometime in the 1970s. Thing is, I remember only one scene from each movie. For some reason, these particular scenes have stuck in my mind for 30 years or so.

These were both “cast of thousands” -type movies, set in ancient (Roman or pre-Roman) times. I’ve no idea who starred in these films. I’m afraid my recollections of these scenes is fairly minimal, but I hope somebody can help me identify the movies. I’d like to watch them again, if only to find out if they live up to my memory of these scenes.

Movie #1:

An army has overrun a walled city. A woman, the Queen of the city, I believe, is dragged outside the city walls, where she is hung by her wrists between two posts, stripped from the waist up (long hair covering her breasts), and flogged.

Movie #2:

An army is preparing to execute some prisoners, using an unusual execution method. The prisoners are to be forced to “ride the dragon’s tail”. The “dragon’s tail” is an ornate, immense … knife. It’s shaped like a dragon’s tail, edge up, and supported at one end so that it’s at an angle. Basically, it’s like a playground slide (helter skelter, for our British readers), but with a knife edge where the sliding surface would be. The prisoners were made to climb a ladder to the top, straddle the blade, and … well, you can imagine what comes next. Messy.

I realize my description of the first scene is pretty generic-sounding and isn’t much to go by, but I hope the second one, at least, is distinctive enough to ring some bells. I can’t say if the movies were in color, as my family had a black & white TV set, but the movies had the look of something from the late-1950s - early '60s.

Any help?

2

#2? That might be The Long Ships, with Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier. Link has picture of “the Mare of Steel.”

3

I’ll agree with Papermache Prince that #2 is probably “The Long Ships” I once asked a question about that movie, because I had forgotten the title, and used the same scene. Was there a golden bell involved? A black ruler, played by Sidney Poitier?

4

#1 — The Hammer production The Viking Queen (1967), set in Britain during the Roman period. The Roman military governor’s second-in-command has the title character arrested and flogged. But she later takes up the sword and leads a revolution against the Romans.

A favorable review.

5

Flogging scene here.

6

Wow, you guys are good!

The Long Ships: Bingo! It seems that “Mare of Steel” got turned into “The Dragon’s Tail” in my memory. There no mistaking that device, though.

The Viking Queen: That’s probably it, though I’d swear it was more of a desert setting, and that the woman had dark hair. But as I said, I saw it on B&W television, and it was long, long ago when I was young.

I can’t even recall whether I saw either movie in its entirety. But thanks to the SDMB, I can now track these movies down and watch 'em again. Thanks!

7

Yes, the Vikings end up searching for a giant golden bell, which is cleverly hidden. And Sidney Poitier was the ruler:

I read the Frank Bengsston book it was based on. It’s a good book, and vastly different from the movie (the original title is “Red Orm”). There’s the big bell, but the hiding isn’t a big deal. I think the “Mare of Steel” isn’t in it. And the Vikings have a lot more adventures in the book, going to Russia and elsewhere.