BEFORE: Here's the second of the four "King Arthur" films that I'm going to watch before the end of summer - one in August and the last one in September. I think this is the oldest film I'm going to watch this year, now that I'm not planning on watching those "Mummy" movies in October.
Niall MacGinnis carries over from "A Nun's Story".
THE PLOT: King Arthur's rule is threatened by the adulterous love between Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere, a relationship the king's enemies hope to exploit.
AFTER: Of course, this is the same basic story seen in "Camelot", but there are many important differences - that 1967 film was a musical, so in this 1953 version, it seems a little strange that everyone just says their lines, without singing (or sing-saying) them. And unlike Richard Harris, King Arthur says the word "Camelot" without always sounding like he's hearing it for the first time. 14 years in film history makes a world of difference - the 1967 musical reflected (to some people) a commentary on JFK and the Vietnam War, here if there's any political message I guess that would be some kind of indictment of the Truman administration or something. Or I guess back in the 1950's Hollywood didn't mix a lot of politics into their entertainment, people enjoying the post-World War II "era of good feelings" just wanted to be amused by knights and cowboys and mummies and gangsters.
Arthur isn't even king at the start of this film - he has to pull the sword from the stone first, but this film neatly combines that with the birthright challenge - Modred is the other contender, since Modred's mother, Morgan Le Fay, was the daughter of Uther Pendragon, so she feels her son is the rightful heir (why doesn't she want to be Queen?) and Arthur is the illegitimate son of Uther, and proves that by withdrawing the sword after Modred can't. Ah, so THAT'S how the two stories can fit together. Now, in some versions (like "Camelot") Modred is Arthur's bastard son, but if Arthur is Morgan's sister, and her son's father, then that would mean...ohhhh....Arthur slept with his sister, maybe he was seduced or he didn't know. Either way, there's no mention here about Mordred being Arthur's son (and nephew), because 1957. Also half of the characters say "MORE-dread", and the other half say "MOW-dred", so can we all get together on this, please?
Ah, but Modred is not Arthur's son in this story, or even Morgan Le Fay's son, he's Morgan's lover and champion, so I guess that would make him consort to the Queen, assuming Morgan would be recognized as queen? (Why can't SHE take a try at pulling out the sword from the stone?) Since Merlin set up the challenge, and Arthur wins it, Modred calls foul or witchcraft, forcing a meeting at Stonehenge, where it's determined that Arthur must also prove himself by his deeds. Geez, why did we go through all the trouble of rigging... I mean, placing the sword in the stone in the first place?
When Lancelot appears on the scene, there's that same mistaken identity upon meeting Arthur that was so prominent in "Camelot" - here Lancelot and Arthur have a lengthy battle with broadswords that apparently neither one can win, so finally they have to give up and make small talk, which is when Arthur's identity is revealed. Jeez, you'd think with all these heraldic symbols and those colored things that drape over their horses that the medieval knights would have worked out a way to tell who's who.
Oh, the accents (or lack thereof) in this film are just horrible, like I know it was made in Hollywood, but it's like somebody forgot that the knights were all supposed to be British! And Lancelot's supposed to be French, right? Only here he's got no accent at all, or at worst that sort of flat Californian-actor accent, and the actor was born in Nebraska, no less! It hurt my ears to listen to that. And the actor who played King Arthur, Mel Ferrer, was American, but of Cuban descent! How's that going to work when playing a British King? (It's another one of those Ingrid/Ingmar Bergman situations, because it turns out Mel Ferrer is not related to Jose Ferrer or Miguel Ferrer. But he was married to Audrey Hepburn, who was not related to Katharine Hepburn. More on Audrey Hepburn tomorrow.) What a shame, to bring all of these American actors to England to shoot this mess. Couldn't they just have hired British actors after they arrived?
Another case of hidden identity occurs here when Lancelot rescues Guinevere from Modred's men, without knowing that she is the fiancée of the King. This sets up the standard familiar love triangle, of course, but it also means that one hour into this film, people are still meeting each other for the first time. But to throw people off the trail of figuring out that they're an item, Guinevere convinces Lancelot to marry Elaine, her lady-in-waiting, who conveniently fell in love with Lancelot earlier in the picture. Right, because marrying someone when you're in love with someone else is a time-tested solution to this problem. When has THAT ever gone wrong?
But eventually Modred's men find Lancelot and Guinevere together, and they're both charged with treason. Guinevere is confined to an abbey and Lance is banished, but Modred and others aren't happy since the proper sentence for treason is execution, and Arthur went easy on them. This splits the Round Table knights apart, and civil war returns to the land. Arthur is wounded in the ensuing battle and with his dying breath, Arthur commands Lancelot to kill Modred, which he does, but only after falling into what appears to be the only patch of quicksand in all of England. Weird - thank God he's got a magic horse.
Finally, once all is said and done, the knight Percival (Elaine's brother, from before) sees a vision of the Holy Grail over the Round Table. Damn, he went looking all across the countryside for the Grail, and it was right back at the castle? What a waste of time. Ah, but it's only an illusion, along with Arthur's voice preaching forgiveness for Lancelot, and letting everyone know that Galahad (Lancelot's son with Elaine) will be like the best knight ever, and may eventually even find the REAL grail, not some floating vision of it. (Sorry, Percival, but seeing a drug-induced vision just isn't equal to finding the real thing...)
Also starring Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner (last seen in "The Night of the Iguana"), Mel Ferrer (last seen in "Charade"), Anne Crawford, Stanley Baker (last seen in "The Guns of Navarone"), Felix Aylmer (last seen in "The Mummy" (1959)), Maureen Swanson, Gabriel Woolf, Anthony Forwood, Robert Urquhart (last seen in "The Curse of Frankenstein"), Ann Hanslip, Jill Clifford, Stephen Vercoe, John Brooking, Michel de Lutry, Gwendoline Evans, Peter Gawthorne, Mary Germaine, Desmond Llewelyn (last seen in "The Curse of the Werewolf"), Barry Mackay, Howard Marion-Crawford, Henry Oscar (last seen in "The Brides of Dracula"), Patricia Owens, Roy Russell, John Sherman, Derek Tansley, Alan Tilvern (last seen in "Love and Death"), Ralph Truman, Martin Wyldeck, Dana Wynter (last seen in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"), and the voice of Valentine Dyall.
RATING: 4 out of 10 mentions of the "Happy Islands"
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