Prince Valiant (1954)

Memorable, crazy movie

Load of rubbish!!

Absolutely the worst movie.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

I watched this movie on the big screen when just 9 years old, a perfect age for the experience. Having avidly read Prince Valiant every Sunday in the newspaper comic section, just the thought of castles, kings, knights, and battles appealed to me very much at that age.Although this movie only follows the newspaper version in name and premise, it was still a nice treatise of the genre. The sets, costumes, hairstyles, props, and pageantry all bespeak the relative glamour of that era in history. The musical score is appropriate for the subject.The acting is a little corny, especially viewed 60 years following its original debut, but it is still a fun and action filled romp through the Medieval age, and is good, clean fun for the entire family.

Poor film dealing with King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Believe me, the table could have been square here as that's exactly what the movie is.What kind of hairdo was that for Robert Wagner? It looked worse than a mop.Sterling Hayden was terribly cast as one of the knights. James Mason, who gave such a brilliant performance that same year of 1954 in "A Star is Born," is given relatively little to do here. He is totally not give the script to personify his evil, especially his plot to wrestle the throne from Arthur.The film literally burns up.

Prince Valiant is son of the exiled King of Scandia. Travelling to Camelot, he hopes to join the round table knights and reclaim his fathers throne. But in his way is the mysterious Black Knight, and love of course will create its own set of problems.The first thing one needs to know is if certain members of the Valiant cast are playing it for laughs? Or, as I suspect, they are badly hamming for all they are worth. Robert Wagner, resplendent in Cromwellian wig and Sterling Hayden are particularly bad, with poor Janet Leigh looking shocked to be in the film at repeated intervals. It's hard to divert attention from such glaring overacting, which is a shame as there is decent adventure movie at its heart. It looks real nice courtesy of Lucien Ballard's photography, and director Henry Hathaway knows how to craft action sequences (the final sword fight between Valiant and Sir Brack is very special). But there is a reason why the likes of Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power are revered in the genre, it's because they had the swagger to go with the swash. Neither Hayden (sounding like he's reading from auto-cue) or the hopelessly miscast Wagner come close to making a convincing fist of it. Not even James Mason on villain duties as Sir Brack can stop this from being a candidate for worst medieval picture ever made.4/10 for its look and costumes.

Fifty years ago moviegoers found that Fox's PRINCE VALIENT was much better than expected, thanks to Henry Hathaway's fine direction and a wealth of good sense from 20th Century-Fox. Fox was still well-taken with their new CinemaScope process that just begged for action and beautiful, colorful settings. This movie excels at all, but it's mostly the rock-solid story of King Arthur and the Vikings that makes it.Screen beauties Janet Leigh and Debra Paget almost never showed any leg in any movie, and herein (sorry) are fully covered as usual. Anyway, it's the men who dominate this story. Robert Wagner is perfect as Valient, and Sterling Hayden is at the top of his form, as is James Mason.Truth is that in the age of comic book movies (2000-2008) Hollywood's cocaine sniffers have no clue how to craft this genre with any classic quality. The secret is to focus on (1) story, (2) character development, (3) spectacular sets and scenery, (4) challenge, redemption, faith, patriotism. The religion and honor in Prince Valient would make today's godless movie industry cringe.These days the focus (if any) would be on animation, choppy editing, almost no dialog, and the usual/identical musical score: vim, vim, vim, vim on a violin while a chorus belts out wordless chants. Boring! Thus films like Jerry Bruckheimer's "King Arthur" -- to name just one, is no longer even a memory, let alone a classic.Treat yourself! Rent "Prince Valient" on DVD.