Knights of the Round Table (1953)

Lack of good storyline.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Did you people see the same film I saw?

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Very weak, populist, adaptation of the famous tale. Plot is full of holes and doesn't follow King Arthur legend very closely. Not at all gritty, concentrating more on contrived, unconvincing sword- fight sequences and flowery, empty language than on any substance. So devoid of any substance, if it was made in the 2000s it would have been directed by Michael Bay!Acting is incredibly unconvincing. Think John Wayne trying to do Shakespeare. Shallow, hammy, machismo actors reciting lines they hardly understand.Even the presence of the stunningly beautiful Ava Gardner can't save this.If want to see a good adaptation of the King Arthur legend, see Excalibur (1981) instead.

In fifth century England, chivalrous Sir Robert Taylor (Lancelot) falls in love with beautiful Ava Gardner (Guinevere), the beautiful wife of his beloved King Mel Ferrer (Arthur). Try as they might, Mr. Taylor and Ms. Gardner are unable to resist the urge to lock lips, which gives enemy Mr. Ferrer's enemies, led by Stanley Baker (as Modred) and Anne Crawford (as Morgan Le Fay), their ammunition. This version of Thomas Malory's "Le Morte d'Arthur" never lets you forget it is a SPECTACLE.Director Richard Thorpe has the players take full advantage of the fact that this is a "CinemaScope" production, and, in COLOR. Everything is obvious. The two top-billed "stars" (actually, Taylor is the star, and Gardner has little to do) make it look even more showy. Taylor goes through the motions. Gardner walks beautifully, stands beautifully, and sits beautifully. Others in the cast are more natural - in fact, Gabriel Woolf (Percival) and Maureen Swanson (Elaine) might have made a much more convincing Lancelot and Guinevere. The ingredients are here, but they're misused.**** Knights of the Round Table (12/22/53) Richard Thorpe ~ Robert Taylor, Mel Ferrer, Gabriel Woolf, Ava Gardner

This MGM's first Cinemascope production from the company and producers (Pandro S Berman)that gave you ¨Quo Vadis¨ , ¨Ivanhoe¨ among others and only MGM could bring it so magnificently to the screen . The classic story of romantic adventure come to life enriched by Technicolor and with such great stars as Robert Taylor (Lanzarote) , Ava Gardner (Guinevere) , Mel Ferrer(Arthur) in the classic love triangle . Adding apparition the ¨Knights of the Round Table¨ as Percival (Woof) looking for the Holy Grail , Gaiwan( Robert Urqhuart) , the evil Modred (Stanley Baker) and Merlin (Felix Aylmer) and Morgana LeFay (Crawford) . This is an overwhelming tale with adventures , villainy , romance and heroism in the grandeur of Cinemascope although in television set loses splendor .In spite of there aren't real documents about legendary feats of King Arthur , allegedly in VI century King of Bretons , were created on XII century some writings by French notorious authors who romanticized the legend as Chretien of Troyes and Thomas Malory that wrote the Bretons series with their knights looking for the Holy Grail . Besides , Godofredo of Mormouth publicized in 1136 the ¨History Regnum Britanniae¨ and in XX century John Steinbeck wrote about the events of King Arthur . The story concerns when the Romans had withdrawn Britain and the Roman Empire dissolved into chaos , then rules the king Arthur , he achieved to maintain the Christianity and civilization in the west of England , though no exactly congruent with the VI century , time was presumed to have lived but the film is developed in a high medieval panoply .The movie displays breathtaking battles and epic confrontation with a terrific final climax for a mortal duel . The magnificent battle scenes are obviously copied from Henry V at Agincourt , brought to life a decade earlier by Laurence Olivier . Excellent production design , the castles , outdoors and tournaments or jousts are well staged . Luscious costumes and gowns specially suited by Ava Gardner . Colorful wide-screen cinematography by Freddie Young( David Lean's usual cameraman) . Spectacular , sensational musical score by the classic Miklos Rózsa . However this epic film never takes off as it should despite of pomp and circumstance showed . The motion picture is professionally directed by Richard Thorpe . Later on , other movies on the matter of legends of Arthur resulted to be : the musical ¨Camelot¨ (Joshua Logan), the fantastic ¨Excalibur¨ (John Boorman) and recently ¨King Arthur¨(Antoine Fuqua). The picture will appeal to aficionados with chivalric ideals and historic movies fans .

This movie is a camp classic: so appallingly written and acted that one is transfixed with ridiculousness. I'm sure it was great fun to parade around in these ludicrous clothes and say these lines. Complete with cartoon sets -- check out the Styrofoam Stonehenge! Even the horses are funny. People think Monty Python was satire, but it was really straight documentary. The speaking parts artfully combine John Wayne swagger with cod-Shakespearean silliness. "That, Sir Knight, shall be mah playsher." Ava Gardner is radiant but talentless, and Robert Taylor, well, he's just talentless. I give it a six for entertainment value, but believe me, this is a terrible, terrible movie.