Knights of the Round Table (1953)

Directed by Richard Thorpe. Starring Robert Taylor, Mel Ferrer, Ava Gardner, Stanley Baker, Maureen Swanson, Gabriel Woolf, Felix Aylmer, Anne Crawford, Anthony Forwood, Robert Urquhart, Niall MacGinnis, John Brooking.

Cursory re-telling of the Arthurian legend per Sir Thomas Mallory’s 15th century tome, with Ferrer as the once and future king, Taylor his trusted friend and ally Lancelot, Gardner as Guinevere, the woman they both love. Majestic in color and scope but lackluster in spirit, the performances tend toward the stiff-but-theatrical oration style and the story rushes to tick off the necessary boxes to tell as full a tale as possible in under two hours. Technicolor film was the first widescreen production for MGM, filmed in CinemaScope. Aylmer’s Merlin is squandered, less an enchanter than simply an adviser (and, ultimately, a plot device); at least Lancelot’s trusty steed, Berick, adorned in caparisons, is a clever fellow.

52/100