First and the best adaptation upon ¨Hal Foster's Prince Valiant¨ famous comic strip ; this decent movie (1954) by Henry Hathaway boasts itself a great cast , such as Robert Wagner , Janet Leigh , Victor McLagen , Donald Crisp , Sterling Hayden and Debra Paget . Spectacular adventure with a lot of colorful pageantry and old-fashioned action , concerning about Prince Valiant , Black Knight , and King Arthur , though the movie falls short . It packs a non-sense blending of romance and Dark Ages action , as the screenwriters don't get the appropriate touch . Prince Valiant (Robert Wagner), son of the exiled King of Scandia , journeys to England . There Arthur (Brian Aherne) governs in the legendary citadel that is Camelot . Valiant attempts to become himself a knight at King Arthur's Round Table . His Knights of the Round Table commit acts of derring-do and spend their spare time jousting and enjoying feasts . There young Valiant who wields his sword with vigour is given the task to be the squire to Sir Gawain (Sterling Hayden who easily steals the acting honors) , one of King Arthur's knights along with Sir Tristram (John Dierkes) , Sir Lancelot (Don Megowan) , Sir Kay , Perceval , among others . Later on , Prince Valiant sets out to chase the Black Knight . But our real hero is wounded and he is then cared by the gorgeous princess Aleta (Janet Leigh) , as the young twosome fall in love . Meantime , an evil tyrant , and villainous leader Viking overthrows his father King Aguar (Donald Crisp) , the Christian King of Scandia .This is a Medieval tale with adventures , full-bloodied action , unspeakable dialog , villainy , terrific jousting , love stories and heroism in the grandeur of Scope although in television set loses splendor . The movie displays breathtaking battles , being ambitious in scope with heroic confrontation and a striking final climax for a mortal duel . Handsome story , being decently written by Dudley Nichols , John Ford's regular , though contains some awkward narrative elements . Excellent settings , monumental castles , outdoors and tournaments or jousts are well staged . However this spectacular film never takes off as it should despite pomp and circumstance showed , being excessively sentimental , so you'll be excited and embarrassed alternately . In any case , filmmaker does some breathtaking set pieces and the attack of a Viking castle turns out to be colorful and vividly thrilling . This is the classic story of romantic adventure come to life enriched by glamorous color and overwhelming fights . Excellent performance by James Mason , displaying efficiently his interpreting skills , proving what a good player he really is . And Janet Leigh and Debra Paget look chastely desirable , as always . Supporting cast is frankly good though wasted , employing such notorious players and not building them roles with which to make a considerable impact , as the screenplay never give them a chance , there appear fine secondary stars as Donald Crisp , Brian Aherne , Barry Jones , Tom Conway and Neville Brand . Brilliant cinematography in CinemaScope by Lucien Ballard who photographs splendidly the jousting scenes and the burning of an impressive stronghold . Rousing and moving musical score by Frank Skinner . The motion picture was compellingly directed by Henry Hathaway . Other rendition was ¨Prince Valiant¨ (1997) by Anthony Hickock , it is another attempt to literally transfer a comic-strip about the Arthurian saga to the screen , including a modern dialog and the whole cast is far too distinguished to be appearing in this sort of caricature of Medieval legends and non-sense , it stars Katherine Heigl who is inappropriate here , holding an excessive ironic tone prankster , Stephen Moyer , Thomas Kretschmann , Ron Perlman , Joanna Lumley , Edward Fox and Udo Kier . And an animation retelling titled ¨Legend of Prince Valiant¨(1991) with voice by Robby Benson as Valiant and Efren Zimbalist Jr as Arthur . Other movies on the matter of legends of Arthur resulted to be : (1953) the classic ¨Knights of the Round Table¨ (by Richard Thorpe) , the musical ¨Camelot¨ (Joshua Logan), the fantastic ¨Excalibur¨ (John Boorman) , ¨First Knight¨ (Jerry Zucker) and recently ¨King Arthur¨ (Antoine Fuqua) . The picture will appeal to aficionados with chivalric ideals and epic movies fans , it is a passable production that will lose much on small television screen . Rating : 6.5/10 , acceptable , well worth seeing

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.

"A Michigan Yankee in King Arthur's Court"! Well, it's a fun film to watch if you can pretend that you're about ten years old and it's the fifties. Then the sight of Janet Leigh and Deborah Paget with their cantilevered figures doesn't spoil the period feel quite so much. Then you wouldn't cringe at the jarring American accents of so many principal characters contrasted with the beautiful stage-honed British speech of others... Detroit-born Robert Wagner's Val is a pretty classic example of a 50s studio choice for a young hero; it's all about the bankability of a cute rising actor who's being groomed for teen-heartthrob stardom. I suppose he did his best, but just think how much better this would have been with say, Richard Greene in the title role. Sterling Hayden was a New Englander, but his Gawain somehow reads more like an ol' cowhand than an 'old warhorse' of the Round Table. Of course this was just the sort of Hollywood fluff for which he had nothing but contempt; still, he needed the work so there he is, putting most of his effort into concealing his embarrassment over the whole thing. Powerhouse pros Donald Crisp, Brian Aherne, James Mason and Victor McLaglen, on the other hand, do their best to elevate the quality of this production (whatever THEIR embarrassment)-- though one is often left wondering what favors might have been owing to involve them in it. Hollywood rides again!

Wagner took a lot of heat over the years for his pageboy wig in this film (something that was completely beyond his control and also true to the comic strip, even though other aspects of the film weren't!) and he does look ridiculous at times. However, men's period wigs in the cinema from the earliest days on up to about the mid-seventies were rather icky. Think Errol Flynn in "The Sea Hawk", Gene Kelly in "The Three Musketeers" or even Max Von Sydow in "The Greatest Story Ever Told." A lot of guys had to endure cruddy hair and hope for the best. Remember, too, that smooth hair was the rule until the late sixties. Bob can breathe easy that his proposed film with Joan Collins "Lord Vanity", in which he'd have worn a white powdered wig, never saw fruition! Here he plays the title character, a young lad of Viking descent who's living in exile with his parents in Britain. When old Viking enemy Carnera threatens to strike again, Wagner heads off to see King Arthur (Aherne) to become a knight and reclaim his father's kingdom for him. He's waylaid on the way by the dreaded and almost mystical Black Knight and by Sir Gawain (Hayden) who he winds up working for as a squire at Camelot. On a mission gone wrong, Wagner ends up in the home of lovely sisters Leigh and Paget and assorted romantic complications and misunderstandings follow between him and the young ladies and Hayden. Adding to his troubles is are the machinations of Mason, who wishes for a higher position in Britain and who also covets Leigh's hand. It all comes to a head in a heated battle at Wagner's family castle and later at Camelot, where Wagner and Mason square off in a lively sword fight. Wagner displays (ever so briefly) a very fit physique near the start of this film and he appears to be doing a fair number of his own stunts. His enthusiasm in the role goes a long way in making up for his terrible posture and his agonizingly flat accent (emphasized even more so by the wondrous tones of Mason's and other excellent British character actors' voices.) Even Wagner's voice is more suited to the proceedings than Hayden's, though. The film was in dire need of a dialect coach with Wagner spouting out "yuh" instead of "you" and Hayden saying "nuthin'" instead of "nothing" among many other ear-stabbers. Mason is his usual reliable self, providing a nicely menacing touch to his role. Hayden is a big, strapping lug; likable, but not particularly authentic. Leigh doesn't have a great deal to do besides look pretty, which she does, in an almost white, long wig. She's fussed over and fought over a great deal even though Paget is at least as attractive, if not more so! Aherne would get a more fulfilling shot at playing Arthur in the later film "Lancelot and Guinevere". None of the performers, with the possible exception of Wagner, is ever seen in much of a close-up, making it hard to see everyone well on a normal size TV in widescreen. This would not have been the case, obviously, during the film's Cinemascope release, however. The film features a large array of characters, some of them famous, and a lot of them barely registering at all (Lancelot and Guinevere, for example, are used as virtual extras.) There's a lot of pretty scenery, lovely backgrounds and medieval pageantry. The film is enhanced tremendously by an effervescent and rousing score by Waxman. It's got a sort of pat, comic book-style story, yet occasionally reaches an more mature level of violence (still quite tame by today's standards.) In other words, some characters state the obvious in order to make the film clearer to children. It's not a bad time-killer and is worth viewing in order to hear the music and see the lovely Ballard cinematography. And there is no truth to the rumor that Natalie Wood served at Wagner's stand-in during the filming despite his wearing what could have been one of her old wigs!