Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

Rainey Dawn Another good film surrounding the Arthurian Legend. This time the viking Prince Valiant of Scandia is the main focus. The young prince must restore his father back to his rightful throne in order to save his country by overthrowing the evil Pagan tyrant Sligon and restore the Christian faith to his native land. In order to do all that he must become one of the Knights of the Roundtable and uncover who the terrifying Black Knight really is.It's not an Epic film but right up there with the Epics of the time era. The film has a feeling of a grand scale & story. Set designs & costuming are up to standards along with the cinematography, choreography, stunts and acting. The film is vividly colorful with wonderful clear sound. It's a fun fantasy adventure film that lovers of the Arthurian Legend should easily enjoy.8.5/10

petrelet "You can't be serious. SEVEN STARS?"Yeah."Are you serious?? What in this movie is worth seven stars? The acting?"Hey, Janet Leigh and James Mason aren't bad."And which of them plays Prince Valiant? Wait, it was neither of them. It was Robert Wagner, right? How was his delivery?"Not great, but did you see his physical work, leaping around and on horses and wall hangings and swinging around on ropes and all that stuff? Lots of that! That was fun to watch, no?"Granted, he or his stunt double earned his pay. Do you think he did well as a Viking prince, with his coal-black hair and New York-ish accent?"Does that matter? Would you prefer he speak Old Norse with subtitles?"Say, how about Sterling Hayden as Sir Gawain? What accent would you call that? Oklahoma?"Um, maybe Kansas. Let's call it non-traditional casting. Look, these are not historical personages!! There's nothing they "really" sounded like!"How about historical verisimilitude?"Don't use such big words."You realize that King Arthur (or his legend, whatever) and jousting and Viking raiders come from different historical periods over a span of about 800 years?"Uh.."And how about this heavy-handed Christian triumphalism where they decide that since Christianity is the true religion you should have no qualms about burning your enemies to death?"You can't say that's not a contemporary viewpoint."Too true. So, okay, look, what did you really like about this film?"The landscapes were nice."Yes, the Croatian coast is pretty. And?"Some of the plotting was okay."Like the part about where Gawain thinks Aleta loves him?"No. I was thinking of the ring business."The ring with the chess knight symbol on it? Puh-leez."And the big swordfight scene! I have always really liked it. It really gave the impression of guys trying to hammer each other to death with their iron swords, clanging and crashing ...".... beating up each other's aluminum shields...."Yeah! Really crushing them. And the singing sword!"Wait, when you say you have 'always' liked it, when did you see it first?"On NBC Saturday Night at the Movies I think. In 1961 or so."When you were eight?"My inner child is still eight."I should be glad you didn't give it eight stars."Deal with it.

tomsview Years ago, when vinyl still ruled, I brought the record of Charles Gerhardt's "The Classic Scores of Franz Waxman". The opening track was music from "Prince Valiant". I hadn't seen the movie, but was surprised that the music seemed so light for an historical epic - almost a send-up of epic scores.When I finally saw the film, I realised that Waxman had caught the tone of the film perfectly. It is an adventure film that doesn't take itself too seriously although it is based on Hal Foster's beautifully drawn comic strip, which took itself very seriously indeed - "Peanuts" it was not.Robert Wagner's character, Prince Valiant (Val to his friends), belongs to a royal family of Christian Vikings. When Val's father is dethroned by Sligon, leader of pagan worshiping Vikings, the lad is sent with his pageboy haircut to Camelot to join King Arthur's Round Table as a way of helping his father regain the throne. However he discovers a plot against Arthur, which also involves Sligon. Along the way he gains friends, makes enemies, and finds romance with the tightly bodiced Princess Aleta.That's roughly the plot; the romantic elements probably wouldn't have been sophisticated enough for an episode of Andy Hardy, however the whole thing is handled with such flair that clichés, overly obvious plotting and the mishmash of American and British accents are brushed away by engaging stars, great locations and brilliant special effects.Prince Valiant was made shortly after the introduction of Cinemascope and if ever a movie was a showcase for the process it's this one; pan and scan on TV just doesn't do it justice.Whenever the great cinematic sword fights are listed, the one between Robert Wagner and James Mason in "Prince Valiant", is hardly ever mentioned, but it is one of the best blade-on-blade encounters ever.The film seems influenced as much by Robert Taylor's "Ivanhoe" as by Hal Foster, especially with all the jousting, and a beautiful blonde heroine contrasted with a beautiful raven-haired one: Joan Fontaine and Elizabeth Taylor in the former, Janet Leigh and Debra Paget in the latter.The production is lavish even if the Vikings in the film look more like a herd than a horde with ridiculous out-sized horns on their helmets - you would think the biggest danger they faced when raping and pillaging would have been poking each other's eyes out.Nevertheless "Prince Valiant" is simply good old-fashioned movie making; it's a full-blooded adventure, but given a light touch - it still delivers value for money.

Blueghost This film is one of those inane market deals. In the tradition of today's teenage driven film market this movie preceded today's SFX B-flick bonanzas with the same formula to grab young people's money.One of Robert Wagner's early roles sees him miscast (and in this way appropriately cast) as a civilized pagan Norseman, with altruistic ideals, but little experience to back up his high minded values.Comically over-sized swords are counterweighted by some of the battle scenes, but nearly no research went into this film, which isn't too surprising as its sights were aimed all that high in the first place.It's an interesting window at what 1950s Hollywood considered fluff action drama, and it's worth a look for that alone. Otherwise give it a pass.