Prince Valiant [HD]

Exuberant Camelot Adventure a Great Family Film!
There is such a sense of childlike wonder and fun in Henry Hathaway's 1954 Camelot tale, PRINCE VALIANT, that it's easy to forgive the obvious incongruities in accents (Robert Wagner's broad American tones...hard to believe he plays Donald Crisp's son...Sterling Hayden, looking and sounding more like Wild Bill Hickok than Sir Gawain...Victor McLaglen as the most Irish Viking you'll ever see!), and concentrate, instead, on the energy, pageantry, and sweep of Hathaway's adaptation of Hal Foster's classic comic strip.

Certainly, one would be hard-pressed to assemble a finer cast; in addition to Wagner, Hayden, McLaglen, and Crisp, you have James Mason as the villain, Sir Brack, dazzling, and far more believable than he had been as Rupert of Hentzau in MGM's remake of THE PRISONER OF ZENDA; Janet Leigh and Debra Paget, both ethereally beautiful as the sisters, Aleta and Ilene; and Brian Aherne, as King Arthur, so perfect in the role that you wish his part had been larger...

Yankees in King Arthur's Court !
Released in 1954, "Prince Valiant" is as much fun for the whole family now as it was fifty years ago. This colourful, Cinemascope movie is a feast for the eye, and thoroughly entertaining from start to finish. You have a brave young hero to cheer for--a nasty villain to "hiss"--action--romance--beautiful sets, locations, costumes--and Henry Hathaway's expert direction.

A very young Robert Wagner stars as "Prince Valiant", a Viking who wishes to become a knight in the court of King Arthur--he certainly cuts a dashing figure, once you get used to a rather outlandish, but compulsory, Prince Valiant wig ! Valiant soon finds himself involved in a treacherous plan to oust his own father, King Aguar ( laid-back, avuncular Donald Crisp ), and--zounds !--King Arthur himself ( laid-back, avuncular Brian Aherne ). Of course, our hero still finds time to fall in love with Princess Aleta ( gorgeous Janet Leigh )--not enough romance ?--well, Aleta's handmaiden, Ilene ( sultry Debra Paget...

Not really Foster's Val, but GREAT anyway!
This movie, released in '54, must have frustrated many diehard fans of Foster's original classic strip. While it carries over much of its source material's spirit and enthusiasm, the plot is WAY off and some of the characters emerge as entirely different beings (e.g. Princess Aleta, Gawain, even Val himself.)

Still, it works surprisingly well. In fact, this film is actually much more enjoyable than the far more faithful '90s remake. This fact is attributable, I believe, to the script for the '54 version, which transformed Foster's lusty picaresque strip into a glorious send-up of Victorian boy's books and blood-and-thunder dime novels. In fact, fans of the now-revived juvenile fiction of G.A. Henty should view this as almost a tribute to that great author, complete with relentless Victorianisms and a theme of paganism versus emerging "muscular Christianity."

As a sidenote of interest, this film also seems to have influenced Foster's writing as well. His strips from...

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