Knights of the Round Table (film)

Knights of the Round Table
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Richard Thorpe
Screenplay by	Talbot Jennings  [de] Noel Langley
Based on	Le Morte D'Arthur 1485 book by Sir Thomas Malory
Produced by	Pandro S. Berman
Starring	Robert Taylor Ava Gardner Mel Ferrer Anne Crawford Stanley Baker
Narrated by	Valentine Dyall
Cinematography	F. A. Young, F.R.P.S. Stephen Dade
Edited by	Frank Clarke
Music by	Miklós Rózsa
Production company	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Distributed by	Loew's, Inc.
Release date	December 22, 1953 (1953-12-22)
Running time	115 minutes
Country	United Kingdom United States
Language	English
Budget	$2.6 million[1]
Box office	$8.1 million[1][2]

Knights of the Round Table is a 1953 British-American historical Technicolor film made by MGM in England and Ireland. Directed by Richard Thorpe and produced by Pandro S. Berman, it was the first film in CinemaScope made by the studio. The screenplay was by Talbot Jennings,  [de] and Noel Langley from Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, first published in 1485 by William Caxton.

The film was the second in an unofficial trilogy made by the same director and producer and starring Robert Taylor, coming between Ivanhoe (1952) and The Adventures of Quentin Durward (1955). All three were made at MGM's British studios at Borehamwood, near London and partly filmed on location. The cast included Robert Taylor as Sir Lancelot, Ava Gardner as Queen Guinevere, Mel Ferrer as King Arthur, Anne Crawford as Morgan Le Fay, Stanley Baker as Modred and Felix Aylmer as Merlin. The film uses the Welsh spelling for Arthur's nemesis, Modred, rather than the more common Mordred.

In addition to the same producer, director and star, the first two films in the trilogy had the same cinematographer (F. A. "Freddie" Young), composer (Miklós Rózsa), art director (Alfred Junge) and costume designer (Roger Furse). The costumes for this film were executed by Elizabeth Haffenden.^[3] In 1955, she would take over from Furse as costume designer for the final film in the trilogy, Quentin Durward. Alfred Junge remained as art director.

Plot[]

Part One: The Sword in the Stone[]

With the land in anarchy, warring overlords, Arthur Pendragon (Mel Ferrer) and his half-sister Morgan LeFay (Anne Crawford) meet as arranged by the sorcerer Merlin (Felix Aylmer) to discuss how to end the bloodshed. Morgan maintains that as she is the only legitimate offspring of the late king, the throne belongs to her, but Merlin puts the adversaries to a test to determine England's rightful ruler. Merlin leads them to Excalibur, a sword embedded in an anvil, and says that according to legend, whoever can remove the sword shall be England's true sovereign. Morgan's knight champion and lover Modred (Stanley Baker) tries in vain to extract the sword, but Arthur removes it easily. Modred accuses Merlin of witchcraft, and a hearing is arranged with the Council of Kings at the ring of stones (Stonehenge). After advising Arthur that he must prove himself worthy of the throne by his deeds, Merlin instructs him to return the sword to the anvil.

Part Two: The Adventures of Lancelot of the Lake[]

Meanwhile, the French Knight Lancelot (Robert Taylor) and his men ride toward the Ring of Stones, hoping to offer their services to Arthur. On the road, Lancelot encounters a young woman named Elaine (Maureen Swanson), who quickly falls in love with him. They are waylaid by Modred's men, and Lancelot bravely does battle with all of them. Arthur arrives and joins in the battle. Lancelot, claiming he needed no help, challenges Arthur, unaware of his identity. After a long, exhausting fight, Lancelot finally asks his opponent's name, and when he learns that it is Arthur, he breaks his sword against a tree and kneels before him. They are joined by Elaine's brother Percival (Gabriel Woolf), who asks to be Arthur's knight errant.

Later, at the Ring of Stones, Arthur and Modred debate before the Council of Kings. When the crowd turns against Arthur and Lancelot, they are forced to flee, vowing to take the kingdom on the battlefield. Arthur and his men lie low throughout the cruel winter, then launch their attack against Modred's men in the spring. Despite being greatly outnumbered, Arthur's men win and he is crowned the King of England. In the interest of peace, Arthur immediately pardons all his former enemies, but when Lancelot objects to Modred's pardon, the two men angrily part ways.

Following the battle, Lancelot discovers that the lovely Guinevere (Ava Gardner) has been kidnapped by a mysterious knight and rescues her, unaware that she is Arthur's fiancée. Following Arthur and Guinevere's wedding, the king's joy is complete when Lancelot arrives at Camelot and pledges his allegiance anew. Arthur swears to join the select group of knights at the Round Table and England enjoys a period of peace and prosperity. The Knight who had kidnapped Guinevere repents, joining the Knights of Arthur´s court. One day, Percival brings Elaine to court and asks Guinevere to make her a lady-in-waiting.

Part Three: Evil Conspiracies[]

Meanwhile, Morgan and Modred continue to harbor ill feelings against Arthur, and note with interest the growing warmth between Lancelot and Guinevere. Merlin privately warns Guinevere that Morgan will tell Arthur of her suspicions about Guinevere's love for Lancelot. Because of this, Guinevere tells Lancelot she knows of his secret love for her and urges him to marry Elaine. Lancelot proposes to Elaine and asks Arthur to let him go to fight the Picts on the Scottish borders.

Lancelot and his army set out to the Scottish Borders. Soon, they feel bored, and begin to feel like fighting someone. Coincidentally, the Picts attack them right away. The enemy seems to be winning, so Lancelot orders his men to shoot flaming arrows, causing a massive fire. In the battle that follows, the Knight who had captured Guinevere before is shot to death. Lancelot and his remaining men win the battle and ride back to England.

One night, Lancelot and Elaine are visited by Percival, who relates how a heavenly vision instructed him to go on a quest for the Holy Grail, the cup from which Christ drank at the Last Supper.

Modred calls a meeting of Arthur's enemies in Scotland and urges them to make peace so that Lancelot will be forced to return to Camelot, where he will eventually be exposed as Guinevere's lover. Word of peace reaches Arthur at Camelot at the same time that Lancelot's infant son Galahad, whose mother, Elaine, died in childbirth, is brought to court with instructions that he be sent to Lancelot's father. Sensing a plot, Merlin argues against bringing Lancelot back to Camelot, but Morgan poisons him, and the knight returns amid great fanfare.

Late one night, jealous after seeing Lancelot kiss another woman (Lady Vivien), Guinevere goes to his rooms, unaware that she is being spied on by Morgan and Modred. Lancelot angrily denounces Guinevere's folly in coming to him, and Modred's men soon arrive to arrest them for high treason. Guinevere pleads and asks to be taken, but for Lancelot to be left alone, for she was the one that came to his rooms. Sir Agravain, leader of Modred's men,ignores her and threatens to batter down the door. Lancelot looks around for a weapon but finds his sword missing. He unbars his door and scorches Agravain's face with a torch,then pulls out the knight's sword. A battle ensues, where Lancelot kills all of Modred's men. One of them is pushed against the wall and stabbed, another is thrown out of a balcony, another is cut with a huge battle ax, and the last one is stabbed in the throat. Lancelot duels Agravain, (who has recovered) and runs him through with his sword. Lancelot turns and flees with Guinevere.

Lancelot and Guinevere are tried in absentia at the Round Table and declared guilty. Lancelot suddenly walks in and surrenders, and when he confesses his chaste love for Guinevere, Arthur revokes their death sentence. Over Modred's protest, Arthur orders that Guinevere be confined and banishes Lancelot from England.

Part Four: The Final Battles[]

Outraged at this show of mercy, Modred succeeds in turning the other knights against Arthur, and civil war returns to the land (as the narrator explains, "Evil days returned to England"). Arthur meets with Modred and agrees to his terms for ending the war, which include disbanding the Round Table. When one of Arthur's men draws his sword to kill a snake, however, the battle cry is sounded.

Arthur is mortally wounded, and Lancelot returns from exile to be at his side. With his dying breath, Arthur commands Lancelot to destroy Modred and give Guinevere his love and forgiveness. Lancelot fulfills Arthur's dying wish to hurl Excalibur into a lake. He calls on Guinevere at the convent and conveys Arthur's message, then rides to Modred, challenging him to a fight to the death.

A fierce one-on-one battle ensues, with Modred at the upper hand. At the edge of a cliff, Modred gets on top of Lancelot, trying to stab him with a knife, but the tides suddenly turn, allowing Lancelot to turn the knife around and impale Modred before getting pushed off the cliff.

While Modred slowly dies, Lancelot falls into a swamp that begins to suck him in. Soon Lancelot´s horse Beric saves its master by throwing its reins into Lancelot´s hands. After Lancelot and Beric get out of the swamp, they witness Morgan weeping for the loss of Modred. Having won his battle, Lancelot walks away.

Lancelot meets Percival at the Round Table and weeps, blaming himself for the noble fellowship's demise. Percival receives another holy vision of the Grail and hears a divine voice telling him that Lancelot's son Galahad will be a worthy knight, and that Lancelot is forgiven and will now know peace.

The film ends with the words, "Blessed is GOD who lives and moves in all things. AMEN."

Cast[]

All names with an asterisk (*) are credited on the "Cast" page (p62) of Knights of the Round Table: A Story of King Arthur - Text based on the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film (Ward, Lock • London and Melbourne) [1954]

Cast notes[]

Some performers - the first two here appearing in several scenes and with several lines to speak - were uncredited. These include: Ralph Truman as King Marr of the Picts, Henry Oscar as King Mark of Cornwall, Desmond Llewelyn as a herald, and Patricia Owens as Lady Vivien. Valentine Dyall spoke the opening narration.

Production[]

The film had some sequences shot near Tintagel Castle, Cornwall, with local people as extras. Scenes for the first battle were shot at Luttrellstown Castle Estate in Co. Dublin, Ireland. Woodland scenes and the hawking scenes were shot at Ashridge Forest, Herts. The Torquilstone Castle set designed by Alfred Junge for Ivanhoe (1952) was expanded and re-dressed as Camelot. Most of the indoor filming was at MGM-British Studios, Borehamwood, Herts.

George Sanders was originally cast as Modred but fell ill prior to shooting and was replaced by Stanley Baker, who had just made an impression in The Cruel Sea (1953).^[4]

The film was apparently shot on Eastmancolor stock, like Quentin Durward (1955), but it was advertised only as being 'in COLOR magnificence'. [See poster on Infobox above.] The film itself credits no color process. IMDb attributes the prints to Technicolor's laboratory, but it is not listed as one of the corporation's film prints in Fred E Basten's book Glorious Technicolor.^[5]

Production was interrupted by labor disputes when two hundred extras (all members of the British extras' union) struck, demanding a pay increase. After a monthlong strike that affected other productions, MGM finally agreed to meet the union's demands.^[6]

MGM was sued for $5 million for plagiarism in 1956 with a claim that the film was based on a script submitted to them in the 1930s. The judge ruled that both the film and the earlier script were based on Le Morte d'Arthur and Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Idylls of the King and rejected the claim.^[7][8]

Film reception[]

Box office[]

According to MGM records, the film earned $4,518,000 in the US and Canada and $3,578,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $1,641,000.^[1]

Responses[]

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, gives Knights of the Round Table reports that 67% of six surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating was 6/10.^[9]

Moreover, Knights of the Round Table has received mixed reviews from the majority of critics. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times found Knights of the Round Table to be a refreshing, enjoyable film that resembled "a spectacular, richly costumed Western film", stating that the new CinemaScope technology brought the film to life.^[10] Decent Films Guide reviewer Steven D. Greydanus gave the film a "B", stating, "a solid adaptation of the King Arthur legend, Knights of the Round Table benefits from its colorful pageantry and strongly Christian milieu, including a royal Catholic wedding and a transcendent moment of revelation involving the Holy Grail."^[11]

Awards and nominations[]

Knights of the Round Table was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color (Alfred Junge, Hans Peters, John Jarvis) and Sound Recording (A. W. Watkins).^[12][13] It was also nominated for the Grand Prix at the 1954 Cannes Film Festival.^[14]

Bibliography[]

Knights of the Round Table: A Story of King Arthur - Text based on the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer CinemaScope film (Ward, Lock • London and Melbourne) [1954]

Both the crew and cast credits published at the front (crew) and back (cast) of the book are much fuller than those in the U.S. prints. They appear to come from variant U.K. prints prepared for British cinemas. It's known that contractual obligations required that Miklos Rozsa's score had to be recorded in England (by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Muir Mathieson) as well as being recorded in Hollywood by Rozsa himself.^[15] This version of the score may have been used in British prints. Currently (2018) only a U.S. print is available on DVD.

Comic book adaption[]

• Dell Four Color #540 (March 1954).^[16][17][18] Full-color photo-cover • 34 pages, 33 in full-color • Drawn by Dick Rockwell • Copyright 1954 by Loew's Incorporated [Authorised movie tie-in]

References[]

External links[]

• The Knights of the Round Table at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Knights of the Round Table at AllMovie
• The Knights of the Round Table at IMDb
• The Knights of the Round Table at the TCM Movie Database