vorkapich
This film was obviously cobbled together to continue the success of Ivanhoe the previous year. The script has that factitious quality indicative of several hands having worked on it; it is largely a series of loosely linked scenes between the action sequences, with some unintentionally funny effects. Robert Taylor attempting some medieval dancing is one of the awkward moments here. The leads look as if they have been summoned to a costume party, and not entirely comfortable being surrounded by all those capable English actors — Ava Gardner in particular seems unusually bemused.M-G-M had a production unit in England, so the scenery is authentically lovely in Cinemascope (the first Cinemascope feature not made by Twentieth Century-Fox), with the master Freddie Young as DOP.The brief cycle of "when knighthood was in flower" films was parodied in The Court Jester with Danny Kaye a couple of years after this film was released, and it is even funnier, albeit deliberately.
grantss
Very weak, populist, adaptation of the famous tale. Plot is full of holes and doesn't follow King Arthur legend very closely. Not at all gritty, concentrating more on contrived, unconvincing sword- fight sequences and flowery, empty language than on any substance. So devoid of any substance, if it was made in the 2000s it would have been directed by Michael Bay!Acting is incredibly unconvincing. Think John Wayne trying to do Shakespeare. Shallow, hammy, machismo actors reciting lines they hardly understand.Even the presence of the stunningly beautiful Ava Gardner can't save this.If want to see a good adaptation of the King Arthur legend, see Excalibur (1981) instead.
LeonLouisRicci
Pompous and Pretentious, this Early Cinemascope, Technicolor Travesty is So Dull it Disgraces All Involved in the Production. It is Assembly Line Movie Making and Even the Round Table Looks Plastic. Speaking of Plastic, the Acting is Stiff and Artificial, Clunky and Embarrassing.Yes, the Movie Looks Good with its Vibrant Colors and Lengthy Width, but it is Filled with Placed Participants Going Through the Motions. The Dialog Sounds Like it was Cribbed from Shakespeare and Delivered to the Set so that Pampered Stars can Sound Like Authoritarians.King Arthur and Guinevere (Ava Gardner) Look Spaced Out, Like They got some Magic Mushrooms by Mistake and Wonder What it is All About. Robert Taylor as Lancelot isn't Much Either. The Supporting Characters Fair a Tad Better but it is a Daunting Task to Make this Thing Seem Suspenseful or Exciting.Worth a Watch, Barely, if Only to See how Not to Bring the Myth and the Legend of King Arthur to the Screen. Even the Holy Grail Makes an Appearance and so Does God in a Speaking Part. Doesn't Help.
Spikeopath
Knights of the Round Table is directed by Richard Thorpe and adapted to screenplay by Talbot Jennings, Noel Langley & Jan Lustig from the novel Le Morte d'Arthur written by Sir Thomas Malory. It stars Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner, Mel Ferrer, Stanley Baker, Anne Crawford and Felix Aylmer. Music is scored by Miklós Rózsa and cinematography by Stephen Dade and Freddie Young.An interesting spin on the Arthurian legend for MGM, who film it in Cinemascope (first time for the studio) and dress it up grandly as the actors have a good old time in the days of yore. Here the romantic angle comes via Lancelot (Taylor) and Guinevere (Gardner) having lusty lustations for one and other that cause a tremble in the stability of Camelot. With Guinevere to marry King Arthur, and both she and the heroic Lancelot loyal to the King and his ideals for Camelot, it's not a real problem until the dastardly Modred (Baker) and the scheming Morgan le Fay (Crawford) start to throw spanners into the works that result in murder, suspicion and war.It's all very fanciful stuff, full of derring-do machismo, but the action is well staged by Thorpe (cracking finale between good and evil), the outer location photography at Tintagel in Cornwall is most pleasing, Rózsa's score sweeps in and out of the well dressed sets and the cast do their director proud by not overdoing the material to hand. Yes it inevitably hasn't aged particularly well, and modern film fans may balk at the many passages of detailed chatter in the well developed script, but this comes from a grand old time in cinema. When production value meant hard graft in front of and behind the camera . Honour and integrity is not only big within the story itself, it's also themes that apply to the film makers as well. Hooray! 7.5/10
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