Movie Type: Mythological Fantasy, Costume Adventure
Themes: Knights and Ladies
Main Cast: James Mason, Janet Leigh, Robert Wagner, Debra Paget, Sterling Hayden
Release Year: 1954
Country: US
Run Time: 100 minutes
Plot
Hal Foster's Sunday-comics saga of a young Viking prince in the service of King Arthur is brought to the screen in CinemaScope and Technicolor in Prince Valiant. Despite the fact that he sports a dutch bob that makes him look like actress Phyllis Kirk, Robert Wagner is quite virile and convincing as the title character. Trained for the Round Table by Sir Gawain (Sterling Hayden), Valiant takes time out to fall in love with the beautiful Princess Aleta (Janet Leigh). The villain of the piece is The Black Knight, aka Sir Brack (top-billed James Mason), who intends to topple King Arthur (Brian Aherne) from his throne, then conquer Valiant's people in Scandia. But Prince Valiant proves a fearsome opponent to the usurping Sir Brack. Sadly, most currently available prints of Prince Valiant have been panned-and-scanned, denying viewers the opportunity to revel in Henry Hathaway's creative utilization of the CinemaScope format. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Restored to its original Cinemascope format, Henry Hathaway's comic strip adventure remains a slam-bang piece of screen entertainment that succeeds despite lackluster performances from a very young and ridiculous-looking Robert Wagner and the more seasoned but still appallingly awful Sterling Hayden. The saving grace here is the magnificent and quite authentic-looking locations and top-notch staging of the noisy battle scenes. There are marauding Vikings, colorful clashes between the legendary Knights of the Round Table, and a fine villain in the supercilious person of James Mason. The latter earns star billing despite suffering a lull in his long career, a lull that was fully alleviated by his next film, the glorious A Star Is Born (1954). Director Hathaway, meanwhile, does what he can with the slightly anachronistic material and manages to draw good performances from a supporting cast that includes an impossibly blond Janet Leigh, as Valiant's bosomy intended, and Victor McLaglen, as a typically bombastic Norseman. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
