Using Thomas Malory's greatest hits about Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot and the Round Table, it looks great in Technicolour and Cinemascope, the locations are colourful, the costumes bright and the armour shiny, the stirring music score by Miklos Rozsa is fine.
It's a shame the overlong movie is rather dull. Partly due to the script which strives for poetic medieval heights but falls flat and partly due to the uninteresting performances of the lead trio; Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner and Mel Ferrer. One was rooting indeed for the villains Mordred and Morgan Le Fay, played with more flair by Stanley Baker and Anne Crawford respectively.
Director Richard Thorpe made two other costume films for MGM British Studios, 'Ivanhoe' in 1952 and 'The Adventures of Quentin Durward' in 1955 which were much better.
It's a shame the overlong movie is rather dull. Partly due to the script which strives for poetic medieval heights but falls flat and partly due to the uninteresting performances of the lead trio; Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner and Mel Ferrer. One was rooting indeed for the villains Mordred and Morgan Le Fay, played with more flair by Stanley Baker and Anne Crawford respectively.
Director Richard Thorpe made two other costume films for MGM British Studios, 'Ivanhoe' in 1952 and 'The Adventures of Quentin Durward' in 1955 which were much better.