First and the best adaptation upon ¨Hal Foster's Prince Valiant¨ famous comic strip ; this decent movie (1954) by Henry Hathaway boasts itself a great cast , such as Robert Wagner , Janet Leigh , Victor McLagen , Donald Crisp , Sterling Hayden and Debra Paget . Spectacular adventure with a lot of colorful pageantry and old-fashioned action , concerning about Prince Valiant , Black Knight , and King Arthur , though the movie falls short . It packs a non-sense blending of romance and Dark Ages action , as the screenwriters don't get the appropriate touch . Prince Valiant (Robert Wagner), son of the exiled King of Scandia , journeys to England . There Arthur (Brian Aherne) governs in the legendary citadel that is Camelot . Valiant attempts to become himself a knight at King Arthur's Round Table . His Knights of the Round Table commit acts of derring-do and spend their spare time jousting and enjoying feasts . There young Valiant who wields his sword with vigour is given the task to be the squire to Sir Gawain (Sterling Hayden who easily steals the acting honors) , one of King Arthur's knights along with Sir Tristram (John Dierkes) , Sir Lancelot (Don Megowan) , Sir Kay , Perceval , among others . Later on , Prince Valiant sets out to chase the Black Knight . But our real hero is wounded and he is then cared by the gorgeous princess Aleta (Janet Leigh) , as the young twosome fall in love . Meantime , an evil tyrant , and villainous leader Viking overthrows his father King Aguar (Donald Crisp) , the Christian King of Scandia .This is a Medieval tale with adventures , full-bloodied action , unspeakable dialog , villainy , terrific jousting , love stories and heroism in the grandeur of Scope although in television set loses splendor . The movie displays breathtaking battles , being ambitious in scope with heroic confrontation and a striking final climax for a mortal duel . Handsome story , being decently written by Dudley Nichols , John Ford's regular , though contains some awkward narrative elements . Excellent settings , monumental castles , outdoors and tournaments or jousts are well staged . However this spectacular film never takes off as it should despite pomp and circumstance showed , being excessively sentimental , so you'll be excited and embarrassed alternately . In any case , filmmaker does some breathtaking set pieces and the attack of a Viking castle turns out to be colorful and vividly thrilling . This is the classic story of romantic adventure come to life enriched by glamorous color and overwhelming fights . Excellent performance by James Mason , displaying efficiently his interpreting skills , proving what a good player he really is . And Janet Leigh and Debra Paget look chastely desirable , as always . Supporting cast is frankly good though wasted , employing such notorious players and not building them roles with which to make a considerable impact , as the screenplay never give them a chance , there appear fine secondary stars as Donald Crisp , Brian Aherne , Barry Jones , Tom Conway and Neville Brand . Brilliant cinematography in CinemaScope by Lucien Ballard who photographs splendidly the jousting scenes and the burning of an impressive stronghold . Rousing and moving musical score by Frank Skinner . The motion picture was compellingly directed by Henry Hathaway . Other rendition was ¨Prince Valiant¨ (1997) by Anthony Hickock , it is another attempt to literally transfer a comic-strip about the Arthurian saga to the screen , including a modern dialog and the whole cast is far too distinguished to be appearing in this sort of caricature of Medieval legends and non-sense , it stars Katherine Heigl who is inappropriate here , holding an excessive ironic tone prankster , Stephen Moyer , Thomas Kretschmann , Ron Perlman , Joanna Lumley , Edward Fox and Udo Kier . And an animation retelling titled ¨Legend of Prince Valiant¨(1991) with voice by Robby Benson as Valiant and Efren Zimbalist Jr as Arthur . Other movies on the matter of legends of Arthur resulted to be : (1953) the classic ¨Knights of the Round Table¨ (by Richard Thorpe) , the musical ¨Camelot¨ (Joshua Logan), the fantastic ¨Excalibur¨ (John Boorman) , ¨First Knight¨ (Jerry Zucker) and recently ¨King Arthur¨ (Antoine Fuqua) . The picture will appeal to aficionados with chivalric ideals and epic movies fans , it is a passable production that will lose much on small television screen . Rating : 6.5/10 , acceptable , well worth seeing

It can't be helped, but this is great fun. Robert Wagner as the angry brat constantly fighting everyone, the young Janet Leigh as a blonde bombshell with her hair to the bottom in Briton tight dress, James Mason as the total double-crossing villain with hidden agendas, thronging vikings with bulky horns on every helmet climbing over each other in crowded battle scenes with the whole castle on fire, and so on - this is great entertainment, a medieval star wars version with very little difference from the space conflicts, action all the way and ridiculous love complications, which Hollywood always specialized in, and one more impressing castle than the other - this was only two years after "Ivanhoe" and in the same vein but without Sir Walter Scott - this was instead based on newspaper cartoons, the best one certainly, but nonetheless - there is something missing in the dialogue and the human intrigue, a bit too superficial to be credible. The triumph however is Franz Waxman's marvelous music, which adds color and temperament to every scene and actually bestows much of the dramatic effects that the actual film is missing. The one who is out of joint is the director Henry Hathaway, who can't quite get his actors honestly alive. They act like dummies in a costume school play and even hesitate occasionally, as if they don't quite remember their repartee, but that's the only foible. The party could have done with a slight portion humor, but the final battle, when the whole school is torn down by the loud banging of clashing swords, is satisfactory enough for a climax of a good show. Splendid fireworks of the best of cartoons brought on to the screen!

Poor film dealing with King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Believe me, the table could have been square here as that's exactly what the movie is.What kind of hairdo was that for Robert Wagner? It looked worse than a mop.Sterling Hayden was terribly cast as one of the knights. James Mason, who gave such a brilliant performance that same year of 1954 in "A Star is Born," is given relatively little to do here. He is totally not give the script to personify his evil, especially his plot to wrestle the throne from Arthur.The film literally burns up.

Exiled King of Sandia, whose throne was usurped by force, is given refuge by King Arthur at a secret location; now, the troubled King's green son is anxious to make matters right, leaving the family's hideout and eventually tangling with the elusive Black Knight of the forest. Simpleton epic based upon the King Features comic strip by Harold Foster is beautifully photographed by the esteemed Lucien Ballard, who manages to get a sheen from just about every location chosen. The costumes and castles are terrifically splendid, yet the film's miscasting quickly negates interest in the action. Robert Wagner isn't quite right for the energetic leading role; his perpetually blank look, callow manner, and wooden line readings are often embarrassing...and certainly the black wig does him no favors. Prince Valiant is chosen as squire to Sir Gawain (Sterling Hayden, in an even worse performance than Wagner's) and the two have romantic complications with a pair of sisters (Janet Leigh and Debra Paget, both lovely). James Mason is the mysterious Sir Brack, who may be after King Arthur's throne, but Mason doesn't exude much mystery--with his arch delivery and decadent manner, we know right away he's up to no good, which kills any suspense the plot might have had. The ladies are fun, and the presentation is certainly colorful; otherwise, this "Prince" is a pallid player in the Medieval adventure genre. ** from ****