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.

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

In fifth century England, chivalrous Sir Robert Taylor (Lancelot) falls in love with beautiful Ava Gardner (Guinevere), the beautiful wife of his beloved King Mel Ferrer (Arthur). Try as they might, Mr. Taylor and Ms. Gardner are unable to resist the urge to lock lips, which gives enemy Mr. Ferrer's enemies, led by Stanley Baker (as Modred) and Anne Crawford (as Morgan Le Fay), their ammunition. This version of Thomas Malory's "Le Morte d'Arthur" never lets you forget it is a SPECTACLE.Director Richard Thorpe has the players take full advantage of the fact that this is a "CinemaScope" production, and, in COLOR. Everything is obvious. The two top-billed "stars" (actually, Taylor is the star, and Gardner has little to do) make it look even more showy. Taylor goes through the motions. Gardner walks beautifully, stands beautifully, and sits beautifully. Others in the cast are more natural - in fact, Gabriel Woolf (Percival) and Maureen Swanson (Elaine) might have made a much more convincing Lancelot and Guinevere. The ingredients are here, but they're misused.**** Knights of the Round Table (12/22/53) Richard Thorpe ~ Robert Taylor, Mel Ferrer, Gabriel Woolf, Ava Gardner

This MGM's first Cinemascope production from the company and producers (Pandro S Berman)that gave you ¨Quo Vadis¨ , ¨Ivanhoe¨ among others and only MGM could bring it so magnificently to the screen . The classic story of romantic adventure come to life enriched by Technicolor and with such great stars as Robert Taylor (Lanzarote) , Ava Gardner (Guinevere) , Mel Ferrer(Arthur) in the classic love triangle . Adding apparition the ¨Knights of the Round Table¨ as Percival (Woof) looking for the Holy Grail , Gaiwan( Robert Urqhuart) , the evil Modred (Stanley Baker) and Merlin (Felix Aylmer) and Morgana LeFay (Crawford) . This is an overwhelming tale with adventures , villainy , romance and heroism in the grandeur of Cinemascope although in television set loses splendor .In spite of there aren't real documents about legendary feats of King Arthur , allegedly in VI century King of Bretons , were created on XII century some writings by French notorious authors who romanticized the legend as Chretien of Troyes and Thomas Malory that wrote the Bretons series with their knights looking for the Holy Grail . Besides , Godofredo of Mormouth publicized in 1136 the ¨History Regnum Britanniae¨ and in XX century John Steinbeck wrote about the events of King Arthur . The story concerns when the Romans had withdrawn Britain and the Roman Empire dissolved into chaos , then rules the king Arthur , he achieved to maintain the Christianity and civilization in the west of England , though no exactly congruent with the VI century , time was presumed to have lived but the film is developed in a high medieval panoply .The movie displays breathtaking battles and epic confrontation with a terrific final climax for a mortal duel . The magnificent battle scenes are obviously copied from Henry V at Agincourt , brought to life a decade earlier by Laurence Olivier . Excellent production design , the castles , outdoors and tournaments or jousts are well staged . Luscious costumes and gowns specially suited by Ava Gardner . Colorful wide-screen cinematography by Freddie Young( David Lean's usual cameraman) . Spectacular , sensational musical score by the classic Miklos Rózsa . However this epic film never takes off as it should despite of pomp and circumstance showed . The motion picture is professionally directed by Richard Thorpe . Later on , other movies on the matter of legends of Arthur resulted to be : the musical ¨Camelot¨ (Joshua Logan), the fantastic ¨Excalibur¨ (John Boorman) and recently ¨King Arthur¨(Antoine Fuqua). The picture will appeal to aficionados with chivalric ideals and historic movies fans .