Prince Valiant (1954)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Henry Hathaway

Writers:

Hal Foster (comic strip)
Dudley Nichols (screenplay)

Release Date:

5 April 1954 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Romance

Plot:

A young Viking prince strives to become a knight in King Arthur's Court and restore his exiled father to his rightful throne.

Plot Keywords:

Knight | Throne | Viking | King Arthur | Camelot

Cast

James Mason	...	Sir Brack
Janet Leigh	...	Princess Aleta
Robert Wagner	...	Prince Valiant
Debra Paget	...	Ilene
Sterling Hayden	...	Sir Gawain
Victor McLaglen	...	Boltar
Donald Crisp	...	King Aguar
Brian Aherne	...	King Arthur
Barry Jones	...	King Luke
Mary Philips	...	Queen
Howard Wendell	...	Morgan Todd
Tom Conway	...	Sir Kay

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

UK:U | West Germany:12 (f) | Finland:K-12 | USA:Approved (PCA #16695, General Audience) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Alnwick Castle, Alnwick, Northumberland, England, UK

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Since Prince Valiant's storyline in the comics was so sprawling and complex, the property is said to have languished at MGM where no one could get a handle on it. When MGM eventually passed, Fox picked it up. There, Oscar-winning screenwriter, Dudley Nichols, devised a script by selecting panels from the comic strip to create a much more concise storyboard from which to work.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: During an elaborate fire stunt on a parapet, “Prince Valiant” turns full to camera for several seconds revealing that he is a stuntman and not Robert Wagner.

Quotes:

Prince Valiant: I called you a traitor when you delivered me into Sligon's hands and now I say it again - traitor!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "American Masters: None Without Sin" (2003)

Fifties nostalgia

While not nearly as good as Hal Foster's comic strip, this film is not nearly as bad as some reviewers would have you believe. James Mason makes a fine villain, and the action scenes are well directed by Hathaway. The biggest problem is that it is, after all, a fifties film, with all the good and bad points of the fifties. I am a big fan of the fifties, because it is the decade in which I started watching movies, but I am also aware that relatively low budgets and heavy handed censorship made even the best fifties films somewhat dubious -- e.g. A Streetcar Named Desire without any hint of homosexuality. Comparing Prince Valiant to most modern knights in armor films, I find it more fun than, say, Black Knight or Timeline.