I wanted to but couldn't!

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Sir Thomas Malory's traditional tales of King Arthur and Lancelot are made even more commercially palatable with this costumed version from the British arm of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The narrative has become so basic (and dull), presumably for mass consumption, that all we have left to respond to is the ornate production. Robert Taylor's Lancelot devotes himself to being Guinevere's champion (not that her husband--Mel Ferrer's vacuous King Arthur--would notice!), but Taylor seems to have wandered in from another picture; his diction is thudding and his hangdog face never brightens, not even in the presence of a ravishing Ava Gardner as Guinevere (who doesn't so much flirt with Lancelot as she does beam and glow with silent affection). The overlong film is a sumptuous spread, and there's plenty of action, but the episodes fail to come together as a whole and the sound recording (Oscar nominated!) is barely adequate. Consequently, the legendary characters rarely come to life. ** from ****

In this story about King Arthur, Sir Lancelot, and the Lady Guenevere, the acting is superb and the English countryside is beautiful. Mel Ferrer shows forth great dramatic ability as the calm-yet-firm King Arthur, Robert Taylor (in one of finest roles, I feel) is the consummate actor as the arrogant Sir Lancelot, and Ava Gardner as the very beautiful Lady Guenevere would make anyone want to fight over and for her. Stanley Baker truly wants anyone want to kill the mean and heartless Mordred. And too, Miklos Rozsa provided a very fitting and well-done music score. You never tire from watching the movie, thanks to the romance, sword-fighting, and even the aesthetics of it; it is exciting from beginning to end. The movie is unique in another sense: it is the first Cinemascope movie of MGM. Because of the acting, excitement, intrigue, and aesthetics, this movie is a favorite of mine.

I first saw this film as a twelve year old when you had a continuance performance and I literally had to be dragged from my seat by members of the local constabulary as my mother had reported me missing when I didn't turn up on the bus.What an experience for a young lad,knights in shining armour,jousting,battles and sword fighting.Heroes riding to the rescue of fair damsels,wrongs to be righted and villains to be thwarted,and all in glorious Technicolor and Cinemascope.I didn't go much on the lovey dovey stuff but at least it was kept within reason.I recently saw the film again,perhaps I am getting cynical in my old age because although it was still very entertaining I could see what a load of rubbish it really was.Fair play to the cast who take it all very seriously and an approving nod to Robert Taylor,Ava Gardner,Mel Ferrer and especially Stanley Baker,his villainous turn was something else.The best way to enjoy this film is to treat it as a cross between a Carry On film and an old fashioned English pantomime.It is meant to be pure entertainment and as Sam Goldwyn so aptly put it "Messages are for Western Union".Did such heroes as the Knights of the Round Table,Robin Hood and St George of merry England really exist? I would like to think so and if they didn't then they jolly well should have done.In these desperate times we could really use heroes such as these.Perhaps we should stick to Hollywood's version of the Middle Ages because the reality was vastly different.It was the age of the thumbscrew,the rack and the branding iron and as for methods of execution if you were impaled,burnt at the stake or hung,drawn and quartered you were probably lucky because imaginative magistrates could soon find other ways of having you dispatched.Just to add to the general misery you also had the plague and the black death.If you want to see a more realistic take on the Round Table Cornel Wilde's Lancelot and Guinevere is well worth a look.Finally if you have a strong enough stomach Vincent Price in The Witchfinder General gives a bleakly realistic view of late medieval England during the English civil war.Personally I think Hollywood's version of "merry" England is much more fun.

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