The Adventures of Sir Galahad

George Reeves is familiar not only as TV's Superman, but was one of the redheaded Tarleton twins at the beginning of "Gone with the Wind". Nelson Leigh (King Arthur) was in dozens of costume and historical movies, including his role as Jor-El (Superman's father) in the Superman serial. Galahad's sidekick Bors, was played by Charles King who was in over 300 movies starting with "Birth of a Nation"(1915). ---- At the other extreme, the Lady of the Lake (Lois Willows Hall), is a 40 year activist for the Bah' Faith in Southern California, and appeared in "Star Trek the Next Generation." ---- Watching this excellent old serial causes a feeling of deja vu. However, if you imagine that the swords are six-guns and the helmets are cowboy hats, and you notice the San Fernando Valley scenery that has been the backdrop for ten's of thousands of scenes in cowboy movies and early TV shows, you know why you have that feeling.

rto1 Cincinnati, OH

Great Fun. (Seeing this on TV or finding a copy might be tough. Try e-bay)

Television's first Superman George Reeves stars in this 15 chapter serial set in mythical Arthurian England as Sir Galahad. You will not see Galahad gain the Holy Grail here. Nor will you see anything resembling the Arthurian tales of legend.

Using the familiar Camelot names we get a tale of young Galahad challenging a couple of King Arthur's knights in a tournament and besting both. Immpressed, the King offers him knighthood and the new man is always given charge of guarding Excalibur. But one of the villains in this piece and there are a few slips him a medieval Mickey Finn and Reeves falls asleep on the job.

That wins him prompt disgrace, but Reeves vows to get the sword Excalibur back or die trying. And with 15 chapters he has 14 near death experiences doing it. Along the way he picks up Sir Bors played by Charles King functioning as a western sidekick.

It certainly was a western set that was used for medieval England. In a film about that period I found it fascinating that no one bothered to cast British players in the roles. One of the most interesting bits of casting was with William Fawcett who later on would be Pete Wilkie of the Broken Wheel ranch in the Fury series. Fawcett played Merlin the Magician and I have to tell you that Felix Aylmer who played Merlin in Knights Of The Round Table is more my idea of Merlin.

Sam Katzman of Monogram Pictures produced this and it was a typical El Cheapo Katzman production. Working at Columbia I should think he'd have gotten something better in production values.

I'm not a big fan of serials as an art form so I'm prejudiced against them. But the King Arthur legend has received better treatment on the big and small screen.

I have to admit that I'm writing this review after having seen only the first two chapters. However, 70 years ago, it was my little 10-year-old body in the American Theater (Greenpoint, Brooklyn) cheering on these heroic knights and dastardly villains. I already knew who George Reeves was from his surprising villainy in the original Jungle Jim film (he tried to push Johnny Weissmuller off a cliff in that one) and from his co-starring effort with Ralph Byrd (of Dick Tracy fame) in a really delightful little comedy adventure called THUNDER IN THE PINES (which introduced Denise Darcel two years before M-G-M decided to 'introduce' Denise all over again). Anyway, I liked this at the time, but watching it last night, what impressed me most is how squashed and dumpy George Reeves looked in his Medieval outfit. We see him only once in these two chapters without his face and/or head covered by a helmet right out of the Columbia prop room. George was in his mid-30s, good looking, and in good physical shape, but you'd never know it from these first two chapters, where he and Charlie King are virtually indistinguishable when their face protectors are down. Everybody else except Nelson Leigh as Arthur sounds like they just resigned from a cattle-rustling gang, but Charlie sounds like he's still in it. William Fawcett as Merlin has an American twang, too, and despite the fact that he is wearing long white hair to make him look older, veteran serial fans and film-goers will know that he looked even more ancient when he just appeared as himself sans make-up. Reeves's Prince Valiant hair does his appearance no favors, either. The three ladies - Guinevere, Morgan Le Fey, and the Lady of the Lake are very attractive, but were hardly ever seen in anything again where you could recognize them as the three girls in this serial. The Lady of the Lake is particularly fetching (well, if she lives in a lake, she should look fetching - sorry about that) and if I'd been as smart at 10 as I am at 80, I would have loved to take her home to mother. Anyway, watching Medieval England taking place on Columbia's standard Western sets (I think I actually knew some of the boulders by name!) is fun, and these two episodes, as truly awful as they are, were fun, too. Another reviewer commented that with just about every serial ever made, if you watch the first two chapters and the last two chapters, you've pretty much seen the entire four- or five-hour serial, because nothing much ever happens in the middle episodes (and usually they are recapitulated in the next-to-last or last chapter, so you really don't miss much). Interestingly, though, I could still recall from 70 years ago what I just saw again last night, so the serial must have had the effect Sam Katzman intended it to have - to embed itself into the hearts and minds of ten-year-old boys until the Dark Fellow with the Scythe arrives to get you out of all this. And the budget? Let's just say than when King Ulric tries to conquer England early on, he does so with an army of about ten men, and no matter how many of them Galahad outduels, there still seems to be an approximate ten-man army gathered around to do nasty business to Camelot. Very enjoyable, and even if George Reeves was unhappy to always be associated with Superman, it would have been far worse for his career and legend (well, if he has a legend) to be forever associated with Sir Galahad.

Made on the cusp of the 50s this klunky sword and derring do silliness is fun in an interminable way. Columbia's serials for no known reason usually ran for 15 chapters. Republic had the good manners to fit all the chasing and fighting into a neat dozen..and basically get on with it. If you watch enough of them from any studio you can usually watch chapters 1 and 2 and then the last two and still follow the story. The chapters in the middle are lots of chasings, everyone chases everyone and then they all swap. In between they all run in and out of wharehouses (or castles, or huts) and slug it out with each other and fall over. It is such hilarious great fun. This one uses leftover King Arthur bits and some GREEN ARCHER doorways and a lot of tin armoury and wobbly swords. The same bad guys are seen in every serial, but this time the lead actor is Superman fresh from his 1948 serial and in a tin can suit with a feather on the top. It is a wonder Buster Crabbe didn't ride over from PRC ranch with Fuzzy Knight (haha...if you all get that). Columbia's serial interest were waning and box office was about to dive into TV abyss.....see this serial and then watch the creaky CAPTAIN KIDD made a few years later as a bargain counter costume epic under severe restrictions. More Sir Galah than Sir Galahad and immense fun all the clippety clop way.

If you're a George Reeves fan, and can track this serial down, it's definitely worth watching, especially to see George sport a "Prince Valiant" haircut. Working on this low-budget serial probably prepared him for the low-budget on the series that would catapult him to stardom, The Adventures of Superman.