Lancelot, O Cavaleiro de Ferro

After playing "Constantin IL Grande" ,a sword and sandal made in Italy ,it was only natural that Cornel Wilde wanted his own costume drama ; then again ,with wife Jean Wallace ,his usual leading lady , he opted for another version of "knights of the round table ",hardly ten years after Richard Thorpe's and a few years before Joshua Logan's musical "Camelot" .

LIke most of the versions (including more recent versions such as Boorman's) , the story essential deals with the legendary triangle .Guinevere is beautiful ,but perhaps too "Iseut" ,too "Germanic " ,too nordic and I have a tendency to prefer Ava Gardner.

There's an unusual humor in the first part : the foam of the soap -which had been known since antiquity (the Gallic used it) - which scares Lancelot's companion is a good idea ;and during the bath they share in a small lake (in full clothes!) , soap may be the magic potion which causes eternal love between the knight and the soon-to-be-queen.

As it has already been pointed out ,the villains provide the movie with its low point :they are insignificant and cannot hold a candle to Stanley Baker and Anne Crawford in Thorpe's movie ;Brian Aherne is a noble king ,but he remains passive and listless .

And that's probably what Wilde wanted : to enhance the beauty of his co-star/wife (who ,unlike Gardner,can wield a sword) and his feats ;his film is pleasant and compares favorably with the other versions .

Little did the critics -who considered Wilde a lightweight as far as directing is concerned- know that his following effort "the naked prey ",would be a genuine masterpiece which would influence countless other movies ,especially Gibson's "Apocalypto" .

Cornel Wilde should be awarded an "E" for effort in The Sword of Lancelot, a gabby, murkily photographed, and surprisingly bloody King Arthurer from 1962. Wilde as Lancelot sports a dandy little French accent that reminded me of the guy in the tower in Monty Python's The Holy Grail while he fights for the king, until he gets all gushy over the lovely Jean Wallace as Guinevere.

There is quite a bit of long-looking and love-talking and smooching between the real-life couple (and a tightly shot post-coital embrace with the two drippy and funky; boy, what did the folks at the Production Code think of that?), but after a good while, you're starting to grumble at the screen to GET ON WITH IT, whatever it might be.

The battles swing from the hokey to the excitingly bloody. You don't see many guys get their heads split down the middle in American movies in 1962, and Wilde does stage a couple of well-thought-out sequences, so there is some benefit to sitting through the kiss-kiss to get to the clang-clang.

The whole Arthurian legend is such an appealing story that even though Wilde has two strikes against him--a budget equivalent to pocket change (the film quality is so bad, I honestly checked my glasses to see if they needed cleaning) and the fact that most everyone involved looks a good generation too old for the story--he still brings some real love and passion to the screen.

Which is why The Sword of Lancelot should be taken at face value, and even though Jean Wallace is pushing forty in the picture (too mature for a maiden), all I can say is, "What a face!"

King Arthur sends his trusty right hand man, the knight Sir Lancelot to a rival kingdom to win the hand in marriage of Guinevere. He succeeds, but falls in love with the maiden. She marries Arthur but secretly yearns for Lancelot. After a time, they become lovers & when Arthur finds out, their friendship – sabotaged by a rival knight – becomes very strained.

Originally released in the United Kingdom as Lancelot & Guinevere, this 1963 adventure film was directed by its star, Cornel Wilde. Wilde also produces & cast his wife at the time, Jean Wallace, as Guinevere.

While not the definitive version of the Camelot story, Sword of Lancelot is still reasonably watchable. The film has some passable acting &, like most of Wilde's directorial efforts, filled with action scenes. The fights & battles are the showpiece of the film & are quite violent, even by 1963 standards. There is some passable plotting but the pace tends to drag a little inbetween the battles. Wilde & Wallace might be a good pair on the screen but they are both a little too old for their roles. Having said that, Sword of Lancelot is still a pretty reasonable Dark Ages adventure film, although I still prefer something like Under the Red Robe over this.

Dvd version I watched entitled "Sword of Lancelot"-US title 1st watched 3/25/2022 - (Dir-Cornel Wilde): Valient attempt at creating an epic story of the relationship between Lancelot and Guinevere fell short mainly along the lines of believability, and the inability of the actors to pull in their audience. Cornel Wilde acted, co-produced and directed this effort, and obviously put a lot of passion into it. Jean Wallace as Guinevere never really does well enough to help us understand her perspective as the Queen of King Arthur and lover of Lancelot. Wilde as Lancelot does a better job, and Brian Pherne as King Arthur fairs okay. The story starts as they battle for Guinevere to be won over as Queen under Arthur, than quickly she falls for Lancelot as well. The battles that ensue were actually pretty well done despite not being clear on the reason for them, but the story keeps coming back to the lovers and their plight. The movie was longer than it could have been due to the battle scenes, which came across as un-important. I was glad I watched this movie, but in the end I can't recommend it unless you are a fan of this genre.

WHAT's this? Not a solitary comment on one of the really good medieval flicks of this period?

Actually it was one of the last, coming at the end of the cycle that had included KING ARTHUR AND THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE, PRINCE VALIANT, THE BLACK SHIELD OF FALWORTH, THE BLACK KNIGHT....all big moneyspinners in the 50's. It was also just 4 years shy of Richard Harris' beloved, but overblown musical CAMELOT.

The film performed disappointingly at the box office as audiences tastes had changed and biblical spectacle was all the rage by the early 60's. By '63 even THAT had waned, THE LAST DAYS OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH having closed the chapter on epics the previous year.

But hey, Cornel Wilde was a ragingly in-form Lancelot and pulled out all stops to impress his lady Guinevere. Course, her husband, King Arthur was majorly disgusted with both of them and things were messy there for a while. But you know, simply nothing overcame life's little set- backs in those days of yore, like crushing a few skulls in with a mace or broadsword and Lancelot was the champion after all. Some reviewers at the time took exception to Lancelot's french accent (Ah, my GuineVERE, u know 'ow I love you non?, ees not your coleurs 'anging from my lance-tip cherie?) Well ze franch accent or not, Cornel made as good a Lancelot as anyone ever has. This film rocked.

Think A KNIGHT'S TALE handled seriously!