bbaldwin7

If you thought the 1965 Cinerama epic, "Battle of the Bulge" was BAD (and it was, in spades), wait until you attempt to sit through this turkey. Clearly, the writer didn't understand a single scene he wanted in the script, and the director was just as lost trying to interpret or give it any thematic point-of-view. It is one meaningless cliche after another and torture to sit through for all of 75 minutes. Battles are often a logistical mess, film's about them should attempt some clarity and a reason for all the carnage and sacrifice. It's beyond belief that someone can be handed a reported $3.5 million (admittedly a low budget, but still all wasted money) and end up with something as bad as "Wunderland". In the end, this film represents only a battle between the "filmmaker" and his bulging ego.

Richard Greene's "Adventures of Robin Hood" was in its 3rd successful year, and NBC was headed for a wrap on "Adventures of Sir Lancelot", when Columbia Screen-Gems decided (December, 1956) to produce this 39 episode series with Sydney Box Productions in England. Actually, the schedule to get the pilot before ABC (which didn't purchase the show) required that the first episode and the head-title/tail-credit sequences be filmed at the Columbia Ranch outside LA in February 1957. Only this episode was shot in color (only released for broadcast in B&W). The show then returned to post-winter England. The pilot-episode features Roger Moore with a much tighter haircut and an open-throat camail of armor. The backgrounds are also quite Southern California. The show was more lavish than "Robin Hood", and generally more engaging than "Sir Lancelot". Moore and Brown had good chemistry and became close life-long friends. The half-dozen best episodes would be, "Freeing the Serfs" (pilot), "The Witness", "The German Knight", "Rinaldo", "Brothers in Arms", and "Freelance". The most dramatically balanced of these (with better than average production) is "Freelance". The largest action scene is the closing ambush-and-battle, involving 25 mounted riders, in the higher budgeted pilot, "Freeing the Serfs". The best staged and scored sequence is the joust and duel between Moore and Christopher Lee in, "The German Knight". A lot of Baby Boomers have fond memories of seeing this series in syndication as kids.