This film- and bibliography on cinematic versions of the legend of King Arthur supersedes that which I published as part of Cinema Arthuriana, Essays on Arthurian Film (New York: Garland, 1991).
The arrangement of films here is alphabetical for both main and alternate titles. Each main entry includes the film's title and date of release, the film's country of origin, the director, the production company, any alternate title(s), and the cast. In the case of some silent films, surviving records do not always provide all of this information. I then briefly discuss each film and offer a short critical assessment, which admittedly at times betrays my own biases. Finally, I provide an exhaustive a list of reviews and additional discussions of each film.
Most of my research was conducted at the British Film Institute in London, the New York Public Library's Performing Arts Branch at Lincoln Center, and the Library of Congress. In all three cases, materials in these collections are not always recorded on-line. Some additional reviews of more recent films may be available on-line through Firstsearch and by fiche through Newsbank, both of which index a number of American newspapers and periodicals, though I have tried here at to include reviews from all newspapers of record.
I do not indicate whether films are available on videotape or laser disc for two reasons. Systems for videotapes used throughout the world are incompatible with each other unless a user has access to very expensive specialized video equipment. Also, copyright restrictions often place a time limit on the circulation of videotape and laser disc versions of films. For the United States and Canada, the most update source of information on the availability of films on videotape or laser disc is The Video Source Book, which is revised annually. For the availability of tapes and laser discs in Europe, there is no comparable reference, although the Virgin Megastore chain based in London does sell a catalog of the extensive collection of films on tape and disc that the chain has available for purchase.
In part or in whole, the following studies discuss or catalog cinematic depictions of the legend of Arthur.
Beatie, Bruce A. "Arthurian Films and Arthurian Texts: Problems of Reception and Comprehension." Arthurian Interpretations 2 (Spring 1988): 65-78.
Cahiers de la cinémathèque 42-43 (Summer 1985): 1-188. (Special issue devoted to "le moyen age âu cinéma.")
de la Bretèque, François. "La Figure de chevalier errant dans l'imaginaire cinématographique." Cahiers de l'Association Internationale des Etudes Françaises 47 (1995): 49-78.
du Bus, Olivier Lefébure. "La Table ronde et ses chevaliers." Séquences 177 (March-April 1995): 51-52.
Durand, Jacques. "La Chevalerie à lécran." Avant-scène du cinéma 221 (1 February 1979): 29-40.
Harty, Kevin J. "Cinema Arthuriana: A Bibliography of Selected Secondary Materials." Arthurian Interpretations 3 (Spring 1989): 119-37.
-----. "Cinema Arthuriana: A Filmography." Quondam et futurus 7 (Spring 1987): 5-8; 7 (Summer 1987): 18.
-----. "Cinema Arthuriana: Translations of the Arthurian Legend to the Screen." Arthurian Interpretations 2 (Fall 1987): 95-113.
-----, ed. Cinema Arthuriana, Essays on Arthurian Film. New York: Garland, 1991.
Holly, Linda Tarte. "Medievalism in Film: The Matter of Arthur, A Filmography." In Jürgen Kühnel et al., eds. Mittelalter-Rezeption III. Göppingen: Kümmerle, 1988.
Lacy, Norris J. "Arthurian Film and the Tyranny of Tradition." Arthurian Interpretations 4 (Fall 1989): 75-85.
-----, ed. The New Arthurian Encyclopedia. Updated paperback edition. New York: Garland, 1996.
-----, and Geoffrey Ashe (with Debra N. Mancoff). The Arthurian Handbook. 2nd ed. New York: Garland, 1997.
MacCurdy, Marian. "Bitch or Goddess: Polarized Images of Women in Arthurian Films and Literature." Platte Valley Review 18 (Winter 1990): 3-24.
Parish, James Robert, and Don E. Stanke. The Swashbucklers. New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1976.
Richards, Jeffrey. Swordsmen of the Screen from Douglas Fairbanks to Michael York. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1977.
Tarpley, Fred. "King Arthur on Film." In William E. Tanner, ed. The Arthurian Myth of Quest and Magic, A Festschrift in Honor of Lavon B. Fulwiler. Dallas: Caxton's Modern Arts Press, 1993.
Umland, Rebecca A., and Samuel J. Umland. The Use of Arthurian Legend in Hollywood Film From Connecticut Yankees to Fisher Kings. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1996.
Wehrhahn, Jürgen. "König Artus und die Ritter der Tafelrunde." Retro 12 (November-December 1981): 5-13.
Adventures of Sir Galahad, The (1950).
United States; dir. Spencer G. Bennet; Columbia.
Cast: William Fawcett, Lois Hall, Nelson Leigh, and George Reeves.
King Arthur refuses to make Galahad a Knight of the Round Table until he retrieves Excalibur. On his quest for the sword, Galahad encounters Merlin, Mordred, and the Black Knight. He also discovers and foils a Saxon plot to invade England. Finally, he defeats the Saxons, recovers Excalibur, and is made a Knight of the Round Table. This fifteen-part serial starring American television's first Superman, George Reeves, was loosely based on events from the Arthurian legends. The series with individual screenplays by George H. Plympton included the following episodes varying in length from 15 to 25 minutes: "The Stolen Sword," "Galahad's Daring," "Prisoners of Ulric," "Attack on Camelot," "Galahad to the Rescue," "Passage of Peril," "Unknown Betrayers," "Perilous Adventure," "Treacherous Magic," "The Sorcerer's Spell," "Valley of No Return," "Castle Perilous," "The Wizard's Vengeance," "Quest for the Queen," and "Galahad's Triumph."
To-day's Cinema 2 February 1951: 10; 9 February 1951: 12.
Additional discussions:
Barbour, Alan. Cliffhanger. New York: A & W, 1979.
-----. The Serials of Columbia. Kew Gardens, N.Y.: Screen Facts, 1967.
Catalog of Holdings of the American Film Institute Collection and the United Artists Collection at the Library of Congress. Washington, D.C.: American Film Institute, 1978.
Cline, William C. In the Nick of Time. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1984.
Harmon, Jim, and Donald F. Glut. The Great Movie Serials. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1972.
Henderson, Jan Alan. "The Life and Times of Honest George." Film Fax 11 (June-July 1988): 40-45, 51.
Kinnard, Roy. Fifty Years of Serial Thrills. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1983.
Richards, Jeffrey. Swordsmen of the Screen from Douglas Fairbanks to Michael York. London: Routledge, 1977.
Shipley, Glenn. "Spencer Gordon Bennet." Views and Reviews 2 (Fall 1969): 6-21.
Weiss, Ken, and Ed. Goodgold. To Be Continued. New York: Crown, 1972.
United States and Great Britain; dir. Clive Donner; Martin Poll Productions, Comworld Films, and CBS.
Alternate title: Merlin and the Sword.
Cast: Candace Bergen, Rupert Everett, Rosalyn Landor, Malcolm McDowell, Liam Neeson, Patrick Ryecart, Philip Sayer, Ann Thornton, and Edward Woodward.
Katherine, a tourist in modern-day England, stumbles into a hole while wandering around Stonehenge, where she encounters King Arthur and his knights. Camelot is in chaos. The wine cellar is empty, hundreds of Vikings are expected for dinner, and the Romans have abandoned England. Even worse, the countryside is overrun with dragons and brigands, and the ever present fog just will not lift. With Katherine's assistance, Merlin and his beloved Niniane restore order to the kingdom by challenging Morgan Le Fay and her ally, Mordred, Arthur's illegitimate son. Donner's film, which was shelved by the studio for several years before being dumped for television release, is one of the silliest films ever made about the Arthurian legend. Everything about the film--acting, dialog, settings, costumes--is simply dreadful.
Reviews:
Chicago Tribune 26 April 1985: 5. 5.
Courier-Journal [Louisville, Ky.] 25 April 1985: 66.
Daily News [New York] 26 April 1985: 74.
Hollywood Reporter 26 April 1985: 12.
New York Times 26 April 1985: 3. 30.
TV Guide 20-26 April 1985: A-144.
Variety 8 May 1985: 162.
Additional discussions:
Marill, Alvin H. Movies Made for Television, 1964-1986. New York: Zoetrope, 1987.
Schobert, Walter, and Horst Shäfer, eds. Fisher Film Almanach 1987. Frankfurt am Main: Fisher, 1987.
Black Knight, The (1954).
Great Britain; dir. Tay Garnett; Warwick-Columbia.
Cast: Richard Adam, Harry Andrews, Bill Brandon, Anthony Bushnell, Peter Cushing, Alan Ladd, Jean Lodge, Patricia Medina, Andre Morell, and Patrick Troughton.
John, a poor blacksmith, learns that the Viking attacks on England are really the handiwork of Sir Palamides, a knight of the Round Table, and his ally, King Mark, Both intend to overthrow Arthur and supplant Christianity in England with paganism. John becomes a knight and saves the kingdom from Palamides and Mark, while also winning the hand of his lady love, the fair Linet. When it was originally released, most critics dismissed this film as unintentionally funny. More recently, however, Alan Lupack has advanced an alternate reading of the film arguing convincingly that The Black Knight needs to be read against the politics of the 1950s. Against such a backdrop, the film can be "seen as an allegory for the triumph of American values over a Communist threat" (38).
Beylie, Claude, et al. "Les 44 films de Tay Garnett." Ecran 57 (April 1977): 28-38; 58 (May 1977): 40-45.
Garnett, Tay, and Fredda Dudley Valling. Light Up Your Torches and Pull Up Your Tights. New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1973.
Halliwell, Leslie. "Putting A Name to the Place." TV Times [London] 14 February 1987: 34.
Henry, Marilyn, and Ron De Sourdis. The Films of Alan Ladd. Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel, 1981.
Lupack, Alan. "An Enemy in Our Midst: The Black Knight and the American Dream." In Kevin J. Harty, ed. Cinema Arthuriana, Essays on Arthurian Film. New York: Garland, 1991.
Nash, Jay Robert, and Stanley Ralph Ross. The Motion Picture Guide, A-B, 1927-1983. Chicago: Cinebooks, 1985.
Richards, Jeffrey. Swordsmen of the Screen from Douglas Fairbanks to Michael York. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1977.
Umland, Rebecca A., and Samuel J. Umland. The Use of Arthurian Legend in Hollywood Film from Connecticut Yankees to Fisher Kings. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1996.
Viviani, Christian. "Tay Garnett, 1898-1977." Avant-scène du cinéma 245 (1 April 1980): 97-128.
Camelot (1967).
United States; dir. Joshua Logan; Warner Brothers-Seven Arts.
Cast: Richard Harris, David Hemmings, Lionel Jeffries, Laurence Naismith, Franco Nero, Vanessa Redgrave, and Estelle Winwood.
Unwilling at first to marry, Arthur by chance encounters his bride-to-be Guinevere in a forest. After the royal wedding, Arthur establishes an order of chivalry whose symbol is the Round Table. The fame of the order spreads and brings the eager Lancelot du Lac from France to join the nights of the Round Table. First resentful of Lancelot, Guinevere soon falls in love with him, and the two become secret lovers. When rumors of their adultery surface, Arthur ignores these rumors and sends those who try to force the issue into exile, where they rally around Mordred, Arthur's illegitimate son. Mordred sets a trap for Lancelot and Guinevere. Lancelot escapes, but Guinevere is found guilty and sentenced to be burned at the stake. Lancelot rescues Guinevere, but the dream of Camelot is doomed. Based on the successful 1960 Broadway play by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, which was in turn based on T. H. White's The Once and Future King, this film has had few neutral critics, most of whom responded negatively to it. The charges leveled against the film are generally that the lead roles were miscast, that the direction was ponderous, and that, at nearly three hours, the film was too long. The film did, nonetheless, win Academy Awards for art and set direction, costume, and best musical scoring. It was also nominated for best cinematography and sound.
Reviews:
America 117 (11 November 1967): 582-83.
Bianco e nero 29 (May-June 1968): 161-63.
Christian Century 10 January 1968: 52-53.
Columbia 47 (November 1967): 29.
Commonweal 87 (17 November 1967): 207.
Daily Cinema 17 November 1967: 6.
Extension 62 (January 1968): 38.
Film Daily 26 October 1967: 3, 6.
Film Facts 10 (15 November 1967): 280-81.
Film Quarterly 21 (Spring 1968): 56.
Films and Filming 14 (November 1967): 15-17; 14 (January 1968): 22.
Borgzinner, Jon. "The Shining Pageant of Camelot" and "The Limerick Lad in King Arthur's Court." Life 63 (22 September 1967): 70-76, 79-80, 84, 86.
Bouineau, Jean-Marc, and Alain Charlot. Les 100 chefs-d'Ïuvre du film fantastique. Alleur, Belgium: Marabout, 1989.
Bragg, Melvyn. Rich: The Life of Richard Burton. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1988.
Combs, Carl. Camelot: The Movie Souvenir Book. New York: National, 1968.
Elley, Derek. The Epic Film. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984.
Grellner, Alice. "Two Films That Sparkle: The Sword in the Stone and Camelot." In Kevin J. Harty, ed. Cinema Arthuriana, Essays on Arthurian Film. New York: Garland, 1981.
Hirschhorn, Clive. The Movie Musical. New York: Crown, 1981.
-----. The Warner Brothers Story. New York: Crown, 1979.
Kaplan, Phillip J. The Best, Worst and Most Unusual: Hollywood Musicals. New York: Beckman, 1983.
Knee, Allan, ed. Selections from Idylls of the King and Camelot. New York: Dell, 1967.
Krafsur, Richard P., ed. The American Film Institute Catalog of Feature Films 1961-1970. New York: Bowker, 1976.
Lightman, Herb A. "Capturing on Film the Mythical Magic of Camelot." American Cinematographer 49 (January 1968): 30-33.
Logan, Joshua. Movie Stars, Real People, and Me. New York: Delacorte, 1978.
Maeder, Edward. Hollywood and History, Costume Design in Film. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1987.
Matthew-Walker, Robert. From Broadway to Hollywood. London: Sanctuary Publishing, 1996.
Medved, Harry, and Michael Medved. The Golden Turkey Awards. New York: Perigee, 1980.
-----. The Hollywood Hall of Shame. New York: Perigee, 1984.
Nash, Jay Robert, and Stanley Ralph Ross. The Motion Picture Guide, C-D, 1927-1983. Chicago: Cinebooks, 1985.
Parish, James Robert, and Michael R. Pitts. The Great Hollywood Musical Pictures. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1992.
Redgrave, Vanessa. Vanessa Redgrave, An Autobiography. New York: Random House, 1994.
Schroth, Evelyn. "Camelot: Contemporary Interpretation of Arthur in 'Sens' and 'Matiere.'" Journal of Popular Culture 17 (Fall 1983): 31-43.
Umland, Rebecca A., and Samuel J. Umland. The Use of Arthurian Legend in Hollywood Film from Connecticut Yankees to Fisher Kings. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1996.
Camelot (1982).
United States; dir. Marty Callner; HBO.
Cast: Richard Backus, Meg Bussert, Richard Harris, Barrie Ingham, Robert Muenz, and James Valentine.
HBO's presentation of the Broadway revival of the Lerner and Loewe musical, which first aired on 26 September 26 1982, received good reviews for its production values and for Harris's portrayal of Arthur.
Reviews:
Films in Review 33 (November 1982): 567-69.
Hollywood Reporter 24 September 1982: 30.
New York Times 24 September 1982: C27.
Screen International 25 September 1982: 6.
Women's Wear Daily 15 September 1982: 42.
Additional discussion:
Ashley, Franklin. "They Haven't Heard the Last of Richard Harris." TV Guide 25 September 1982: 27-29.
Chevaliers de la table ronde, Les (1990).
France; dir. Denis Llorca; Les Films du Jeudi.
Alternate title: The Knights of the Round Table.
Cast: Maria Casarès, Alain Cuny, Mireille Delcroix, Alain Mace, Catherine Rétoré, and Michel Vitold.
In its retelling of scenes selected from the thirteenth century French prose Vulgate cycle, this film presents the stories of Arthur and Guinevere, of Morgan and her jealousy, of Merlin and his enchantment by Vivien, and of the Fisher King Bron, his daughter, and her son, Galahad.
Reviews:
Cahiers du cinéma 437 (November 1990): 85.
Film français 16 October 1990: 13.
Image et son 465 (November 1990): 29.
Positf 359 (January 1991): 44-45.
Revue du cinéma [La Saison cinématographique] Hors série 37 (1990): 27.
Studio [Paris] 43 (November 1990): 24.
Additional discussions:
Les Films français. Paris: Unifrance International Film, 1990.
Heymann, Danièle, and Pierre Murat. L'Année du cinéma 1991. Barcelona: Almann-Lévy, 1991.
Tous les films 1990. Paris: Éditions Chrétiens-Médias, 1991.
Connecticut Yankee, A (1931).
United States; dir. David Butler; Fox.
Cast: Frank Albertson, William Barnum, Mitchell Harris, Brandon Hurst, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan, and Will Rogers.
Hank Martin, a radio repairman, is knocked unconscious by an armored figure while trying to fix a radio for a slightly crazed customer who believes he is listening in on discussions from Arthur's Round Table. In a dream, Martin finds himself in England in the year 528, where he amazes Arthur's court with his cigarette lighter, motorcycles, automobiles, machine guns, sawed-off shotguns, tanks, and airplanes. All these modern additions to life in Camelot only serve to reinforce a plot designed to unite two lovers. Like the other adaptations of Twain's famous 1889 novel, this film takes some license with details from its source. Rogers' Yankee is wry and unassuming; Loy's Morgan is drawn from the long tradition of the cinematic vamp. In a wonderful would-be seduction scene, Loy forces Rogers to blush bright red--an effect achieved in this black and white film by progressively tinting each frame for the scene a darker shade of pink. As with the other adaptations of Twain's novel, the makers of this film eschew any of the misanthropy in the original in favor of comedy.
Reviews:
Bioscope 1 April 1931: 18-19.
Cinema, Video & Cable Movie Digest 1 (August 1991): 64.
Film Daily 12 April 1931: 32.
Film Spectator 11 (25 April 1931): 11.
Harrison's Reports 11 April 1931: 58.
Illustrated London News 20 June 1931: 1052, 1074.
Motion Picture Herald 21 March 1931: 39.
National Board of Review Magazine 6 (April 1931): 15.
New York Times 11 April 1931: 17; 4 May 1936: 16.
New Yorker 7 (18 April 1931): 75, 77.
Outlook and Independent 157 (15 April 1931): 539.
Photoplay 29 (April 1931): 48.
Picturegoer Weekly NS 13 (22 August 1931): 29.
Retro 12 (November-December 1981): 20-23.
Rob Wagner's Script 5 (30 May 1931): 10-11
Time 17 (20 April 1931): 28.
Variety 15 April 1931: 20, 33.
Additional discussions:
Fetrow, Alan G. Sound Films, 1927-1939. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1992.
The Film Index: A Bibliography. Vol. 1: The Film as Art. 1941. rpt. White Plains, N.Y.: Kraus International, 1988.
Hall, Mordaunt. "An Arlis Sans Monocle." New York Times 19 April 1931: 8. 5.
Hanson, Patricia King, ed. The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States, Feature Films, 1931-1940. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
Harty, Kevin J. "Camelot Twice Removed: Knightriders and the Film Versions of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court." In Kevin J. Harty, ed. Cinema Arthuriana, Essays on Arthurian Film. New York: Garland, 1991.
Korsilibas-Davis, James, and Myrna Loy. Being and Becoming. London: Bloomsbury, 1987.
Leonard, William Tolbert. Theatre: Stage to Screen to Television. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1981.
Nash, Jay Robert, and Stanley Ralph Ross. The Motion Picture Guide, C-D, 1927-1983. Chicago: Cinebooks, 1985.
Nowlan, Robert A., and Gwendolyn Wright Nowlan. Cinema Sequels and Remakes, 1903-1987. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1989.
Parish, James Robert, and William T. Leonard. The Funsters. New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1979.
Quirk, Lawrence J. The Films of Myrna Loy. Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel, 1980.
Rollins, Peter G. Will Rogers, A Bio-Bibliography. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1984.
Sterling, Bryan B., ed. The Will Rogers Scrapbook. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1976.
-----, and Frances N. Sterling. Will Rogers in Hollywood. New York: Crown, 1984.
Umland, Rebecca A., and Samuel J. Umland. The Use of Arthurian Legend in Hollywood Film from Connecticut Yankees to Fisher Kings. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1996.
"Will Rogers and King Arthur." New York Times 29 March 1931: 8. 7.
Connecticut Yankee, A (1954).
United States; dir. Fiedler Cook; Kraft Theatre and ABC-TV.
Cast: Edgar Bergen, Sally Gracie, Victory Jory, Jack Livesey, Carl Reiner, and Joey Walsh.
This made-for-television adaptation of Twain's novel emphasizes the farcical turning Merlin (Victor Jory) into a comical character and shifting the scene with the eclipse to the end of the narrative.
Review:
Variety 14 June 1954: 30.
Connecticut Yankee, A (1955).
United States; dir. Max Liebman; NBC-TV.
Cast: Eddie Albert, Janet Blair, John Conte, Leonard Elliott, Boris Karloff, and Gale Sherwood.
On the night before he is supposed to marry Fay Morgan, Martin Barrett meets with his former fiancée, Alice Carter. When she discovers the two together, the enraged Fay knocks Martin unconscious with a bottle of champagne. While knocked out, he dreams he is in King Arthur's court, where he rescues the Lady Alisande from Queen Morgan Le Fay. This ninety minute production restages Rodgers and Hart's 1927 musical, A Connecticut Yankee, for television. Like its Broadway source, the production takes considerable liberty with Twain's novel and relies upon musical and dance numbers to advance its plot. The musical score and book used for this television production followed those of the 1943 revival rather than those of the original production.
Reviews:
Daily Variety 14 March 1955: 9.
Variety 16 March 1955: 35.
Additional discussions:
Buehrer, Beverley B. Boris Karloff, A Bio-Bibliography. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1993.
Hummel, David. The Collector's Guide to the American Musical Theatre. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1984.
Nollan, Scott Allen. Boris Karloff, A Critical Account of His Screen, Stage, Radio, Television, and Recording Work. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1991.
Richard Rodgers Fact Book (with Supplement). New York: Lynn Farnol Group, 1968.
Shanley, J.P. "Nothing to Be Scared About." New York Times 6 March 1955: 2. 13.
Terrace, Vincent. Encyclopedia of Television Series, Pilots and Specials, 1937-1973. New York: Zoetrope, 1986.
-----. Television Specials. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1995.
Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court, A (1920).
United States; dir. Emmett J. Flynn; Fox.
Cast: Charles Clary, Adele Farrington, Carl Formes, Herbert Fortier, Charles Gordon, William MacDonald, Harry C. Meyers, William V. Mong, George Siegmann, Pauline Starke, and Rosemary Theby.
Wealthy young Martin Cavendish wants to marry his mother's secretary rather than a snooty titled woman his mother has chosen for his bride. One night while reading a book about chivalry, Cavendish is knocked unconscious by a burglar, and, in a dream, he finds himself in in Camelot in the sixthcentury. Thereafter, the film follows the general outline of the events in Twain's novel with abundant contemporaneous touches added to the screenplay. Douglas Fairbanks was originally offered the title role in this film, but he turned it down. As with the other screen adaptations of Twain's novel, this film eschews any of the misanthropy in the original in favor of comedy.
Reviews:
Exceptional Photoplays 1 (March 1921): 2, 7.
Exhibitor's Trade Review 12 February 1921: 1065.
Harrison's Reports 12 February 1921: 26.
Life 77 (5 May 1921): 652.
Motion Picture News 12 February 1921: 1383.
New York Times 15 March 1921: 14.
Photoplay 20 (June 1921): 51.
Times [London] 15 May 1921: 6.
Variety 28 January 1921: 40.
Wid's Daily 6 February 1921: 3.
Additional discussions:
Connelly, Robert. The Motion Picture Guide, Silent Film 1910-1936. Chicago: Cinebooks, 1986.
The Film Index: A Bibliography. Vol. 1: The Film as Art. 1941. rpt. White Plains, N.Y.: Kraus International, 1988.
Hanson, Patricia King, ed. The American Film Institute Catalog, Feature Films 1911-1920. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.
Harty, Kevin J. "Camelot Twice Removed: Knightriders and the Film Versions of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court." In Kevin J. Harty, ed. Cinema Arthuriana, Essays on Arthurian Film. New York: Garland, 1991.
Leonard, William Tolbert. Theatre: Stage to Screen to Television. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1981.
Munden, Kenneth W., ed. The American Film Institute Catalog, Feature Films 1921-1930. New York: Bowker, 1971.
Nowlan, Robert A., and Gwendolyn Wright Nolan. Cinema Sequels and Remakes, 1903-1987. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1989.
O'Dell, Scott. Representative Photoplays Analyzed. Hollywood, Calif.: Institute of Authorship, 1924.
Patterson, Francis Taylor. Cinema Craftsmanship. New York: Harcourt, 1921.
"Special Service Section on 'A Connecticut Yankee in [sic] King Arthur's Court.'" Motion Picture News 26 February 1921: 1673-82.
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, A (1949).
United States; dir. Tay Garnett; Paramount.
Cast: William Bendix, Bing Crosby, Virginia Field, Rhonda Fleming, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Joseph Vitale, Murvyn Vye, Richard Webb, and Henry Wilcoxon.
Truer to the details of its source than either the 1921 or the 1931 films, this third screen version of Twain's novel is, nonetheless, in many ways the least successful of the three. The novel has been turned into a musical vehicle--not based for reasons of copyright on the 1927 Rodgers and Hart Broadway musical--for Crosby, and the plot advances by a mix of song and silly dialogue. Twain's novel was an example of comic genius; this film is anything but an example of such genius. As with the other screen adaptations of Twain's novel, this film also eschews any of the misanthropy in the original in favor of at times clumsy musical comedy.
Revue du cinéma [La Saison cinématographique] Hors série 30 (1948-1949): 212.
Rotarian 75 (August 1949): 42.
Scholastic 54 (13 April 1949): 25.
Senior Scholastic 54 (13 April 1949): 25.
Sign 28 (March 1949): 45.
Time 53 (25 April 1949): 99-100.
Times [London] 21 March 1949: 7.
To-day's Cinema 4 February 1949: 11.
Variety 23 February 1949: 10.
Woman's Home Companion 76 (April 1949): 10-11.
Additional discussions:
Beylie, Claude, et al. "Les 44 films de Tay Garnett." Ecran 57 (April 1977): 27-38; 58 (May 1977): 40-45.
Bookbinder, Robert. The Films of Bing Crosby. Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel, 1977.
Garnett, Tay, and Fredda Dudley Balling. Light Up Your Torches and Pull Up Your Tights. New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1973.
Harty, Kevin J. "Camelot Twice Removed: Knightriders and the Film Versions of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court." In Kevin J. Harty, ed. Cinema Arthuriana, Essays on Arthurian Film. New York: Garland, 1991.
Hirschhorn, Clive. The Hollywood Musical. New York: Crown, 1981.
Leonard, William Tolbert. Theatre: Stage to Screen to Television. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1981.
Maeder, Edward. Hollywood and History, Costume Design in Film. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1987.
Nash, Jay Robert, and Stanley Ralph Ross. The Motion Picture Guide, C-D, 1927-1983. Chicago: Cinebooks, 1985.
Nathan, Paul S. "Books into Films." Publisher's Weekly 153 (1 May 1948): 1907.
Nowlan, Robert A., and Gwendolyn Wright Nowlan. Cinema Sequels and Remakes, 1903-1987. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1989.
Thomas, Bob. "Tay Garnett: A Man for All Films." Action 7 (September-October 1972): 12-16.
Viviani, Christian. "Tay Garnett, 1898-1977." Avant-scène du cinéma 245 (1 April 1980): 97-128.
Umland, Rebecca A., and Samuel J. Umland. The Use of Arthurian Legend in Hollywood Film from Connecticut Yankees to Fisher Kings. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1996.
Wachhorst, Wyn. "Time-Travel Romance on Film: Archetypes and Structures." Extrapolation 25 (Winter 1984): 340-59.
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, A (1952).
United States; dir. Franklin Schaffner; CBS.
Cast: Boris Karloff, Berry Kroeger, and Thomas Mitchell.
This live television production compresses Twain's novel into sixty minutes all but eliminating any hint of the misanthropy of the original. Karloff, who plays Arthur, returned to the role in another 1955 production based on the Rodgers and Hart Broadway musical.
Discussions:
Gianakos, Larry James. Television Drama Series Programming: A Comprehensive Chronicle, 1947-1959. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1980.
Kim, Erwin. Franklin J. Schaffner. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1985.
Klisz, Anjanelle M., ed. The Video Source Book. 16th ed. Detroit: Gale Research, 1994.
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, A (1970).
Australia; dir. Zoran Janjic; Air Programs International.
Cast: (The voices of) Orson Bean, Ron Haddrick, Barbara Llewellyn, John Llewellyn, L. Ostrich, and Brenda Senders.
This animated feature length version of Twain's novel weaves into the original's basic plot an assortment of more contemporary gadgetry. In the final climatic battle, the Yankee routs an army of 50,000 using compressed air and water cannons.
Review:
Daily News [New York] 27 November 1970: 63.
Additional discussions:
Harty, Kevin J. "Camelot Twice Removed: Knightriders and the Film Versions of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court." In Kevin J. Harty, ed. Cinema Arthuriana, Essays on Arthurian Film. New York: Garland, 1991.
Wollery, George. Animated TV Specials. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1989.
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, A (1978).
United States; dir. David Trapper; Once Upon a Classic.
Cast: Richard Basehart, Roscoe Lee Browne, Frederick Coffin, Tovah Feldshuh, Paul Rudd, and Dan Shor.
This sixty minute adaptation of Twain's novel is notable only for its attempt in the final scene to nod in the direction of its source's dark conclusion.
Reviews:
Christian Science Monitor 22 May 1978: 23.
New York Post 23 May 1978: 32.
Additional discussions:
Harty, Kevin J. "Camelot Twice Removed: Knightriders and the Film Versions of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court." In Kevin J. Harty, ed. Cinema Arthuriana, Essays on Arthurian Film. New York: Garland, 1991.
Marill, Alvin H. "The Television Scene." Films in Review 35 (November 1984): 570-71.
"Recycling Mark Twain." TV Guide 20 May 1978: 11.
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, A (1989).
United States; dir. Mel Damski; NBC.
Cast: Rene Auberjonois, Huge E. Blick, Michael Gross, Whip Hubley, Jean Marsh, Keshia Knight Pulliam, and Emma Samms.
Karen Jones, a 1980s African American schoolgirl, falls from her horse, is knocked unconscious, and awakens in sixth century Camelot. To the already familiar assortment of items from the modern world, Karen here introduces Arthur and his court to karate, aerobics, Polaroid cameras, Walkmans, and tape recorders. This silly telemovie, primarily a vehicle for two popular television performers, Gross and Pulliam, scrupulously avoids any of the substantive or controversial issues raised by the novel, despite the fact that it originally aired in a year that coincidentally marked the hundredth anniversary of the publication of Twain's novel.
Reviews:
Baltimore Sun 18 December 1989: 1B, 2B.
Boston Herald 18 December 1989: 49.
Chicago Sun-Times 18 December 1989: 33.
Chicago Tribune 17 December 1989: TV Week 3; 18 December 1989: 2. 5.
Christian Science Monitor 13 December 1989: 10.
New York Post 18 December 1989:60.
New York Times 3 December 1989: 2. 33; 18 December 1989: 2. 4.
Newsday 18 December 1989: 2. 10.
TV Guide 16 December 1989: 53, 120.
Variety 20 December 1989: 48.
Additional discussions:
Harty, Kevin J. "Camelot Twice Removed: Knightriders and the Film Versions of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court." In Kevin J. Harty, ed. Cinema Arthuriana, Essays on Arthurian Film. New York: Garland, 1991.
Knutzen, Eirik. "Michael Gross in a Royal Role." Philadelphia Inquirer TV Week 17 December 1989: 4-5.
Thompson, Raymond H. "The Ironic Tradition in Arthurian Film Since 1960." In Kevin J. Harty, ed. Cinema Arthuriana, Essays on Arthurian Film. New York: Garland, 1991.
Umland, Rebecca A., and Samuel J. Umland. The Use of Arthurian Legend in Hollywood Film from Connecticut Yankees to Fisher Kings. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1996.
Connemara (1989).
France; dir. Louis Grospierre; Lapaca Productions.
Cast: Charley Boorman, Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu, Deirdra Donnelly, Brigitte Marvine, Maurice O'Donoghue, Daragh O'Malley, Steven Rekap, Jean-Pierre Rives, and Hervé Schmitz.
An impetuous young man named Loup is sent by his uncle Mark to fetch his fiancée, Sedrid of the long red tresses. They attempt to remain loyal to Mark who nonetheless discovers that the two have fallen in love with each other. The plot of the film is obviously an analogue--though not a very well made one--to the oft-told medieval tale of Tristan, Isolde, and Mark.
Discussions:
Les Films français. Paris: Unifrance International Film, 1989.
Tous les films 1990. Paris: Éditions Chrétiens-Médias, 1991.
France; dir. Jean Delannoy; Discina International.
Cast: Yvonne De Bray, Jean Marais, Jean Murat, Piéral, Madeleine Sologne, and Roland Toutain.
Patrice brings Nathalie to meet his friend Mark, a recent widower, in the hopes that they will marry. But Achille, a vicious dwarf, has Patrice and Nathalie drink a love potion which causes them to fall madly in love. The lovers, however, find their only unity in death. Delannoy's updating of the legend of Tristan and Isolde, with a screenplay by Jean Cocteau, is for all its brilliance nonetheless tainted by racist ideas that made it acceptable to the Nazi occupiers of wartime France.
Reviews:
Christian Century 26 April 1950: 543.
Cinema 66 (13 February 1946): 20.
Commonweal 47 (12 February 1948): 448.
Film français 23 October 1943: 9.
Kinematograph Weekly 21 February 1946: 25.
Listener 10 April 1986: 32.
Monthly Film Bulletin 13 (28 February 1946): 22-23.
New Statesman and Nation 31 (23 February 1946): 136-37.
New York Times 5 January 1948: 15.
New Yorker 23 (17 January 1948): 62-63.
Newsweek 31 (19 January 1948): 89.
Rotarian 76 (June 1950): 37.
Sight and Sound NS 4 (August 1994): 62.
Theatre Arts 32 (February 1948): 44.
Time 51 (19 January 1948): 104.
Variety 17 December 1948: 8, 22.
Additional discussions:
Armengual, Barthélemy. Le Mythe de Tristan et Yseult au cinéma. Algiers: Travail et culture, 1952.
Auden, W.H. The Dyer's Hand. London: Faber, 1963.
Bardèche, Maurice, and Robert Brasillach. Histoire du cinéma. Rev. ed. 2 vols. Givors: Martel, 1953-54.
Bazin, André. French Cinema of the Occupation and Resistance. Trans. Stanley Hochman. New York: Ungar, 1975.
-----. Three Screenplays. Trans. Carol Martin-Sperry. New York: Grossman, 1972.
Hackette, Hazel. "The French Cinema During the Occupation." Sight and Sound 15 (Spring 1946): 1-3.
Maddux, Stephen. "Cocteau's Tristan and Iseut: A Case of Overmuch Respect." In Joan Tasker Grimbert, ed. Tristan and Isolde, A Casebook. New York: Garland, 1995.
Magill, Frank N., ed. Magill's Survey of Cinema: Foreign Language Films. Englewood Cliffs: N.J.: Salem, 1985.
Manvell, Roger. "Films of the Quarter." Sight and Sound 15 (Spring 1946): 24-27.
Marais, Jean. Mes quatres verités. Paris: Éditions de Paris, 1957.
McMunn, Meradith T. "Filming the Tristan Myth: From Text to Icon." In Kevin J. Harty, ed. Cinema Arthuriana, Essays on Arthurian Film. New York: Garland, 1991.
Nash, Jay Robert, and Stanley Ralph Ross. The Motion Picture Guide, E-G, 1927-1983. Chicago: Cinebooks, 1986.
Paris, James Reid. The Great French Films. Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel, 1983.
Sadoul, Georges. Dictionary of Films. Trans. Peter Morris. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972.
Steegmuller, Francis. Cocteau, A Biography. Boston: Little, Brown, 1970.
Topart, Robert. "L'Éternel retour." In Analyses des films. Paris: Institut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques, [1948].
Vialle, Gabriel. "Trois visages de Jean Cocteau." Image et son 214 (1968): 183-96.
Whithall, R.E. "Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made Of." Film Quarterly [London] Summer 1947: 26-29.
Excalibur (1981).
United States; dir. John Boorman; Orion.
Cast: Robert Addie, Gabriel Byrne, Nicholas Clay, Cherie Lunghi, Helen Mirren, Nigel Terry, and Nicol Williamson.
King Uther Pendragon upsets a fragile peace when he lusts after Igrayne, the wife of his former rival. With Merlin's help, he enters Igrayne's castle disguised as her absent husband and fathers a child, who will be Arthur, with her. Arthur is then raised by Merlin, and Uther is killed, thrusting before he dies the sword Excalibur into a stone from which it can be withdrawn only by the rightful ruler of the land. Arthur meanwhile grows up unaware of his lineage and destiny. By accident, he draws Excalibur from the stone and is proclaimed reluctant king. Eventually he establishes peace in the realm that is ensured by the fellowship of the Round Table. He marries Guinevere, but their happiness is shattered when Lancelot arrives. First cool to each other, Lancelot and Guinevere are soon involved in an adulterous affair that threatens the realm. Merlin himself is threatened by the wily Morgana, Arthur's half-sister, who has for years been secretly plotting revenge for the murder of her father by Merlin and Uther. When an enraged Arthur breaks Excalibur, the kingdom is plunged into chaos as the knights set forth in search of the elusive Grail, many falling into traps set by Morgana. Only Perceval is successful in his quest for the Grail, which he brings back to Camelot to heal Arthur. The renewed king rides forth to reclaim his land and to defeat Morgana and their son Mordred. In the final battle, Arthur kills Mordred but is himself mortally wounded. As Arthur sets sail in a boat captained by three mysterious women, Perceval returns Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake, its magic denied to future generations for all times. Loosely based on Sir Thomas Malory's fifteenth century Le Morte Darthur, Boorman's film is a dark brooding meditation on the Arthurian legend in which Arthur becomes the Grail King. The film has not, however, aged well. It seems now too much a product of its times, dominated by a heavy musical score that is designed to cue audience reactions to scenes sometimes before they occur.
Reviews:
Amis du film et de la télévision 301-02 (July-August 1981): 15.
Cahiers du cinéma 326 (July-August 1981): 61-62.
Casablanca 7-8 (July-August 1981): 79.
Celuloide 331 (January 1982): 15-18.
Christian Century 27 May 1981: 619; 29 July 1981: 774-76.
Times [London] Literary Supplement 17 July 1981: 812.
Variety 8 April 1981: 18.
Village Voice 15 April 1981: 51.
24 Images 10 (September 1981): 71-72.
Washington Post 10 April 1981: F 1 and Weekend 17.
Women's Wear Daily 10 April 1981: 8.
Additional discussions:
"The Art of Excalibur." Starburst 38 (1981): 20-21.
Bartone, Richard C. "Variations on Arthurian Legend in Lancelot du Lac and Excalibur." In Sally Slocum, ed. Popular Arthurian Traditions. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1992.
"Boorman and the Arthurian Legend." Photoplay 31 (November 1980): 40-41.
Borie, Bertrand. "Entretien avec John Boorman." Ecran fantastique 19 (1981): 6-8.
-----. "Table ronde autour d'Excalibur." Ecran fantastique 20 (1981): 70-72.
Bouineau, Jean-Marc, and Alain Charlot. Les 100 chefs-d'Ïuvre du film fantastique. Alleur, Belgium: Marabout, 1989.
Boyle, Sarah. "From Victim to Avenger: The Women in John Boorman's Excalibur." Avalon to Camelot 1 (Summer 1984): 42-43.
Brode, Douglas. The Films of the Eighties. New York: Citadel, 1990.
Brüne, Klaus, ed. Lexikon des Internationalen Films. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowoholt, 1987.
Burns, E. Jane. "Nostalgia Isn't What It Used to Be: The Middle Ages in Literature and Film." In George Slusser and Eric S. Rabkin, eds. Shadows of the Magic Lamp, Fantasy and Science Fiction in Film. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1985.
Canby, Vincent. "Of a Hit, A Series and the Word." New York Times 10 May 1981: D 13.
Chandès, Gérard. "Lancelot dans Excalibur de John Boorman." In Ulrich Müller, et al., eds. Lancelot. Göppingen: Kümmerle, 1984.
Ciment, Michel. "Deux entretiens avec John Boorman." Positif 242 (May 1981): 18-31.
-----. John Boorman. Trans. Gilbert Adair. London: Faber, 1986.
Cine para leer 1981. Bilboa: Mensajero, 1982.
Clegg, Cynthia. "The Problem of Realizing Romance in Film: John Boorman's Excalibur." In George Slusser and Eric S. Rabkin, eds. Shadows of the Magic Lamp, Fantasy and Science Fiction in Film. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1985.
Decampo, M., and F. Vega. "John Boorman habla de 'Excalibur.'" Casablanca 7-8 (July-August 1981): 52-53, 56-57.
de la Brétèque, François. "L'Épée dans le lac, 'Excalibur' de John Boorman ou les aléas de la puissance." Cahiers de la cinémathèque 42-43 (Summer 1985): 91-96.
-----. "Une 'Figure obligé' du film de chevalerie: le tournoi." Cahiers de la cinémathèque 42-43 (Summer 1985): 21-26.
de Weever, Jacqueline. "Morgan and the Problem of Incest." In Kevin J. Harty, ed. Cinema Arthuriana, Essays on Arthurian Film. New York: Garland, 1981.
D'Heur, J.M. and J. De Groeve. "Arthur, Excalibur and The Enchanter Boorman." Studia in honorem prof. M. de Riquer, III. Barcelona: Quaderns Crema, 1988.
Dubost, Francis. "Merlin et le texte inaugural." Cahiers de la cinémathèque 42-43 (Summer 1985): 85-89.
Filme 1981/84. Dülmen: Katholisches Institut für Medieninformation, 1985.
Haller, Robert. "Excalibur and Innovation." Field of Vision 13 (Spring 1985): 2-3.
Holley, Linda Tarte. "Medievalism in Film." Southeastern Medieval Association Newsletter 9. 2 (1983-1984): 13-17.
"Interview with Alex Thompson." American Cinematographer 63 (May 1982): 452, 491-493, 504-506.
"John Boorman Talks About Excalibur." Film Directions 4. 15 (1981): 16-19.
Just, Lothar R., ed. Das Filmjahr '81/82. Munich Filmland Presse, 1981.
Kennedy, Harlan. "The World of King Arthur According to John Boorman." American Film 6 (March 1981): 30-37.
Lacy, Norris J. "Arthurian Film and the Tyranny of Tradition." Arthurian Interpretations 4 (Fall 1989): 75-85.
-----. "Mythopoeia in Excalibur." In Kevin J. Harty, ed. Cinema Arthuriana, Essays on Arthurian Film. New York: Garland, 1981.
MacCurdy, Marian. "Bitch or Goddess: Polarized Images of Women in Arthurian Films and Literature." Platte Valley Review 18 (Winter 1990): 3-24.
Maeder, Edward. Hollywood and History, Costume Design in Film. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1987.
Magill, Frank N., ed. Magill's Cinema Annual 1982, The Films of 1981. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Salem, 1982.
-----. Magill's Survey of Cinema: English Language Films. Second Series. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Salem, 1981.
Nash, Jay Robert, and Stanley Ralph Ross. The Motion Picture Guide, E-G, 1927-1983. Chicago: Cinebooks, 1986.
Nickel, Helmut. "Arms and Armor in Arthurian Film." In Kevin J. Harty, ed. Cinema Arthuriana, Essays on Arthurian Film. New York: Garland, 1981.
Open, Michael. "The Dynamic Principle of Fantasy." Film Directions 4. 15 (1981): 20-21.
Piccardi, Adriano. "Excalibur di John Boorman." Cineforum 21 (October 1981): 39-46.
-----. John Boorman. Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1982.
Pietzsch, Ingeborg. "Gewalt für Jugend zugelassen?" Film und Fernsehen 11 (1986): 24.
Polinien, Gilles. "Le Nouveau John Boorman." Ecran fantastique 18 (1981): 42-43.
Rooney, Philip J. "The Quest Elements in the Films of John Boorman." Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1989.
Purdon, Liam O., and Robert J. Blanch. "Hollywood's Myopic Medievalism: Ecalibur [sic] and Malory's Morte d'Arthur." In Sally Slocum, ed. Popular Arthurian Traditions. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1992.
Schaefer, Hans Joachim, et al. Besonders Wertvoll: Langfilme 1981/1982. Wiesbaden: Filmbewertungsstelle, 1983.
Shictman, Martin B. "Hollywood's New Weston: The Grail Myth in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now and John Boorman's Excalibur." Post Script 4 (Autumn 1984): 35-49.
Stanbrook, Alan. "Is God in Showbusiness Too? The First Twenty-five Years of John Boorman, Our Most Anti-materialist Director." Sight and Sound 59 (Autumn 1990): 259-63.
Tessier, Max. "Entretien avec John Boorman (sur Excalibur)." Revue du cinéma 363 (July-August 1981): 31-34.
-----. "Excalibur." Revue du cinéma 362 (June 1981): 19-23.
Tous les films 1981. Paris: Éditions O.C.F.C., 1982.
Umland, Rebecca A., and Samuel J. Umland. The Use of Arthurian Legend in Hollywood Film from Connecticut Yankees to Fisher Kings. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1996.
Vaines, Colin. "Magic Moments." Screen International 252 (2-9 August 1980): 15.
Verniere, James. "The Technology of Style: An Interview with John Boorman." Filmmakers Monthly 14 (June 1981): 22-29.
Whitaker, Muriel. "Fire, Water, Rock: Elements of Setting in Excalibur." In Kevin J. Harty, ed. Cinema Arthuriana, Essays on Arthurian Film. New York: Garland, 1981.
Yakir, Dan. "The Sorcerer." Film Comment 17 (May-June 1981): 49-53.
Excalibur, the Raising of the Sword (1982).
Great Britain; dir. Dorian Cowland; Whaddon Boys Club Film Unit.
Cast: Adrian Lester and the Members of the Whaddon Boys Club.
Merlin raises the Sword Excalibur from a deep lake. This effort by the Whaddon Boys Club was shot in 16mm and featured Welsh voice-overs for Merlin's incantations.
Discussion:
"Sword Play." Movie Maker 17 (February 1983): 90-91.
Germany; dir. Veith von Fürstenberg; Genée and von Fürstenberg Filmproduktion.
Alternate titles: Feuer und Schwert and Die Legende von Tristan und Isolde.
Cast: Peter Firth, Leigh Lawson, Walo Lüönd, Antonia Presser, and Christoph Waltz
Tristan, a knight of Cornwall, is locked in mortal combat with Morholt of Ireland, who is supposedly invincible. Tristan wins, but at a price. He is seriously wounded. Set adrift in a boat, he washes up on the shores of Ireland where he is found by Princess Isolde who nurses him back to health and with whom he falls in love. He returns home to Cornwall only to be sent back to Ireland by his uncle, King Mark, to fetch home an Irish bride, union with whom is meant to cement a Cornish-Irish peace. When the princess turns out to be Isolde, she and Tristan return to Cornwall and carry on an adulterous love affair. Discovered by Mark, Tristan is exiled, but Isolde follows him and bears his child. Cornwall and Ireland are in an uproar over what has happened, and Isolde agrees to return to Mark in order to prevent further bloodshed Tristan meanwhile becomes an outlaw, and wounded in a skirmish, he calls out for Isolde. Isolde realizes that lasting peace between Cornwall and Ireland is impossible, and she runs away reaching Tristan's side just before he dies. Fire and Sword presents probably the most faithful film version of the medieval legend of Tristan and Isolde.
Reviews:
Continental Film and Video 29 (November 1981): 18.
Das Fernsehspiel im ZDF 44 (March-May 1984): 43-46.
Film-dienst 35 (26 January 1982): 16-17.
Film-echo Filmwoche 47-48 (28 August 1981): 18.
Film und Fernsehen 12. 7 (1984): 35.
Kino [Germany] 4 (August 1981): 33.
Month 14 (November 1981): 388.
Variety 10 June 1981: 18.
Additional discussions:
Brüne, Klaus, ed. Lexikon des Internationalen Films. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1987.
Filme 1981/84. Dülmen: Katholisches Institut für Medieninformation, 1985.
Helt, Richard C., and Marie E. Helt. West German Cinema Since 1945: A Reference Handbook. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1987.
Kerdelhue, Alain. "'Feuer und Schwert,' lecture materielle du mythe." In Ulrich Müller, et al., eds. Tristan et Iseut, mythe europeen et mondial. Göppingen: Kümmerle, 1987.
Kino 81. Munich: Export-Union des deutschen Films, [1982].
McMunn, Meradith T. "Filming the Tristan Myth: From Text to Icon." In Kevin J. Harty, ed. Cinema Arthuriana, Essays on Arthurian Film. New York: Garland, 1991.
Schaefer, Hans Joachim, et al. Besonders Wertvoll: Langfilme 1981/1982. Wiesbaden: Filmbewertungsstelle Wiesbaden, 1983.
First Knight (1995).
United States; dir. Jerry Zucker; Columbia Pictures.
Cast: Sean Connery, Ben Cross, Liam Cunningham, Richard Gere, Julia Ormond, and Christopher Villiers.
The aging Arthur decides to marry the much younger Guinevere, in part to protect her kingdom. The peace of Camelot is shattered though when Malagant tries to kidnap Guinevere, who is rescued by Lancelot, an itinerant knight and n'er-do-well. Lancelot joins the knights of the Round Table and conducts a passionate, though chaste, affair with Guinevere. Arthur discovers them in an embrace and orders them tried for adultery. The trial is interrupted when Malagant's forces attack Camelot. In the ensuing battle, Arthur and Malagant are killed, and Camelot and Guinevere pass into Lancelot's hands for safe keeping. Given that there is no one version of the tale of Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere, filmmakers can be granted some license in their interpretation of that legend. But nothing here quite works. Clearly, Zucker intends his film to be an Arthuriad for the 1990s, but the film fails to capture the spirit of the original legend or to make a case for its contemporary translation of the oft-told story of the Arthur-Lancelot-Guinevere love triangle.
Reviews:
Arthuriana 5 (Fall 1995): 137-40.
Boston Globe 5 July 1995: 27.
Boston Herald 7 July 1995: S3.
Chicago Sun-Times 7 July 1995: 37.
Chicago Tribune 7 July 1995: Tempo 4.
Christian Science Monitor 7 July 1995: 12.
Daily Mail [London] 7 July 1995: 44-45.
Daily News [Los Angeles] 7 July 1995: L12.
Daily News [New York] 7 July 1995: 35.
Daily Telegraph [London] 7 July 1995: 24.
Empire 74 (August 1995): 30.
Entertainment Weekly 276 (26 May 1995): 36; 283 (14 July 1995): 34-35.
EPD Film 12 (September 1995): 49-50.
Evening Standard [London] 6 July 1995: 32, 41.
Film Journal 98 (August-September 1995): 30.
Film Review 297 (August 1995): 64.
Films in Review 46 (September-October 1995): 56-57.
Times [London] Educational Supplement 14 July 1995: SS16.
Today [London] 7 July 1995: 36-37.
Toronto Star 7 July 1995: B7.
Variety 26 June 1995: 78, 85.
Village Voice 11 July 1995: 45.
Wall Street Journal 7 July 1995: A8.
Washington Post 7 July 1995: F1, F6 and N36, N38.
USA Today 7 July 1995: 1D.
Additional discussions:
"Blending Traditional Skills with Computer Technology." In Camera Spring 1995: 3.
Brett, Anwar. "First Knight No Nerves." Film Review 298 [Special Issue 12] (1995): 62-65.
Fhaner, Beth A., and Christopher P. Scanlon, eds. Magill's Cinema Annual 1996. Detroit: Gale, 1996.
Fisher, Bob. "Camelot in Shadows." American Cinematographer 76 (July 1995): 56-58, 60, 62, 64.
Grant, Steve. "Knights to Remember." Time Out [London] 5 July 1995: 22-23.
Levich, Jacob, ed. The Motion Picture Guide, 1996 Annual (The Films of 1995). New York: Cinebooks, 1996.
"'Oh! What a Night It Was, It Really Was, Such a Night!'" In Camera Spring 1995: 12.
Pearce, Garth. "And the Horse You Rode in on." Empire 74 (August 1995): 72-77, 79.
Tirard, Laurent. "Richard Gere sans peur et sans reproche." Studio [Paris] 101 (July-August 1995): 71-77.
Umland, Rebecca A., and Samuel J. Umland. The Use of Arthurian Legend in Hollywood Film from Connecticut Yankees to Fisher Kings. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1996.
Fisher King, The (1991).
United States; dir. Terry Gilliam; Tri-Star Pictures.
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Michael Jeter, Amanda Plummer, Mercedes Ruehl, and Robin Williams.
A radio "shock-jock" is in part responsible for the death of the wife of a professor of medieval history. The professor goes insane and thinks he is on a mission to find the Holy Grail. His quest leads to an encounter with the DJ, both of whom find redemption from their guilt and their pain. Gilliam's film offers one of the more effective modern retellings of the Grail myth, seeing both the professor and the DJ as twin Parsifal-like characters.
Reviews:
American Film 16 (September-October 1991): 50-51.
American Spectator 21 (November 1991): 41.
Atlanta Constitution 27 September 1991: E1; 26 March 1992: G11.
Billboard 104 (23 May 1992): 49.
Boston Globe 19 September 1991: Arts and Film 86; 20 September 1991: Arts and Film 37.
Cahiers du cinéma 448 (October 1991): 74.
Chicago Sun-Times 20 September 1991: Weekend Plus 47.
Chicago Tribune 20 September 1991: Friday C.
Christian Century 30 October 1991: 1009-10.
Christian Science Monitor 20 September 1991: 12.
Cineaste 18 (December 1992): 46-47.
Cinefantastique 22 (February 1992): 55.
Cinefex 54 (May 1993): 93-94.
Cinema, Video & Cable Movie Digest 1 (October 1991): 10.
City Limits [London] 7 November 1991: 25.
Commentary 92 (November 1991): 50-53.
Commonweal 118 (22 November 1991): 692.
Daily Mail [London] 8 November 1991: 34.
Daily Telegraph [London] 7 November 1991: 18.
Empire 30 (December 1991): 20-21.
Entertainment Weekly 84 (20 September 1991): 84; 111 (27 March 1992): 78-80.
EPD Film 8 (November 1991): 38.
Evening Standard [London] 7 November 1991: 41.
Film a doba 38 (Summer 1992): 118-20.
Film en televisie 415 (December 1991): 14-15.
Film Journal 94 (October-November 1991): 57-58.
Filmcritica 42 (November 1991): 507-09.
Filmihullu 2 (February 1992): 40-43.
Filmrutan 34.4 (1991): 41-42.
Films in Review 43 (January-February 1992): 44-46.
Financial Times [London] 7 November 1991: 19.
Guardian [London] 7 November 1991: 29.
Hollywood Reporter 10 September 1991: 9, 11.
Independent [London] 8 November 1991: 18.
Independent on Sunday [London] 10 November 1991: 22.
Interview 21 (October 1991): 38.
Kino [Bulgaria] September 1992: 20-23.
Kosmorama 38 (Spring 1992): 57.
Library Journal 117 (15 April 1992): 136.
Los Angeles Times 20 September 1991: Calendar 1, 15.
Maclean's 104 (30 September 1991): 69.
Mail on Sunday [London] 10 November 1991: 39.
Monde, Le 7 October 1991: 15.
Morning Star [London] 8 November 1991: 7.
National Catholic Reporter 18 October 1991: 16.
National Review 44 (20 January 1992): 62.
New Republic 205 (21 October 1991): 27-28.
New Statesman and Society 4 (8 November 1991): 30-31.
New York 24 (30 September 1991): 60-61.
New York Post 20 September 1991: Weekend 31.
New York Times 20 September 1991: C10.
Newsday 20 September 1991: Weekend 82.
Newsweek 118 (23 September 1991): 57.
Observer [London] 10 November 1991: 56.
People 33 (23 September 1991): 16, 18.
Philadelphia Daily News 27 September 1991: 51, 53.
Philadelphia Inquirer 27 September 1991: Weekend 3, 20.
Goldman, Steve. "King of Comedy." Sunday Times [London] 3 November 1991: 6, 11.
Das großse Kino und Vide Jahrbuch '92. Munich: ProVideo Verlag, 1992.
Grove, Martin A. "Hollywood Report." Hollywood Reporter 5 September 1991: 5; 26 September 1991: 5; 27 September 1991: 12.
Haas, Christine. "Terry Gilliam." Première [France] 175 (October 1991): 88.
Harty, Kevin J. "The Fisher King: A List of Critical Reviews and Other Discussions." In Keith Busby, ed. The Arthurian Yearbook III. New York: Garland, 1993.
James, Caryn. "'The Fisher King' Is Wise Enough to Be Wacky." New York Times 22 September 1991: 2. 13.
Johnson, Kim Howard. "Tales of the Fisher King." Starlog 171 (October 1991): 47-51, 69.
Keogh, Peter. "Happy Grails to You." Chicago Sun-Times 22 September 1991: Show 6.
Kokino, Keith. "From Clown Prince to Fisher King." Mediascene Prevue 22 (May-August 1991): 18-19.
LaGravenese, Richard. The Fisher King, The Book of the Film. New York: Applause, 1991. [Screenplay.]
Lavoignat, Jean-Pierre. "La Quête du fou: une interview de Robin Williams." Studio [Paris] 54 (October 1991): 69-74.
Magid, Ron. "The Fisher King's Logistical Knight-Mare." American Cinematographer 72 (December 1991): 70-77.
Magill, Frank N., ed. Magill's Cinema Annual 1992, A Survey of the Films of 1991. Pasadena, Calif.: Salem Press, 1992.
Matthews, Jack. "On Movies Still a Rebel, Terry Gilliam Mellows Out." Newsday 29 September 1991: Fanfare 5.
McCarthy, Robert E. Secrets of Hollywood Special Effects. Boston: Focal Press, 1992.
Miller-Monzon, John, ed. Motion Picture Guide, 1992 Annual (The Films of 1991). New York: Baseline, 1992.
Mills, Bart. "Fantasy vs. Reality Amid the Madness." San Francisco Chronicle 22 September 1991: Datebook 19.
Morgan, David. "And Now for Something Completely Different. . . ." Empire 30 (December 1991): 86-88, 91-93.
-----. "They're Getting a Terry Gilliam Film." Los Angeles Times 24 June 1990: Calendar 5.
Osberg, Richard H. "Pages Torn From the Book: Narrative Disintegration in Gilliam's 'The Fisher King.'" In Leslie J. Workman and Kathleen Verduin, eds. Medievalism in England II. Studies in Medievalism 1995. Cambridge, Eng.: D.S. Brewer, 1996.
Perry, George. "The Quest for Identity." Sunday Times [London] 10 November 1991: 6. 8-9.
Persons, Don. "The Fisher King." Cinefantastique 21 (June 1991): 4-5.
Sheehan, Henry. "The King of Fairy Tales." Boston Globe 22 September 1991: A7, A9.
Sternberg, Doug. "Tom's a-cold: Transformation and Redemption in King Lear and The Fisher King." Literature/Film Quarterly 23 (July 1994): 160-69.
Thomas, Bob. "Hollywood Finally Embraces Terry Gilliam." Chicago Sun-Times 2 October 1991: 2. 4.
Tous les films 1991. Versailles: Éditions Chrétiens-Médias, 1992.
Wallace, David. "'The Fisher King's' Catch." Los Angeles Times 24 September 1991: Calendar 1.
Willman, Chris. "Tilting at Windmills." Los Angeles Times 19 September 1991: Calendar 1.
Winer, Linda. "Getting Radical About Comedy." Newsday 23 September 1991: 2. 49.
Four Diamonds (1995).
United States; dir. Peter Werner; The Disney Channel.
Cast: Jayne Brook, Kevin Dunn, Thomas Guiry, Sarah Rose Karr, and Christine Lahti.
Fourteen year old Chris Millard is dying from a rare form of nasal cancer. To distract himself as well as to find some courage to cope with what he faces, he imagines an Arthurian world in which he is a squire in search of four diamonds--courage, wisdom, honesty, and strength--which he must find in order to become a knight of the Round Table. A contemporary examination of the theme of the return to Camelot, this made-for-television movie is one of the better cinematic uses of the Arthurian legend. The film is based on a short story written by the real Chris Millard who died in 1972.
Reviews:
Arthuriana 6 (Summer 1996): 115-18.
Chicago Tribune 6 August 1995: TV Week 3.
Daily News [New York] 12 August 1995: 48.
Daily Variety 8 August 1995: 16.
Detroit Free Press 23 August 1995: 5E.
Hollywood Reporter 11 August 1995: 35.
New York Times 11 August 1995: B14.
People 44 (14 August 1995): 15.
TV Guide 12 August 1995: 69, 74.
USA Today 11 August 1995: 3D.
Gawain and the Green Knight (1973).
Great Britain; dir. Stephen Weeks; United Artists and Sancrest.
Cast: Nigel Green, Robert Hardy, Murray Head, Ronald Lacey, Davil Leland, Ciaran Madden, and Anthony Sharp.
A knight clad wholly in green arrives at King Arthur's court challenging all present to enter into an exchange of ax blows with him. Only Gawain, a young squire, accepts the challenge. He chops off the head of the stranger, but the corpse magically regains its severed head. The Green Knight tells Gawain that he has a year in which to discover his home and defeat him, or else he must submit to a blow from the Green Knight's ax. Gawain sets out in the company of his squire to find the Green Knight. He first stumbles upon a shrine of stone on which he pours water. By doing so, he angers the Black Knight who guards the shrine and who challenges Gawain to a joust. Gawain kills the Black Knight and journeys on to his castle where Linet, a young maiden, gives him a ring which when he wears it will render him invisible. At the castle, the widow of the Black Knight decides to make Gawain her new consort, but Gawain is in love with Linet, and the two try to flee. Gawain escapes, but Linet is captured by an evil seneschal named Oswald. The two lovers are finally reunited with the aid of Sir Bertilak. An exhausted Gawain prepares to face the Green Knight only to have him crumble to dust in front of him, and Gawain and Linet ride happily off together. Ostensibly indebted to the anonymous fourteenth century romance, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, this film also borrows heavily from Chrétien de Troyes twelfth century romance, Yvain. But it is one thing to borrow, and another thing to know how to use what has been borrowed. Weeks manages here to reduce great literature to silly cinema. Not content to leave bad enough alone, Weeks remade the film in 1983 under the title Sword of the Valiant, a film that is even sillier than this first version.
Review:
Monthly Film Bulletin 40 (April 1973): 168-69.
Additional discussions:
Berry, Dave. "Stephen Weeks." Film 37 (May 1976): 6-7.
Berry, David. Wales and Cinema, The First Hundred Years. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1994.
Blanch, Robert J., and Julian N. Wasserman. "Gawain on Film." In Kevin J. Harty, ed. Cinema Arthuriana, Essays on Arthurian Film. New York: Garland, 1991.
Elley, Derek. The Epic Film. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984.
Nash, Jay Robert, and Stanley Ralph Ross. The Motion Picture Guide, E-G, 1927-1983. Chicago: Cinebooks, 1986.
Pirie, David. "New Blood." Sight and Sound 40 (Spring 1971): 73-75.
Richards, Jeffrey. Swordsmen of the Screen from Douglas Fairbanks to Michael York. London: Routledge, 1977.
Woods, Linda, ed. The British Film Catalogue, 1971-1981. London: BFI, 1983.
Ginevra (1992).
Germany; dir. Ingemo Engström; Theuring-Engström Productions.
Cast: Michèle Addala, Christian Koch, Serge Maggiani, Amanda Ooms, Zacharias Preen, Gerhard Theuring, and Diego Wallraff.
A young woman, a screen actor who likes to call herself Guinevere, suffers a mental breakdown and then races across Europe torn between her two lovers, Luc, a doctor, and Arthur, a painter. The obvious Arthurian triangle here--for Luc read Lancelot--gets buried in a convoluted and ultimately monotonous plot.
Berlinale Journal 3 (15 February 1992): 18.
Film-dienst 47 (24 May 1994): 20.
Filmwärts 23 (August 1992): 80.
Variety 16 March 1992: 60.
Guinevere (1994).
United States; dir. Jud Taylor; Lifetime Productions.
Cast: Brid Brennan, Sheryl Lee, Donald Pleasance, and Noah Wyle.
The young Guinevere has had the kind of education usually reserved for a man. She can fight with a sword and negotiate skillfully. When her father meets an untimely death, she is thrust into the role of ruler which requires her to abandon her affection for Lancelot. This made-for-cable-television retelling of the legend of Arthur as "her"-story is based on the series of popular novels written during the 1980s by Persia Woolley.
In medieval Iceland, two rival tribes continue their long standing family feud. Trausti, a young warrior, kills the leader of the rival tribe, whose daughter Isold vows revenge. A powerful bishop tries to arrange a marriage between Trausti and Isold, but the two are not united before their familial feud plays itself out further in death and bloodshed. Gunnlaugsson here resets the story of Tristan and Isolde in his native Iceland.
Reviews:
Boston Globe 24 May 1990: 84.
Chaplin 219 (December 1988): 308-09.
Daily News [New York] 12 July 1991: 55.
Filmrutan 31.4 (1988): 35-36.
Hollywood Reporter 9 October 1990: 11, 151.
New York Newsday 12 July 1991: 71.
New York Post 12 July 1991: 29.
New York Times 13 July 1991: 12.
San Francisco Chronicle 31 August 1990: E7.
San Francisco Examiner 31 August 1990: C7.
Variety 19 October 1988: 249, 255.
Village Voice 23 July 1991: 63.
Washington Post 18 January 1991: Weekend 40; 19 January 1991: C11.
Additional discussions:
Cowie, Peter, ed. Le Cinéma des pays nordiques. Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou, 1990.
-----, ed. Variety International Film Guide 1989. New York: Zoetrope, 1988.
-----, ed. Variety International Film Guide 1990. Hollywood, Calif.: Samuel French, 1989.
Fridgeirsson, Asgeir. "The Bishop and the Actor." Iceland Review 29.3 (191): 37-40.
Hansen, Peter Risby. "Blandt vildmænd, drøommere og barske businessfolk." Kosmorama 184 (Summer 1988): 43-47.
Icelandic Films 1979-1988. Reykjavik: Icelandic Film Fund, 1988.
Jónsdóttir, Solveig K. "Once Upon a Time in the North." Iceland Review 25.4 (1987): 4-11.
The Motion Picture Guide: 1989 Annual (The Films of 1988). Evanston, Ill.: Cinebooks, 1989.
Swedish Film Institute Film Catalogue. Stockholm: Swedish Film Institute, 1989.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).
United States; dir. Steven Spielberg; Paramount.
Cast: Sean Connery, Alison Doody, Denholm Elliott, Harrison Ford, Julian Glover, River Phoenix, and John Rhys-Davies.
Archaeologist Indiana Jones joins with his father, Dr. Henry Jones, to keep the Holy Grail from falling into the hands of the Nazis. In some ways the most successful and best made of the Indiana Jones trilogy of films, Last Crusade borrows heavily from Joseph Campbell in its approach to myth and effectively combines comic wit with special effects and chase scenes.
Reviews:
Actualité, L' 14 August 1989: 69.
America 160 (17 June 1989): 591.
American Spectator 22 (August 1989): 73.
Boston Globe 24 May 1989: 53, 59.
Cahiers du cinéma 424 (October 1989): 51-52.
Chatelaine 30 (August 1989): 25.
Christian Science Monitor 9 June 1989: 15; 13 June 1989: 11.
Cinefantastique 20 (November 1989): 98-99, 118.
Cinéma [Paris] 460 (October 1989): 27-28.
City Limits [London] 22 June 1989: 19.
Commonweal 116 (14 July 1989): 403-04.
Cosmopolitan 207 (August 1989): 73.
Daily Mail [London] 27 June 1989: 3.
Daily Mirror [London] 30 June 1989: 28.
Daily News [New York] 24 May 1989: 37.
Daily Telegraph [London] 29 June 1989: 16.
EPD Film 6 (September 1989): 24-25.
Evening Standard [London] 29 June 1989: 32-33.
Film [Italy] 1 (September-October 1989): 1-2.
Film Comment 25 (July-August 1989): 9-11.
Film en televisie 389 (October 1989): 25.
Filmcritica 40 (November 1989): 575-81.
Filmihullu 6-7 (June-July 1989): 46.
Filmrutan 32.4 (1989): 30.
Films and Filming 417 (July 1989): 40-41.
Financial Times [London] 29 June 1989: 23.
Guardian [London] 29 June 1989: 21.
Hollywood Reporter 19 May 1989: 4, 13.
Independent [London] 29 June 1989: 15.
Insight 5 (5 June 1989): 57.
Kino [Bulgaria] 2 (February 1991): 28-32.
Kino [Poland] 24 (January 1990): 42-43.
Listener 29 June 1989: 40.
Los Angeles Sentinel 25 May 1989: B8.
Maclean's 102 (5 June 1989): 56.
Mail on Sunday [London] 2 July 1989: 14.
Monthly Film Bulletin 56 (July 1989): 198-200.
Morning Star [London] 30 June 1989: 8.
Nation 248 (19 June 1989): 862.
National Catholic Reporter 25 August 1989: 13.
New Republic 200 (19 June 1989): 28-29.
New Statesman and Society 2 (30 June 1989): 15.
New York 22 (5 June 1989): 58-59.
New York Native 29 May 1989: 25.
New York Post 24 May 1989: 31.
New York Press 9 June 1989: 13.
New York Times 24 May 1989: 3. 15; 14 January 1990: 2. 32.
New Yorker 65 (12 June 1989): 103-05.
Newsday 24 May 1989: 2. 2; 1 June 1989: 2. 13.
Newsweek 113 (29 May 1989): 69.
Nouvel observateur, Le 19 October 1989: 12.
People 31 (5 June 1989): 13.
Positif 344 (October 1989): 70-71.
Revue du cinéma 453 (October 1989): 14-16.
Rolling Stone 15 June 1989: 31.
St. Anthony Messenger 97 (July 1989): 6.
Screen International 3 June 1989: 21.
Segnocinema 9 (November 1989): 36-37.
Séquences 141-42 (September 1989): 107-08.
Sight and Sound NS 3 (January 1993): 59.
Skrien 169 (December 1989-January 1990): 67.
Starburst 11 (July 1989): 24-25.
Sun [London] 27 June 1989: 15.
Sunday Express [London] 2 July 1989: 19.
Sunday Times [London] 2 July 1989: C9.
Time 133 (29 May 1989): 82-84.
Time Out [London] 21 June 1989: 34.
Times [London] 29 June 1989: 21.
Today [London] 30 June 1989: 30.
Variety 24 May 1989: 25; 31 May 1989: 27.
Video Review 10 (March 1990): 51.
Village Voice 30 May 1989: 57.
24 Images 44-45 (Fall 1989): 100-01.
Washington Post 24 May 1989: D1; 26 May 1989: WW41.
Western Mail [Great Britain] 1 July 1989: 13.
What's On In London 21 June 1989: 63.
Additional discussions:
Aronstein, Susan. "'Not Exactly a Knight': Arthurian Narrative and Recuperative Politics in the Indiana Jones Trilogy." Cinema Journal 34 (Summer 1995): 3-30.
Briggs, Nicholas. "Licensed to Crusade." Starburst 130 (June 1989): 8-11.
-----. "Producing the Hero." Starburst 131 (July 1989): 17-19.
Brode, Douglas. The Films of Steven Spielberg. New York: Citadel Press, 1995.
Canby, Vincent. "Spielberg's Elixir Shows Signs of Mature Magic." New York Times 16 June 1989: 2. 15-16.
Eisenberg, Adam. "Father, Son and the Holy Grail." Cinefex 40 (November 1989): 46-67.
Gelman-Waxman, Libby. If You Ask Me. New York: St. Martin's, 1994.
"Great New Indy Special Effects." Popular Mechanics 166 (July 1989): 18.
Griffin, Nancy. "Manchild in the Promised Land." Premiere 2 (June 1989): 86-94.
Heuring, David. "Effects Maestros Put Buckle in Indy's Swash." American Cinematographer 70 (December 1989): 66-74.
-----. "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade." American Cinematographer 70 (June 1989): 57-66.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. [Hollywood, Calif.]: Paramount, 1989. [Production handbook.]
James, Caryn. "It's a New Age for Father-Son Relationships." New York Times 9 July 1989: 2. 11-12.
MacGregor, Ron. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. New York: Penguin, 1989. [Novelization.]
The Motion Picture Guide: 1990 Annual (The Films of 1989). Evanston: Cinebooks, 1990.
Royal, Susan. "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: An Interview with Harrison Ford." American Premiere 9 (June-July 1989): 12-19.
Shichtman, Martin B. "Whom Does the Grail Serve? Wagner, Spielberg, and the Jewish Issue of Appropriation." In Debra N. Mancoff, ed. The Arthurian Revival, Essays on Form, Tradition, and Transformation. New York: Garland, 1992.
Vaz, Mark Cotta, and Shinji Harta. From Star Wars to Indiana Jones, The Best of the Lucasfilm Archives. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1994.
White, Armond. "Keeping Up with the Joneses." Film Quarterly 24 (July-August 1989): 9-11.
Woodward, Richard B. "Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch." New York Times 21 May 1989: 2. 1, 16.
Isolde (1989).
Denmark; dir. Jytte Rex; Norsk Film Production and the Danish Film Institute.
Cast: Claus Flygare, Kim Jansson, and Pia With.
A young librarian finds herself torn between her former husband, a powerful politician, and her new lover, a mercenary solider wanted for murder. When the former husband attempts to blackmail the new lover into committing one more murder, his machinations have tragic consequences for all. Rex here attempts a not-always-successful modern retelling of the legend of Tristan and Isolde.
Reviews:
Kosmorama 35 (Summer 1989): 10-11.
Variety 29 March 1989: 17.
Additional discussion:
Cowie, Peter, ed. Variety International Film Guide 1990. Hollywood, Calif.: Samuel French, 1989.
Kid in King Arthur's Court, A (1995).
United States; dir. Michael Gottlieb; Walt Disney Pictures.
Cast: Joss Ackland, Paloma Baeza, Daniel Craig, Art Malik, Ron Moody, Thomas Ian Nicholas, David Tysall, and Kate Winslet.
Calvin Fuller, a California little leaguer with a low sense of self-esteem, finds himself transported back to Camelot and King Arthur's Court. Once there, he meets a disembodied and befuddled Merlin. The magician has confused a spell that was supposed to bring a great warrior to Camelot to help the aging King Arthur defeat Lord Belasco who wants to secure the throne by any means, including marriage to Arthur's older daughter, Princess Sarah. Calvin meanwhile has fallen in love with her younger sister, Princess Katey, to whom he introduces a variety of modern gadgets. Eventually, Calvin, now known as Sir Calvin of Reseda, defeats Belasco and helps Arthur restore order to Camelot. A now self-assured Calvin returns to the twentieth century and hits a home run. One of three recent film adaptations of Twain's famous novel to recast the Yankee as a teenager--the other two are the 1989 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and the 1995 A Young Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court--this film relies on the predictable to advance its plot. Ackland's Arthur is a doddering fool, and Moody returns to the screen as Merlin a second time, having played the role with a more sinister twist in 1979 in The Unidentified Flying Oddball. In an echo of Bernard Malamud's 1952 novel The Natural, Calvin plays baseball for the Reseda Knights. The film's only bright spot is that it counters the largely misogynic Arthurian tradition by having Princess Sarah disguised as the Black Knight help Calvin save the day.
Reviews:
Arthuriana 6 (Summer 1996): 115-18.
Boston Globe 11 August 1995: 49.
Boston Herald 11 August 1995: S6.
Daily News [New York]11 August 1995: 56.
Daily Variety 11 August 1995: 4.
Film Journal 98 (October-November 1995): 33.
Hollywood Reporter 11 August 1995: 10, 35.
Los Angeles Times 11 August 1995: F4.
New York Post 11 August 1995: 42.
New York Times 11 August 1995: C16.
Newsday 11 August 1995: B5.
Philadelphia Daily News 11 August 1995: 51.
Philadelphia Inquirer 11 August 1995: Weekend 5.
San Francisco Chronicle 11 August 1995: C3.
San Francisco Examiner 11 August 1995: D6.
Toronto Star 11 August 1995: D7.
Variety 14 August 1995: 55, 59.
Washington Post 11 August 1995: F6; Weekend 41.
Additional discussions:
Fhaner, Beth A., and Christopher P. Scanlon, eds. Magill's Cinema Annual 1996. Detroit: Gale, 1996.
Levich, Jacob, ed. The Motion Picture Guide, 1996 Annual (The Films of 1995). New York: Cinebooks, 1996.
Umland, Rebecca A., and Samuel J. Umland. The Use of Arthurian Legend in Hollywood Film from Connecticut Yankees to Fisher Kings. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1996.
Kids of the Round Table (1995).
Canada; dir. Robert Tinnell; Melenny Productions and Telefilm Canada.
Cast: Michael Ironside, Malcolm McDowell, Johnny Morina, and Ren Simard.
A group of children, whose leader, Alex, is an Arthurian enthusiast, are terrorized by three bullies. Alex stumbles upon Excalibur while running through the woods to escape the bullies and meets Merlin. Warned to use the power of Excalibur only for good, Alex summons its power to defeat a new boy in town, Luke, with whom Alex's girlfriend, Jenny, has fallen in love. Alex looses Excalibur and Merlin's counsel, but finds both restored when he single-handedly captures three armed bank robbers who hold his friends hostage. This film attempts to trade on the image of the return of Arthur, but the acting is terrible; the plot drags. Even children, the intended audience here, are likely to find the film boring.
Great Britain; dir. Sidney Hayers, Patrick Jackson, and Patrick Sasdy; Heritage Enterprises.
Alternate title: Arthur of the Britons.
Cast: Brian Blessed, Peter Firth, Michael Gothard, Oliver Tobias, and Jack Watson.
The Celtic warrior Arthur fights Saxons, Picts and Jutes, as well as King Mark of Cornwall, to protect his people and the integrity of his homeland. Never commercially released, this film is really just a cobbled together videotape version of three episodes of Arthur of the Britons, a British television series that aired in England on the Harlech Television Channel in 1972 and 1973. The series consisted of twenty four half-hour episodes.
Discussions:
Vahimagi, Tise. An Illustrated Guide to British Television. London: Oxford University Press, 1994.
The Video Source Book 1997. 18th ed. Detroit: Gale, 1996.
King Arthur Was a Gentleman (1942).
Great Britain; dir. Marcel Varnel; Gainsborough Films.
Cast: Arthur Askey, Max Bacon, Evelyn Dall, Vera Frances, Peter Graves, Anne Shelton, and Jack Train.
Sad sack Arthur King, who is obsessed with the legend of King Arthur, finally is allowed to join the army. While in basic training, friends present him with a sword, which he imagines to be Excalibur. When he is posted to the French front, he gains courage from Excalibur and performs a series of heroic deeds, until his friends inform him that the sword is not that of Arthur. The popular Askey brings his comedic skills to this minor piece of cinematic fluff, which is best seen as part of the British war effort.
Askey, Arthur. Before Your Very Eyes. London: Woburn, 1975.
Everson, William K. "Arthur Askey." Films in Review 37 (March 1986): 169-75.
Gifford, Denis. The British Film Catalogue, 1895-1970. Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1973.
Martin, Roy, and Ray Seaton. "Gainsborough in the Forties." Films and Filming 333 (June 1982): 13-20.
Murphy, Robert. Realism and Tinsel, Cinema and Society in Britain 1939-1948. New York: Routledge, 1989.
Nash, Jay Robert, and Stanley Ralph Ross. The Motion Picture Guide, H-K, 1927-1983. Chicago: Cinebooks, 1985.
Quinlan, David. The British Sound Films, The Studio Years 1928-1959. Totowa, N.J.: Barnes, 1984.
Knightriders (1981).
United States; dir. George Romero; Laurel Entertainment and United Films.
Cast: Cynthia Adler, Brother Blue, Christine Forrest, Ed Harris, Amy Ingersoll, Gary Lahti, Tom Savini, Warner Shook, and Patricia Tallman.
A troupe of modern knights joust at renaissance fairs in an attempt to achieve the American dream. Under their leader, the Arthur-like Billy, they squabble and try with degrees of success to combat corrupt police officials and hucksters out to make a quick buck at their expense. Overly-long and having had the misfortune of being released in a limited market at the same time as John Boorman's Excalibur, Romero's film is nonetheless undervalued. It represents one of the better attempts to link the story of Arthur with the American dream.
Reviews:
Boxoffice 117 (4 May 1981): 82-84.
Christian Science Monitor 23 April 1981: 19.
Cineaste 11.3 (1981): 31-33.
Ecran fantastique 19 (1981): 68.
Film Journal 84 (20 April 1981): 13-14.
Filme 10 (July-August 1981): 52.
Films and Filming 334 (July 1982): 38.
Los Angeles Times 9 April 1981: Calendar 1, 5.
Motion Picture Production Digest 20 May 1981: 96.
Nation 232 (16 May 1981): 613.
New Leader 67 (4 May 1981): 17-18.
New York 14 (27 April 1981): 364-65.
New York Post 17 April 1981: 31.
New York Times 17 April 1981: C8.
New Yorker 57 (18 May 1981): 147-51.
Newsday 17 April 1981: 2. 7.
Newsweek 97 (13 April 1981): 82.
Perfect Vision 6 (October 1994): 140.
Rolling Stone 28 May 1981: 51-52.
Screen International 14 June 1980: 18.
Soho News [New York] 15 April 1981: 55, 61.
Time 117 (27 April 1981): 54-55.
Variety 8 April 1981: 20.
Village Voice 15 May 1981: 51.
Additional discussions:
Blanch, Robert J. "George Romero's Knightriders: A Contemporary Arthurian Romance." Quondam et futurus 1 (Winter 1991): 61-69.
Burke-Block, Candace. "The Film Journal Interviews George Romero on Knightriders." Film Journal 84 (4 May 1981): 25.
Gagne, Paul R. The Zombies That Ate Pittsburgh: The Films of George Romero. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1987.
Harty, Kevin J. "Camelot Twice Removed: Knightriders and the Film Versions of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court." In Kevin J. Harty, ed. Cinema Arthuriana, Essays on Arthurian Film. New York: Garland, 1991.
Heimel, Cynthia. "The Living Dead Ride Again." New York 13 (21 July 1980): 46-48.
Martin, Bob. "Knightriders." Fangoria 12 (1981): 17-19, 66-67.
Nash, Jay Robert, and Stanley Ralph Ross. The Motion Picture Guide, H-K, 1927-1983. Chicago: Cinebooks, 1986.
Parish, James Robert. Gays and Lesbians in Mainstream Cinema. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1993.
Seligson, Tom. "George Romero: Revealing the Monsters Within Us." Twilight Zone 1 (August 1981): 12-17.
Weldon, Michael. The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film. New York: Ballantine, 1983.
Yakir, Dan. "Knight After Knight with George Romero." American Film 6 (May 1981): 42-45, 69.
Knights of the Round Table (1953).
Great Britain; dir. Richard Thorpe; MGM.
Cast: Felix Aylmer, Stanley Baker, Anne Crawford, Mel Ferrer, Ava Gardner, Maureen Swanson, and Robert Taylor.
Arthur and Lancelot become fast friends, and their friendship only grows until Arthur refuses to banish the trouble-maker Modred from the Camelot. When Arthur and Guinevere marry, Lancelot reappears and falls in love with the queen. Guinevere in turn falls in love with Lancelot, but their affair is limited to a kiss. Modred, eager for revenge against Lancelot, tries to discredit him. To allay any suspicion, Lancelot marries Elaine who dies in childbirth, leaving him only his son Galahad as consolation. Modred continues to scheme, and Lancelot and the queen are accused of treachery. Lancelot is banished, and Guinevere is shut up in a convent. Modred next plots the overthrow of Arthur, who on his deathbed forgives Lancelot. Lancelot then finally defeats Modred. Those responsible for Knights claimed Sir Thomas Malory's fifteenth century Le Morte Darthur as their source, but the film's real debt is to the American movie western and the Classics Illustrated series. The film's significance lies in its being the first MGM film in CinemaScope, not in any new light it sheds on the legend of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
New Yorker 29 (16 January 1954): 85-86; 62 (10 February 1992): 23.
Newsweek 43 (18 January 1954): 88.
Picturegoer 12 June 1954: 20.
Saturday Review 37 (16 January 1954): 32.
Scholastic 64 (3 February 1954): 27.
Sign 33 (February 1954): 64.
Spectator 192 (21 May 1954): 613-14.
Tatler 212 (26 May 1954): 462.
Time 63 (26 April 1954): 112.
Times [London] 14 May 1954: 8; 15 May 1954: 12.
Today 9 (March 1954): 14.
To-day's Cinema 13 May 1954: 7-8.
Variety 23 December 1953: 6.
Additional discussions:
Carr, Robert E., and R.M. Hayes. Wide Screen Movies. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1988.
de la Brétèque, François. "Le Table ronde au far-west: 'Les Chevaliers de la table ronde' de Richard Thorpe (1953)." Cahiers de la cinémathèque 42-43 (Summer 1985): 97-102.
Dietz, Howard. "The Anomalous Sir Thomas Malory." New York Times 10 January 1954: 2. 5.
Fraser, George MacDonald. The Hollywood History of the World. New York: Morrow, 1988.
Fowler, Karin J. Ava Gardner, A Bio-Bibliography. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990.
Hudgins, Morgan. "Logistics of a Bivouac on the Liffey River." New York Times 22 November 1953: 2. 5.
Knights of the Round Table: A Souvenir Booklet. New York: Al Greenstone, 1954.
Lambert, Gavin. "Actor on CinemaScope." Sight and Sound 23 (October-December 1953): 70.
Nash, Jay Robert, and Stanley Ralph Ross. The Motion Picture Guide, H-K, 1927-1983. Chicago: Cinebooks, 1986.
Quirk, Lawrence J. The Films of Robert Taylor. Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel, 1975.
Richards, Jeffrey. Swordsmen of the Silver Screen from Douglas Fairbanks to Michael York. London: Routledge, 1977.
Smith, Gary A. Epic Films. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1991.
Umland, Rebecca A., and Samuel J. Umland. The Use of Arthurian Legend in Hollywood Film from Connecticut Yankees to Fisher Kings. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1996.
Wayne, Jane Ellen. Robert Taylor. New York: St. Martin's, 1987.
Knights of the Square Table; or, The Grail (1917).
United States; dir. Alan Crosland; Edison.
Cast: Thomas Blake, Yale Boss, Andy Clark, Paul Kelly, George Romaine, and James Austin Wilder.
The leader of a gang of delinquent boys has as his prize possession a copy of Howard Pyle's The Story of King Arthur and His Knights. He and his fellow gang members compete with a rival group of Boy Scouts. The leader of the delinquents is wounded in a robbery and saved by a Grail Knight who appears to him. The delinquents then join the Scouts. The screenplay for this film was written by Scout Commissioner James Austin Wilder, who also played the role of the scout master. This little known cinematic gem is notable for its use of the Grail as a source of healing and its linking of the matter of Arthur with the problem of the proper education of boys.
Reviews:
Moving Picture World 4 August 1917: 849; 11 August 1917: 955-56.
New York Dramatic Mirror 4 August 1917: 18.
Scouting 5 (15 July 1917): 11.
Wid's 26 July 1917: 474.
Additional discussions:
"Boy Scout's Endorsement." New York Dramatic Mirror 25 August 1917: 26.
Hanson, Patricia King, ed. The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States, Feature Films, 1911-1920. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.
Harty, Kevin J. "The Knights of the Square Table: The Boy Scouts and Thomas Edison Make an Arthurian Film." Arthuriana 4 (Winter 1994): 313-23.
Horowitz, Rita, and Harriett Harrison. The George Kleine Collection of Early Motion Pictures in the Library of Congress, A Catalog. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1980.
"Praise for Scout Film." New York Dramatic Mirror 4 August 1917: 24.
Cast: Vladimir Antolek-Oresek, Humbert Balsan, Laura Duke Condominas, and Luc Simon.
Led by Lancelot, the Knights of the Round Table return from their unsuccessful quest for the Holy Grail. Lancelot swears to continue the quest on his own and tells Guinevere that they can no longer be lovers. Lancelot attempts one final assignation with the queen, but changes his mind at the last minute thus foiling a plot by Mordred to catch the two in the act of adultery. Instead, Lancelot attends a tournament in disguise wearing neutral colors but nonetheless distinguishing himself by his skill. Lancelot is, however, wounded in the last joust and rides off into the forest where an old woman tends his wounds. Meanwhile, Mordred has accused the queen of adultery, and Lancelot returns just in time to rescue her, accidentally killing Gawain's brother Agravain. Gawain swears revenge and is killed by Lancelot in battle. Guinevere insists on returning to Arthur, and Lancelot soon returns her to the king thereafter riding at Arthur's side to put down a rebellion led by Mordred. Lancelot is killed in that rebellion, the last word from his lips being "Guinevere." This moody film--generally either loved or loathed by the critics--is Bresson's personal meditation on the downfall of the Middle Ages. The Grail itself is consciously absent from the film, a symbol of the era's apocalyptic loss of a sense of the spiritual. For the general outlines of its plot, the film borrows extensively from the Mort Artu, the final section of the thirteenth century prose Arthurian Vulgate Cycle.
Reviews:
Amis du film et de la télévision 224 (May 1975): 16-17.
Audience 84 (June 1975): 5-6.
Avant-scène du cinéma 408-09 (January-February 1992): 102-08.
