| King Arthur (Mel Ferrer) establishes the greatest reign England has ever seen, and along for the ride are his indispensable Knights of the Round Table, particularly Sir Lancelot (Robert Taylor). Then, Arthur finds himself a bride, the beautiful Guenivere (Ava Gardner). While she loves Arthur, she also loves Lancelot and though Lancelot repeatedly fights it, he loves her, too. Treachery is brewing as the evil Morgan le Fay (Anne Crawford) and her knight Sir Modred (Stanely Baker) work to trap them. So begins the decline and eventual fall of Arthur and Camelot. This movie plays fast-and-loose with the plot and, particularly, familial relations. Thus, Mordred, who in Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur is the son of Arthur and therefore nephew of Morgan le Fay, is here having an affair with her. Additionally, owing to censorship in the early fifties, the theme of adultery had to be approached only tangentially. The result is a little confusing, but on the whole entertaining, in the same tradition as Robert Taylor's Ivanhoe, of the previous year. |
