KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE (1953) ** Excellent screenplay is betrayed by atrocious casting. King Arthur (Mel Ferrer) isn't particularly noble, Guinevere (Ava Gardner) isn't appealing, and Lancelot (Robert Taylor) doesn't strike you as dangerous. The only things that save any of them at all is that Gabriel Woolf is even more preposterous as Percival, and Anne Crawford somehow turns the role of Morgan Le Fey into a very dull one. It would all be terribly confusing if you weren't already familiar with the tale. It would be tempting to think that Merlin is trying to turn Ferrer's attention away from Gardner to Maureen Swanson (Elaine) in some ritualistic cleansing of human stupidity. Once Patricia Owens shows up and Ferrer's still stuck on Gardner, the statement is clearly that even sacred magic has limitations, or is wasted on the vulgar. The sets and costumes are cool, and on the rare occasions when they ride horses in knight suits, or clamor around in armour trying to do each other harm, it's usually humorous or entertaining. The problem is when they open their mouths and butcher lines that would work well for someone better. If you seek evidence that well drawn characters maintain their form even under the yolk of amorphous acting, this is your, ahem, Holy Grail. Yeah, see, now you know how I feel.
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