Directed by Joshua Logan. Written by Alan Jay Lerner, based on his play.

King Arthur

• Merlyn, why have you never taught me love and marriage?

• Proposition: It's far better to be alive than to be dead.

• [singing] And -what of teaching me by turning me to animal and bird,
  From beaver to the smallest bobolink!
  I should have had a -whirl
  At changing to a girl,
  To learn the way the creatures think!

• Merlyn told me once: Never be too disturbed if you don't understand what a woman is thinking. They don't do it often.

• I dreamed ... I dreamed.

• All we've been through, for nothing but an idea! Something that you cannot taste, smell, or feel; without substance, life, reality, memory.

• I love them and they answer me with pain and torment. Be it sin or not sin, they betray me in their hearts and that's far sin enough. I can feel it in their eyes, I can feel it when they speak, and they must pay for it and be punished. I shall not be wounded and not return it in kind! I'm through with feeble hoping! I demand a man's vengeance! [Calming down] Proposition: I'm a king, not a man. And a civilized king. Could it possibly be civilized to destroy what I love? Could it possibly be civilized to love myself above all? What of their pain and their torment? Did they ask for this calamity? Can passion be selected?

• The adage, "Blood is thicker than water," was invented by undeserving relatives.

• Merlyn! Merlyn, make me a hawk. Let me fly away from here!

• [singing] Ask ev'ry person if he's heard the story;
  And tell it strong and clear if he has not:
  That once there was a fleeting wisp of glory
  Called Camelot.
  Camelot! Camelot!

• [to Mordred] Far more seasoned rascals than you have polished their souls, I advise you, get out the wax. Better to be rubbed clean than rubbed out.

• [angrily] Mordred, I must remind you that I am a civilized man. With occasional lapses.

Guinevere

• Just when I reach the golden age of eligibility and wooability. Is my fate determined by love and courtship? Oh, no. [Bitterly] Clause one: fix the border; Clause two: establish trade; Clause three: deliver me; Clause four: stop the war; five, six: pick up sticks. How cruel! How unjust! Am I never to know the joys of maidenhood? The conventional, ordinary, garden variety joys of maidenhood?

• [about Mordred]' The one thing I can say for him is that he's bound to marry well. Everybody is above him.

• Must we talk about Mordred? This is the first time in a month that he's not coming to dinner and not having him makes it seem like a party!

Lancelot

• C'est moi!

• I am irritating. I always will be. All fanatics are bores, Pellinore, and I'm a fanatic. Even when I was a child I irritated the other children. I wanted to play their games, but I knew I could not. Even then I was filled with a sense of divine purpose. I'm not saying I enjoy it. All my life I've locked the world out. And, you know, when you lock the world out, you're locked in.

Others

• Pellinore: Forgive the interruption. Anyone here seen a beast with the head of a serpent, the body of a boar and the tail of a lion, baying like forty hounds?

• Mordred: [to Arthur about Guenevere] What a magnificent dilemma! Let her die, your life is over; let her live, your life's a fraud. Which will it be, Arthur? Do you kill the Queen or kill the law?

• Company: [singing] Guinevere, Guinevere.
  In that dim, mournful year
  Saw the men she held so dear
  Go to war for Guinevere.

• Company: [singing] Guinevere, Guinevere
  Oh, they found Guinevere
  In the dying candle's gleam
  Came the sundown of a dream.

Dialogue

Arthur: But even the thought, "I'm not thinking a thought" is thinking, isn't it?

Merlyn: Yes, and thinking is the sort of thing you should get into the habit of doing as often as possible.

Arthur: A thousand pardons, Milady. Wait! Don't run. [She stops and looks at him coweringly] Please! I won't harm you.

Guenevere: You lie! You'll leap at me and throw me to the ground.

Arthur: I won't do any such thing. [He takes a step toward her. She takes a step backwards. He stops]

Guenevere: Then you'll twist my arm and tie me to a tree.

Arthur: But I won't.

Guinevere: Then you'll sling me over your shoulder and carry me off.

Arthur: No, no, no! I swear it! By the Sword Excalibur! I swear I won't touch you.

Guinevere: [Hurt] Why not? [Sudden rage] How dare you insult me in this fashion. Do my looks repel you?

Arthur: No. You're beautiful.

Guinevere: Well, then? We're alone. I'm completely defenseless. What kind of a cad are you? Apologize at once.

Lancelot: The next time you traffic with me, remember... you challenge the right hand of King Arthur!

Arthur: I am King Arthur!

Lancelot: What? You... are the king?

Arthur: Almost the late king...

Arthur: But for what purpose? Might isn't always right, Jenny.

Guinevere: Nonsense, dear, of course it is. To be right and lose couldn't possibly be right.

Lancelot: Dap, you are older than I. You know this Earth better than I. I only fell upon it a few hours ago.

Dap: What are you talking about?

Lancelot: Guenevere!

Arthur: We must arrange for your knighthood.

Lancelot: No, sire! Invest me because of deeds, not words! Give me an order!

Arthur: Now?

Lancelot: This moment! Is there some wrong I can right, some peril I can face, some quest I can undertake?

Arthur: Well... actually... there's not much going on today. The Queen and some of her court have gone a-maying.

Lancelot: Gone... a-maying?

Arthur: Well, it's a sort of... um... picnic? They pick flowers and chase young...

Lancelot: Picnic?

Arthur: It's a custom we have here. This is England, you know. And this is the season for gathering flowers.

Lancelot: Knights? Gathering FLOWERS?

Arthur: Well, SOMEONE has to do it!

Arthur: Wrong or right, they have the might, so wrong or right, they're always right, and that's wrong... right?

Guinevere: Absolutely.

Lancelot: If the king grants you clemency, you shall be banished. If not, you hang.

Arthur: Clemency is granted.

Lancelot: Jenny, I - I love you. God forgive me, but I do.

Guinevere: Then God forgive us both, Lance.

Arthur: Let us say you are accused of burning down a farm.

Pellinore: Whose?

Arthur: Er...let us say, a farmer named...William?

Pellinore: Well, can't see it happening, but get along.

Arthur: Now, Pelly, you claim you haven't. What does he do then?

Pellinore: Well, he keeps his mouth shut if he knows what's good for him!

Arthur: No, Pellinore. He takes you to court.

Pellinore: Ah! And we fight there!

Arthur: No, Pellinore. Look, in the court, there is a prosecutor for Farmer William and a defendant for you.

Pellinore: Oh, I see! I see! And they fight!

Arthur: No. In the court there is also a jury, who decides whether you are guilty or not guilty.

Pellinore: Well, what's the jury got to do with it? None of their damn business in the first place! Any jury finds me guilty, I'll have a whack at every last one of 'em!

Arthur: Then you'd be charged with murder, Pelly!

Pellinore: Well, the ruddy thing's endless! Another jury finds me guilty, and I'll have to have a whack at them! And so on and so on, and whacking and whacking--

Arthur: Oh, Pellinore, forget it! You will never burn down a barn, you will never know a farmer named William and you will never, ever be found in a court!

Pellinore: Not while I've still got my sword I won't!

Taglines

• The Most Beautiful Love Story Ever!

• A whole new world of magnificent musical entertainment.

Cast

• Richard Harris - Arthur
• Vanessa Redgrave - Guinevere
• Franco Nero - Lancelot
• David Hemmings - Mordred
• Lionel Jeffries - King Pellinore
• Laurence Naismith - Merlyn
• Pierre Olaf - Dap