Prince Valiant (1954 film)
Encyclopedia
Prince Valiant is a 1954 adventure film
in Technicolor
and Cinemascope
, based on the comic strip of the same name
by Hal Foster. A young man seeks to join the Knights of the Round Table in order to restore his father to his own kingship, and uncovers a plot against King Arthur
.
kingdom of Scandia
- King Aguar, his wife, and his son Prince Valiant - by the Viking rebels led by the usurper Sligon, a worshipper of the old Norse god pantheon. Aguar has since come under the protection of King Arthur
, and once Valiant has grown to a man, he is sent to Camelot
to undergo training as a knight under the tutelage of Aguar's family friend, the noble knight of the Round Table
, Sir Gawain
.
During his wanderings, Valiant witnesses a clandestine meeting between a group of Sligon's Vikings and a black-clad knight. He is discovered, but with slyness and improvisation manages to elude his pursuers. During his flight, Valiant runs into Gawain, and after becoming convinced that Valiant is indeed the son of Aguar and hearing the prince's story of the mysterious Black Knight, who is not unknown to the knights of Camelot, Gawain takes Valiant to his king. Valiant is accepted by the king as a prospective knight, but first he has, like any other knight apparent, to undergo the rigors of squirehood. One of the royal knights, Sir Brack, takes an extraordinary interest in Valiant and offers to train him, but Valiant is instead assigned to Gawain.
Some time later, Sir Brack offers to take Valiant to the place where the young prince has seen the Black Knight in order to backtrack the mysterious figure. Once there, they separate, but shortly afterwards Valiant is ambushed by a group of bowmen and barely escapes with his life and an arrow in his back. Wounded, he stumbles into the territory of King Luke and is taken in by his daughters, Aleta and Ilene. Upon recovery, Aleta and Valiant fall in love, but King Luke disapproves of Valiant's Viking origin and so their relationship must remain a secret for the time being. From Aleta, Valiant also learns that her younger sister Ilene has a crush on Sir Gawain.
Valiant returns to Camelot and discovers to his shock that Gawain, who had grown worried over his squire, had tried to find him and run into an ambush by the Black Knight as well, likewise having escaped within an inch of his life. Some time later, Aleta and Ilene come to Camelot to attend a tournament
held in their honor; as an added price, the winner of this joust will win Aleta's hand. Valiant dons Gawain's armor, who is too seriously wounded to participate, in order to win Aleta, but he fails and is unmasked. But then another contender appears and wins the bout before falling off his horse - and this knight turns out to be Sir Gawain himself. Awakening on his sickbed, Gawain beholds Aleta and falls head over heels in love with her, and out of respect for his patron, Valiant does not dare tell him the truth.
For his act of assumption
, Valiant is punished to being confined to his quarters and attending to his master. But then a mysterious messenger comes to the castle to see Sir Brack, and the same night King Aguar's seal is thrown through the window of Sir Gawain's chambers and lands at Valiant's feet. Realizing that his parents are in trouble, Valiant immediately leaves Camelot, leaving a bewildered Aleta behind. But as he prepares to return to his home, he is ambushed and captured by Sligon's Vikings and the Black Knight, who reveals himself as Sir Brack. Brack has made a pact with Sligon: For delivering King Aguar's family, Sligon will assist Brack in conquering Camelot and assuming rulership over Britain.
Shortly, Aleta, who is unwilling to let Valiant run off, arrives at the scene and is captured herself, and the two are brought to Thule, where Sligon prepares their execution and that of Valiant's parents. However, a group of Christian Vikings led by Aguar and Valiant's old friend Boltar prepare to stage a revolution, and Boltar infiltrates the castle. Valiant manages to escape his cell and team up with Boltar, who intends to assassinate Sligon while Valiant is to give an attack signal to their cohorts once Sligon has fallen. But Valiant is discovered before Boltar manages to kill Sligon, and during his struggle with a guard a false signal is given which makes the Christian Vikings attack too early. Just as things seem bleak, Valiant manages to set fire to several parts of the castle, throwing the defenders into confusion, and eventually slays Sligon in single combat.
Some time later, Valiant returns with Aleta to Camelot and accuses Brack of treachery before the king and the assembled Round Table. Brack calls for a judicial duel
to the death, and despite Gawain's protests and his offer to fight in Valiant's stead, the young prince accepts the challenge and succeeds in killing the traitor with his father's sword after a long and hard fight. Following its resolution, Valiant offers Aleta back to his master, but Gawain stays his hand; during the long period of worry over their loved ones, the old kight has finally come to learn the truth, and he and Ilene have fallen in love with each other. In the end, Valiant is finally made a fully privileged Knight of the Round Table.
Adventure film
Adventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....
in Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
and Cinemascope
CinemaScope
CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...
, based on the comic strip of the same name
Prince Valiant
Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur, or simply Prince Valiant, is a long-run comic strip created by Hal Foster in 1937. It is an epic adventure that has told a continuous story during its entire history, and the full stretch of that story now totals more than 3700 Sunday strips...
by Hal Foster. A young man seeks to join the Knights of the Round Table in order to restore his father to his own kingship, and uncovers a plot against King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
.
Plot summary
The story starts with the recounting of the forced exile which has befallen the Christian royal family of the VikingViking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
kingdom of Scandia
Scandia
Scandia was a name used for various uncharted islands in Northern Europe by the first Greek and Roman geographers. The name originated in Greek sources, where it had been used for a long time for different islands in the Mediterranean region...
- King Aguar, his wife, and his son Prince Valiant - by the Viking rebels led by the usurper Sligon, a worshipper of the old Norse god pantheon. Aguar has since come under the protection of King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
, and once Valiant has grown to a man, he is sent to Camelot
Camelot
Camelot is a castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and eventually came to be described as the fantastic capital of Arthur's realm and a symbol of the Arthurian world...
to undergo training as a knight under the tutelage of Aguar's family friend, the noble knight of the Round Table
Round Table
The Round Table is King Arthur's famed table in the Arthurian legend, around which he and his Knights congregate. As its name suggests, it has no head, implying that everyone who sits there has equal status. The table was first described in 1155 by Wace, who relied on previous depictions of...
, Sir Gawain
Gawain
Gawain is King Arthur's nephew and a Knight of the Round Table who appears very early in the Arthurian legend's development. He is one of a select number of Round Table members to be referred to as the greatest knight, most notably in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight...
.
During his wanderings, Valiant witnesses a clandestine meeting between a group of Sligon's Vikings and a black-clad knight. He is discovered, but with slyness and improvisation manages to elude his pursuers. During his flight, Valiant runs into Gawain, and after becoming convinced that Valiant is indeed the son of Aguar and hearing the prince's story of the mysterious Black Knight, who is not unknown to the knights of Camelot, Gawain takes Valiant to his king. Valiant is accepted by the king as a prospective knight, but first he has, like any other knight apparent, to undergo the rigors of squirehood. One of the royal knights, Sir Brack, takes an extraordinary interest in Valiant and offers to train him, but Valiant is instead assigned to Gawain.
Some time later, Sir Brack offers to take Valiant to the place where the young prince has seen the Black Knight in order to backtrack the mysterious figure. Once there, they separate, but shortly afterwards Valiant is ambushed by a group of bowmen and barely escapes with his life and an arrow in his back. Wounded, he stumbles into the territory of King Luke and is taken in by his daughters, Aleta and Ilene. Upon recovery, Aleta and Valiant fall in love, but King Luke disapproves of Valiant's Viking origin and so their relationship must remain a secret for the time being. From Aleta, Valiant also learns that her younger sister Ilene has a crush on Sir Gawain.
Valiant returns to Camelot and discovers to his shock that Gawain, who had grown worried over his squire, had tried to find him and run into an ambush by the Black Knight as well, likewise having escaped within an inch of his life. Some time later, Aleta and Ilene come to Camelot to attend a tournament
Tournament
A tournament is a competition involving a relatively large number of competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:...
held in their honor; as an added price, the winner of this joust will win Aleta's hand. Valiant dons Gawain's armor, who is too seriously wounded to participate, in order to win Aleta, but he fails and is unmasked. But then another contender appears and wins the bout before falling off his horse - and this knight turns out to be Sir Gawain himself. Awakening on his sickbed, Gawain beholds Aleta and falls head over heels in love with her, and out of respect for his patron, Valiant does not dare tell him the truth.
For his act of assumption
Assumption
In logic an assumption is a proposition that is taken for granted, as if it were true based upon presupposition without preponderance of the facts...
, Valiant is punished to being confined to his quarters and attending to his master. But then a mysterious messenger comes to the castle to see Sir Brack, and the same night King Aguar's seal is thrown through the window of Sir Gawain's chambers and lands at Valiant's feet. Realizing that his parents are in trouble, Valiant immediately leaves Camelot, leaving a bewildered Aleta behind. But as he prepares to return to his home, he is ambushed and captured by Sligon's Vikings and the Black Knight, who reveals himself as Sir Brack. Brack has made a pact with Sligon: For delivering King Aguar's family, Sligon will assist Brack in conquering Camelot and assuming rulership over Britain.
Shortly, Aleta, who is unwilling to let Valiant run off, arrives at the scene and is captured herself, and the two are brought to Thule, where Sligon prepares their execution and that of Valiant's parents. However, a group of Christian Vikings led by Aguar and Valiant's old friend Boltar prepare to stage a revolution, and Boltar infiltrates the castle. Valiant manages to escape his cell and team up with Boltar, who intends to assassinate Sligon while Valiant is to give an attack signal to their cohorts once Sligon has fallen. But Valiant is discovered before Boltar manages to kill Sligon, and during his struggle with a guard a false signal is given which makes the Christian Vikings attack too early. Just as things seem bleak, Valiant manages to set fire to several parts of the castle, throwing the defenders into confusion, and eventually slays Sligon in single combat.
Some time later, Valiant returns with Aleta to Camelot and accuses Brack of treachery before the king and the assembled Round Table. Brack calls for a judicial duel
Trial by combat
Trial by combat was a method of Germanic law to settle accusations in the absence of witnesses or a confession, in which two parties in dispute fought in single combat; the winner of the fight was proclaimed to be right. In essence, it is a judicially sanctioned duel...
to the death, and despite Gawain's protests and his offer to fight in Valiant's stead, the young prince accepts the challenge and succeeds in killing the traitor with his father's sword after a long and hard fight. Following its resolution, Valiant offers Aleta back to his master, but Gawain stays his hand; during the long period of worry over their loved ones, the old kight has finally come to learn the truth, and he and Ilene have fallen in love with each other. In the end, Valiant is finally made a fully privileged Knight of the Round Table.
Cast
- James MasonJames MasonJames Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...
as Sir Brack - Janet LeighJanet LeighJanet Leigh , born Jeanette Helen Morrison, was an American actress. She was the wife of actor Tony Curtis from June 1951 to September 1962 and the mother of Kelly Curtis and Jamie Lee Curtis....
as Princess Aleta - Robert WagnerRobert WagnerRobert John Wagner is an American actor of stage, screen, and television.A veteran of many films in the 1950s and 1960s, Wagner gained prominence in three American television series that spanned three decades: It Takes a Thief , Switch , and Hart to Hart...
as Prince Valiant - Debra PagetDebra PagetDebra Paget is an American actress and entertainer who rose to prominence in the 1950s and early 1960s in a variety of feature films including Cecil B. DeMille's epic The Ten Commandments and Love Me Tender, the film début of Elvis Presley.-Early life and career:Paget was born in Denver, Colorado...
as Ilene - Sterling HaydenSterling HaydenSterling Hayden was an American actor and author. For most of his career as a leading man, he specialized in westerns and film noir, such as Johnny Guitar, The Asphalt Jungle and The Killing. Later on he became noted as a character actor for such roles as Gen. Jack D. Ripper in Dr...
as Sir GawainGawainGawain is King Arthur's nephew and a Knight of the Round Table who appears very early in the Arthurian legend's development. He is one of a select number of Round Table members to be referred to as the greatest knight, most notably in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight... - Victor McLaglenVictor McLaglenVictor Andrew de Bier Everleigh McLaglen was an English boxer and World War I veteran who became a successful film actor.Towards the end of his life he was naturalised as a U.S. citizen.-Early life:...
as Boltar - Donald CrispDonald CrispDonald Crisp was an English film actor. He was also an early motion picture producer, director and screenwriter...
as King Aguar - Brian AherneBrian AherneBrian Aherne was a British actor of both stage and screen, who found success in Hollywood.-Early life and stage career:...
as King Arthur - Barry JonesBarry Jones (actor)Barry Jones was an actor seen in British and American films, on American television and on the stage.-Biography:...
as King Luke - Mary PhilipsMary PhilipsMary Philips was an American stage and film actress.-Biography:Born in New London, Connecticut, she was the only child of Anna Hurley and Charles Philips of New Haven. She was educated in New Haven at what was then St. Mary's Academy. In 1920 she made her stage debut as a chorus girl...
as Queen - Howard Wendell as Morgan Todd
- Tom ConwayTom ConwayTom Conway was a British film and radio actor, and elder brother of actor George Sanders.-Early life:...
as Sir KaySir KayIn Arthurian legend, Sir Kay is Sir Ector's son and King Arthur's foster brother and later seneschal, as well as one of the first Knights of the Round Table. In later literature he is known for his acid tongue and bullying, boorish behavior, but in earlier accounts he was one of Arthur's premier... - Primo CarneraPrimo CarneraPrimo Carnera was an Italian boxer, nicknamed the Ambling Alp, who became the world heavyweight champion.-Biography:...
as Sligon