Watch Prince Valiant For Free

I'll tell you why so serious

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

"You can't be serious. SEVEN STARS?"Yeah."Are you serious?? What in this movie is worth seven stars? The acting?"Hey, Janet Leigh and James Mason aren't bad."And which of them plays Prince Valiant? Wait, it was neither of them. It was Robert Wagner, right? How was his delivery?"Not great, but did you see his physical work, leaping around and on horses and wall hangings and swinging around on ropes and all that stuff? Lots of that! That was fun to watch, no?"Granted, he or his stunt double earned his pay. Do you think he did well as a Viking prince, with his coal-black hair and New York-ish accent?"Does that matter? Would you prefer he speak Old Norse with subtitles?"Say, how about Sterling Hayden as Sir Gawain? What accent would you call that? Oklahoma?"Um, maybe Kansas. Let's call it non-traditional casting. Look, these are not historical personages!! There's nothing they "really" sounded like!"How about historical verisimilitude?"Don't use such big words."You realize that King Arthur (or his legend, whatever) and jousting and Viking raiders come from different historical periods over a span of about 800 years?"Uh.."And how about this heavy-handed Christian triumphalism where they decide that since Christianity is the true religion you should have no qualms about burning your enemies to death?"You can't say that's not a contemporary viewpoint."Too true. So, okay, look, what did you really like about this film?"The landscapes were nice."Yes, the Croatian coast is pretty. And?"Some of the plotting was okay."Like the part about where Gawain thinks Aleta loves him?"No. I was thinking of the ring business."The ring with the chess knight symbol on it? Puh-leez."And the big swordfight scene! I have always really liked it. It really gave the impression of guys trying to hammer each other to death with their iron swords, clanging and crashing ...".... beating up each other's aluminum shields...."Yeah! Really crushing them. And the singing sword!"Wait, when you say you have 'always' liked it, when did you see it first?"On NBC Saturday Night at the Movies I think. In 1961 or so."When you were eight?"My inner child is still eight."I should be glad you didn't give it eight stars."Deal with it.

Exiled King of Sandia, whose throne was usurped by force, is given refuge by King Arthur at a secret location; now, the troubled King's green son is anxious to make matters right, leaving the family's hideout and eventually tangling with the elusive Black Knight of the forest. Simpleton epic based upon the King Features comic strip by Harold Foster is beautifully photographed by the esteemed Lucien Ballard, who manages to get a sheen from just about every location chosen. The costumes and castles are terrifically splendid, yet the film's miscasting quickly negates interest in the action. Robert Wagner isn't quite right for the energetic leading role; his perpetually blank look, callow manner, and wooden line readings are often embarrassing...and certainly the black wig does him no favors. Prince Valiant is chosen as squire to Sir Gawain (Sterling Hayden, in an even worse performance than Wagner's) and the two have romantic complications with a pair of sisters (Janet Leigh and Debra Paget, both lovely). James Mason is the mysterious Sir Brack, who may be after King Arthur's throne, but Mason doesn't exude much mystery--with his arch delivery and decadent manner, we know right away he's up to no good, which kills any suspense the plot might have had. The ladies are fun, and the presentation is certainly colorful; otherwise, this "Prince" is a pallid player in the Medieval adventure genre. ** from ****

Fifty years ago moviegoers found that Fox's PRINCE VALIENT was much better than expected, thanks to Henry Hathaway's fine direction and a wealth of good sense from 20th Century-Fox. Fox was still well-taken with their new CinemaScope process that just begged for action and beautiful, colorful settings. This movie excels at all, but it's mostly the rock-solid story of King Arthur and the Vikings that makes it.Screen beauties Janet Leigh and Debra Paget almost never showed any leg in any movie, and herein (sorry) are fully covered as usual. Anyway, it's the men who dominate this story. Robert Wagner is perfect as Valient, and Sterling Hayden is at the top of his form, as is James Mason.Truth is that in the age of comic book movies (2000-2008) Hollywood's cocaine sniffers have no clue how to craft this genre with any classic quality. The secret is to focus on (1) story, (2) character development, (3) spectacular sets and scenery, (4) challenge, redemption, faith, patriotism. The religion and honor in Prince Valient would make today's godless movie industry cringe.These days the focus (if any) would be on animation, choppy editing, almost no dialog, and the usual/identical musical score: vim, vim, vim, vim on a violin while a chorus belts out wordless chants. Boring! Thus films like Jerry Bruckheimer's "King Arthur" -- to name just one, is no longer even a memory, let alone a classic.Treat yourself! Rent "Prince Valient" on DVD.

Artist/Book Illustrator, Harold Foster started his action/adventure comic strip in 1937. The full color strip was a feature of the weekend Newspapres' Weekend supplements, such as PUCK, The Comic Weekly* of the Hearst Corporation's King Features Syndicate(the Copyright owner).PRINCE VALIANT, which also has had the subtitle, "In The Days of King Arthur", prospered from the very start. Mr. Harold Foster's excellent draftsmanship, combined with the use of printed text of story and dialog printed under the illustrations, instead of the use of "Word Balloons" gave the strip an appearance of a History Book that's come to life.Harold Foster was highly experienced at that time as a book illustrator. He also had done illustration for the Black & White Daily Newspaper comic strip adventures of Edgar Rice Borroughs' TARZAN OF THE APES. This was his one and only daily comic strip venture.By the 1950's the Good Viking Nobleman's career was well known, World Wide. It is at this time that adaptation to the film medium became a reality, bringing the Prince home to untold thousands of previously untapped fans, newly brought to the ranks of the Army of Foster's fictional Viking.** The Film titled simply, PRINCE VALIANT, was given the big time treatment. The filming was done in the 3 strip Technicolor Process,widescreen CinemaScope and Western Electric 4 Track Stereophonic Sound. When combined with the finely designed sets of castles, medieval villages, etc., gave an appearance to its scenes on par with Foster's Sunday Color Panels. Supporting the action and giving a fine mood setting opening theme is the beautiful original score by the old master, Franz Waxman(himself).A surprisingly good cast presents the story in a very convincing, almost matter of fact manner.(Like, for example, we all have Singing Swords or know someone who does, right?) The plot line involves treachery, betrayal and the problem of finding out just who is the real enemy.Robert Wagner(with Paige Boy Haircut)portrays Prince Valiant in a most convincing manner. Lovely Janet Leigh is Princess Aleta, Debra Paget(Ilene), James Mason(Sir Brack), Sterling Hayden(Sir Gawain), Tom Conway(Sir Kay)all seen as member Knights of the Round Table. And to preside over the Round Table Boys, we have Brian Aherne as King Arthur.Rounding out this costumer are such familiar names as Neville Brand, Richard Webb, Don Megowan,Donald Crisp and Primo Carnera(!!). My personal favourite character/scene stealer is Victor McLaglen as Val's old Viking Warrior Buddy, Boltar.The plot involves states of war between Arthur's Camelot crew and some of its neighbors, both foreign and on the British Isles. (There is even a scene where Val remains mum when asked by Sir Brack, in front of King Arthur (who was a confident and ally of Val's Family) of the whereabouts of Val's Father, the deposed King of Thule, a Kingdom in modern day Norway.) But even more interesting is the presence of a most dangerous Domestic Enemy in the form of 5th column traitors and spies, who provide the greatest threat to Arthur's benevolent Rule. The leader of this enemy movement is the Black Knight. Evil, treacherous and of an identity unknown, he is the one who presents the greatest threat to peaceful Camelot and the rest of Britain.And if we stop and make some comparisons, we will find this film very relevant to those 1950's post World War II, Cold War Era. For it was the internal vermin who were the most dangerous in the story. Led by this unknown who desires conquest of Britain by using these collaborators; which is just what the U.S.A. and the Western World was facing up to then. The Black Knight(Joe Stalin & successors Bulgonin, Kruscchev, etc.) pay and use Soviet Spies, Home Grown Reds and "useful Idiots" in certain high positions to try to weaken and eventually defeat the Western Powers.It seems that this film had some real meaty underlying themes to go along with its value to the Saturday matinée crowd. Either way, it is a film worthy of investing an evening.* In Chicago's The Herald-American we had PRINCE VALIANT occupying the entire back page of the Color Comics, Puck. Other features seen in the Hearst "funny papers" pages then were BLONDIE, FLASH GORDON, JUNGLE JIM, HI & LOIS, MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN,BRINGING UP FATHER(Maggie & Jiggs),THE PHANTOM, HENRY, BEETLE BAILEY and TIM TYLER's LUCK!** This begs the question: Just what took Hollywood so long in bringing us a Prince Valaint flick?FLASH!! UPDATE! DATELINE January 20, 2011. We watched the film the other night on Turner Classic Movies, in digitally restored condition & Letterbox format. We were very impressed, especially with the depth and magnitude of the photography. This, combined with the action of "When Knighthood was in Flower", led us to wonder if there were plans to release it in the 3 D process.