Just perfect...

Fantastic!

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This is probably the best film on the subject, that usually gets boggled up in romanticised legends and Hollywood schmalz and nonsense. The script is very apt and convincing, and the action is thoroughly efficient, never admitting a dull moment and never getting lost in pathetic sentimentality. Jean Wallace as the Queen is alwaýs a difficult character to interpret, but here for once she is not overdone in her wanton weakness or outrageous shamefulness. Cornel Wilde started as an Olympian master at fencing, and this film must have been something of the ultimate realization of his dreams. He makes a very convincing Frenchman, and there are two great battle scenes which alone make the film outstanding. The one thing to object against is the king. Brian Ahearne makes the best of it in a reliable performance as usual, but why has the king to be so old? In another version Sean Connery was equally old, but there is nothing in any legend to imply that King Arthur must have been an old man when he married Guinevere. Both Joshua Logan's 'Camelot' (two years later) and the excellent TV screening of 'The Mists of Avalon' both make the king as young and fresh as Guinevere, and both Arthurs are more convincing. For some reason Morgan le Fay is absent here, Merlin is rather second hand, and Sir Mordred is not given much of a character. Of course, the centerpiece is Lancelot and Guinevere, they need no one else, and their story is quite good enough to give Mordred and Morgan as little space as possible. The highest credit though goes to the script, which actually Cornel Wilde himself was part of besides directing the whole thing himself.

SWORD OF LANCELOT, crafted as Cornel Wilde's gift to himself, shows Guinevere as a strong and determined character—far from an 'etiolated princess …--and her character is also played with brio and charm.From the whole tale, the script picked as characters truly brought out the love triangle—the knight, his queen, and the oldster—and, in fact, only the couple of lovers—the others are too marginal …. Yet this couple of characters who are indeed defined and portrayed are alive and interesting. The score is, on the other hand, conventional and banal.It is not a kids' movie; it's occasionally piquant and playful, a nice French woman at an inn is introduced by her tits. As an adventure flick, it features a tournament and a battle with the pagan invaders, and it ends with the defeat of Mordred.Directed by Wilde, the movie has something sincere and straight and respectable, even a note of originality.

Horrible script, horrible acting. It is true to the 60s in its attempt to make the characters natural and human, mostly coming across as an odd mixture of antiquated language and modern gesticulations and ways of conversing. However, it is interesting in that it is much closer to the story of Tristan and Iseult, one of the sources of the Lancelot and Guinevere story. Lancelot, like Tristan, is entrusted by King Arthur (King Mark) to escort Guinevere (Iseult) to Camelot. They fall in love during the journey, thanks to a soap that Lancelot jokes about as being a magical charm from Merlin (like the love potion labeled poison that Iseult drinks).

Countless versions of the Arthurian legend have been filmed, some with emphasis on the romance, some the action and some the supernatural. This one (produced by, directed by and starring Wilde) virtually eliminates any supernatural aspects (Merlin's primary mystical contribution is the invention of soap!) and focuses on the pageantry, battle and romantic passion of the story. Aherne is King Arthur, whose attempt to unify all of Britain includes the marrying of Princess Guinevere (Wallace.) Unfortunately, he sends Lancelot (Wilde) to collect her and she grows enamored of him before she's even met Aherne. Thus begins the legendary love triangle with Aherne loving Wallace, Wallace loving Wilde and Wilde devoted to both of the others. Amongst this romantic fervor is a healthy dose of clanking warfare as Aherne's army must combat rival hordes including Vikings. There is also a dash of palace intrigue as Aherne's illegitimate son Meacham attempts to pave the way for his own ascendance to the throne. Wilde, though undeniably fit for his age, is way too old (48) for his role. Ostensibly virginal Wallace is as well (40) and 61 years seems like a long time for Aherne to have waited to get married! In any case, despite these glaring oddities, the actors do pretty well with their parts. Wilde has been criticized for his accent, but he did speak several languages, French included, in real life, so it's at least partially accurate. Wallace spends the bulk of her time crying, but does that well. Her character lacks clear motivation at times (and her hair color and costumes aren't always very pleasing.) Aherne is excellent, showing a lot of charisma and assurance in his role (though he is not given a proper send-off at the end.) Meacham is an appropriately weaselly villain. Strangely, he never worked on the screen again after this. Corri has an extremely thankless role as one of Wallace's duplicitous handmaidens. There's also a nice turn by the young and handsome Gregory as Wilde's right-hand man. Gregory turned to sculpting after his brief film career. One drawback to the film is it's rather choppy editing. Entire sections of storyline are skipped over in order to accommodate the warfare scenes. This hurts the human side of the story somewhat as the relationships aren't given sufficient screen time to develop as strongly as one might like, especially with such an unnecessarily wide cast of supporting characters. Wilde really took a chance in producing such an expansive film as this on his own and it was not a particularly strong financial success. Still, there's a lot that's good in it. The scenery is striking at times, the pageantry is vivid, the music is rousing, the battle sequences are violent and engaging and, especially, notably, there are many soldiers put to work, giving the skirmishes a reasonably realistic feel. The carnage in the fighting scenes is fairly strong for 1963. It is, however, preposterous to expect an audience to believe that Wallace, en route to be married to a king, would bathe in the same water, simultaneously, as the knight who is escorting her. And with all the emphasis on soap in the early sequences, one wonders if Proctor & Gamble had a stake in the film! This was made during a time when Wilde was creating most of his own films and starring himself and real-life wife Wallace in them. Somehow, they avoided sticking a bone through her nose and casting her in "The Naked Prey", but she appeared in most of his other projects.