Don't listen to the negative reviews

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

I never thought I'd see the day when the best part of a movie would be Franz Waxman's musical score. That speaks very highly of his surprising music in Prince Valiant, and also very poorly of the rest of the movie. It was as if everyone in the film was a rapper, and then when James Mason opened his mouth, an opera aria came out. He just didn't belong in this movie. It was beneath his talent. Everyone else acted like they were dubbed by foreign actors who didn't know how to construct proper English sentences and were forced to speak in monotone. This was so incredibly painful to sit through, and I thoroughly recommend that no one ever do it. My mom and I rented it together, because she's crazy about James Mason, too. We didn't turn it off, because whenever James Mason opened his mouth, we wanted to hear it. Instead, while everyone else was talking, we talked, too. We spent the entire running time of Prince Valiant pouring generous glasses of apricot brandy and writing out a cast list of the Harry Potter films, if they were made in the 1960s-inspired by how amazing James Mason would have been as Professor Snape. Then, since Prince Valiant still had half an hour left, we made another cast list, if Harry Potter was made in the 1940s.So, my instructions, in case you're ever invited to a party where someone has rented Prince Valiant are as follows: bring a bottle or two of apricot brandy and a notepad. Pick a decade and plan out a cast list of an alternate Harry Potter film franchise, only pausing to look up when James Mason is talking. Enjoy your evening!

Who do you think of when you consider the great Hollywood swashbuckling male leads? Tyrone Power, certainly, Errol Flynn, definitely and Stewart Grainger, probably...but Robert Wagner, surely not. I like Wagner in some of his much later TV roles in "It Takes A Thief" and "Colditz" but he's more wrong here in this part than 2 + 2 = 5. He's too young, too thin, speaks in a broad American accent throughout, for most of the film he's wearing a worse wig than Terry Wogan and moreover has to act all masculine and energetic garbed in what looks like a midi-dress.I'm not familiar with the American comic strip on which this movie was based but Wagner's acting barely transcends its paper-thin origins plus it's only in the last half-hour that he gets to even act up to his character's name. Before he finally mans up and sword-fights the arch villain of the piece for his honour, we see him bested in a river-fight and in a jousting competition, plus it doesn't help that for most of the film his name is shortened to the less-than-intimidating Val.The plot improbably mixing Arthurian knights and Viking villains is nonetheless predictable as are most of the characterisations so you won't need your deer-stalker to work out who the baddie is. James Mason as the designing Lord Brack brings some weight to proceedings and handles a sword far better than I thought he ever could but a young Janet Leigh and Debra Pagett are reduced to simpering decoration if I'm being truthful.There is however an energetic score by Franz Waxman, although why the music during the climactic duel at the end changes to that befitting a Sci-fi movie I've no idea. There's some unsubtle use of back projections and miniatures too but things buck up a bit by the end when the good Vikings storm the castle and Valiant finally steps up to the plate to save the day. Pleasant hokum I guess you'd call it but could have been a lot better with a better-cast lead. Stewart Grainger, where were you?

It can't be helped, but this is great fun. Robert Wagner as the angry brat constantly fighting everyone, the young Janet Leigh as a blonde bombshell with her hair to the bottom in Briton tight dress, James Mason as the total double-crossing villain with hidden agendas, thronging vikings with bulky horns on every helmet climbing over each other in crowded battle scenes with the whole castle on fire, and so on - this is great entertainment, a medieval star wars version with very little difference from the space conflicts, action all the way and ridiculous love complications, which Hollywood always specialized in, and one more impressing castle than the other - this was only two years after "Ivanhoe" and in the same vein but without Sir Walter Scott - this was instead based on newspaper cartoons, the best one certainly, but nonetheless - there is something missing in the dialogue and the human intrigue, a bit too superficial to be credible. The triumph however is Franz Waxman's marvelous music, which adds color and temperament to every scene and actually bestows much of the dramatic effects that the actual film is missing. The one who is out of joint is the director Henry Hathaway, who can't quite get his actors honestly alive. They act like dummies in a costume school play and even hesitate occasionally, as if they don't quite remember their repartee, but that's the only foible. The party could have done with a slight portion humor, but the final battle, when the whole school is torn down by the loud banging of clashing swords, is satisfactory enough for a climax of a good show. Splendid fireworks of the best of cartoons brought on to the screen!

I Know: Robert Wagner's hairdo is sort of unbearable; Janet Leigh's white wig is too much; Valiant's sword looks over-sized; Sterling Hayden behaves like a contemporary New Yorker; it's very easy to imagine who the black knight is; vikings didn't have horns in their helmets; and so on.But somehow I found this medieval story based on Harold Foster's characters entertaining and I even enjoyed it. In fact I think that for 1954 "Prince Valiant" takes the most of Foster's novels about knights and vikings in the times of legendary King Arthur.Good colorful locations, fine settings, good action scenes and a sort of "sticky" musical score that even sounds appropriate help the picture along with an acceptable script and Henry Hathaway's prolix direction.Highlights o the movie are James Mason's convincing villain, Brian Aherne's fine portrayal of King Arthur and a violent and smashing final duel between Valiant and the unmasked Black Knight.If you like medieval costume adventures you'll enjoy this one too.