Knights of the Round Table (film)
| Knights of the Round Table | |
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Cinema poster showing Robert Taylor and Ava Gardner
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| Directed by | Richard Thorpe |
| Produced by | Pandro S. Berman |
| Screenplay by | |
| Based on |
Le Morte D'Arthur 1485 book by Sir Thomas Malory |
| Starring | |
| Narrated by | Valentine Dyall |
| Music by | Miklós Rózsa |
| Cinematography | |
| Edited by | Frank Clarke |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
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Release date
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Running time
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115 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2.6 million |
| Box office | $8.1 million |
Knights of the Round Table is a 1953 American historical Technicolor film made by MGM. Directed by Richard Thorpe and produced by Pandro S. Berman, it was the first film in Cinemascope made by that studio. The screenplay was by Talbot Jennings, Jan Lustig and Noel Langley from Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, first published in 1485 by William Caxton.
The film was the second in an unofficial trilogy made by the same director and producer and starring Robert Taylor, coming between Ivanhoe (1952) and The Adventures of Quentin Durward (1955). All three were made at MGM's British Studios at Elstree, near London and partly filmed on location. The cast included Robert Taylor as Sir Lancelot, Ava Gardner as Queen Guinevere, Mel Ferrer as King Arthur, Anne Crawford as Morgan Le Fay, Stanley Baker as Modred and Felix Aylmer as Merlin.
With the land in anarchy, warring overlords, Arthur Pendragon (Mel Ferrer) and his half-sister Morgan LeFay (Anne Crawford) meet as arranged by the sorcerer Merlin (Felix Aylmer) to discuss how to end the bloodshed. Morgan maintains that as she is the only legitimate offspring of the late king, the throne belongs to her, but Merlin puts the adversaries to a test to determine England's rightful ruler. Merlin leads them to Excalibur, a sword embedded in an anvil, and says that according to legend, whoever can remove the sword shall be England's true sovereign. Morgan's knight champion Modred (Stanley Baker) tries in vain to extract the sword, but Arthur removes it easily. Modred accuses Merlin of witchcraft, and a hearing is arranged with the Council of Kings at the circle of the stone. After advising Arthur that he must prove himself worthy of the throne by his deeds, Merlin instructs him to return the sword to the stone.
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