Prince Valiant (1954)

With the kingdom in peril from the marauding Vikings, “Aguar” (Donald Crisp) sends his son “Valiant” (Robert Wagner) to safety in England where he is to attend the court of king “Arthur” (Brian Aherne). He is welcomed there, but quickly discovers that there is a duplicitous black knight who is consorting with the Norsemen to capture him. Who is this mysterious figure? Meantime, he is assigned to the staff of the gallant “Sir Gawain” (Sterling Hayden) in whom he confides his suspicions of “Sir Brack” (James Mason). Naturally, his mentor doesn’t believe him and in despair, the young Prince tries to sort things out himself. That just leads to his capture and return home in chains. Now he has to find a way to overthrow the usurper and then return back to alert “Arthur” to the danger under his nose. Meantime, there’s a little romance bubbling along with the princess “Aleta” (Janet Leigh) and “Ilene” (Debra Paget) that shows both our knights as rather tongue-tied when it comes to women! There’s plenty of adventure here, Mason is on decent form and Wagner makes for an amiable hero as we build to a denouement that's predicable, but as it includes Victor McLaglen clad in fur wearing a pointy tin hat, is enjoyable to watch. This is a colourful and vibrant action film that I quite enjoyed.