Review Movie the Black Knight Alan Ladd Patricia Medina

"There comes a time in every homo'southward life when he must fight for what he wants most," and with those stirring words the adventures of The Black Knight begins, a motion picture that wonderfully illustrates the dream of Camelot and the heroic platonic, unfortunately, aside from namechecking the likes of King Arthur and Guinevere there isn't much on display here to mark this equally an Arthurian motion-picture show and could have hands taken place at any point during the middle ages. That said let us slip back to the time of swords and gallantry when maidens were all cute, villains all nefarious and heroes always with the win at the end.

The picture's protagonist is a renowned blacksmith and swordsmith by the name of John (Alan Ladd) who works for the Earl of Yeonil (Harry Andrews) but who is likewise secretly in love with his daughter the Lady Linet (Patricia Medina), and this is, of course, a forbidden love what with her being of noble nascence while John of simple peasant stock, but like any star-crossed romance these two are doomed to exist together and we the audition will just accept to put upwards with fourscore-minutes of obstacles being thrown in their manner. The main obstacle being the Earl of Yeonil himself, who walks in on the two lovers while they are passionately embraced, which results in John being sent abroad at the most inopportune time.

Not seen here is the apple tree box Alan Ladd is standing on.

Hollywood Trivia : Actress Patricia Medina was 5' vii½" while Alan Ladd was only five' 6¼" so to create a heroic stature the camera could never show Ladd's feet. If he was stationary he was ordinarily standing on a box or if the scene required walking the other actors were in specially dug troughs or ditches. For everything else, the other actors were required to stand up with their legs apart and their knees bent.

The chief villain of this piece is the Saracen Sir Palamides (Peter Cushing) a Knight of the Circular Table who is secretly in league with the pagan Cornish Male monarch Mark (Patrick Troughton) who desires Arthur's throne every bit well as the extinction of Christianity. To assist in this try Sir Palamides leads an attack of Cornish soldiers, disguised every bit Vikings, against the castle of Earl of Yeonil, killing all inside except the Earl and his girl Linet. The Earl is driven mad with grief and thus is unable to tell Linet that he had sent John abroad earlier the set on happened, this causes Linet to think her lover is zilch only a coward for running away. In fact, John returned in time to meet Bernard (Nib Brandon), the brutish Saracen servant of Palamides, murder Linet'due south mother. This leads to John accusing Palamides' servant of the murder in front of King Arthur (Anthony Bushell), which doesn't go over all that well what with him being a commoner and all, but Arthur grants John three months' grace to prove the accusation or face execution himself.

Who wouldn't trust Peter Cushing?

The noble Sir Ontzlake (André Morell) takes compassion on John and trains him in swordplay and so that he can take on the alternative secret identity of the wandering Black Knight, which they hope to apply in uncovering the plot against King Arthur. Unfortunately, this spy work prevents John from immediately using his newfound sword skills against Palamides and thus his refusal to fight the evil bastard in a duel adds more than evidence of his cowardice in both the optics of Linet and that of the court, but as the heroic Black Knight he is able to rescue the lovely Linet from being sacrificed at Stonehenge.

Note : I'll buy her not recognizing her old lover while wearing his helmet but when he speaks he does zilch to disguise his vocalism, so I call bullshit there.  Also, what's with the short sleeves with his armour?

What follows is your standard medieval adventure with the hero riding all over Christendom to thwart the villains and win the hand of the off-white maiden. In the case of The Blackness Knight, we have a cast of veteran English actors who are more than upwardly to the job inhabiting this bygone era only and then we as well have the very American Alan Ladd every bit the hero and this miscasting near sinks the picture show as he is never once believable as a knight of erstwhile.  Luckily the rest of the bandage do their best to brand up for this defective – Peter Cushing especially fun as the cunning Saracen – and the exciting action sequences and medieval pageantry all get towards making this a rather fun adventure film.

As fun as a night out at Medieval Times.

Stray Thoughts:

• I oasis't seen an thespian more out of place in a period motion-picture show since I last watched Richard Gere in Beginning Knight. Alan Ladd doesn't even attempt to match the speech of his fellow castmates, who all give resonant Shakespearean deliveries and flourishes
• A blacksmith turned sword-wielding hero would rear its head once again in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
• The villains disguise themselves as Vikings past wearing the stereotypical horned helmet, something actual Vikings never wore.
• There actually was a Saracen knight of the Circular Table named Palamedes merely he was no villain as depicted here, in fact, he converted to Christianity and was actually the one to slay King Mark.
• Peter Cushing'southward deaf and dumb henchman Bernard seems rather lifted from Zorro'south sidekick Bernardo, who played at being deaf so equally to spy for his master.
• In literature, black knights were commonly portrayed as villainous figures while this motion-picture show turns that thought on its head.

Notation: For someone called The Black Knight his outfit isn't all that black.

Equally an Arthurian adventure tale The Black Knight barely checks off the boxes for it to be included in that category, aside from Rex Arthur, Guinevere and a barely mentioned Lancelot there isn't much to tie this movie to the stories of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, and they even took the noble Saracen Palamedes and turned him into a villain. At present, this kind of re-writing of history, fiction or not, was certainly aught new to Hollywood but I'd hate to remember Palamedes having brown peel had anything to do with the decision in making him the villain, but being this motion picture was fabricated in the 50s I wouldn't be at all surprised if that were the case.

Overall, The Blackness Knight is a passable medieval adventure flick, one that fans of the genre will most likely enjoy, sadly is the fact that it will be more remembered for the strange casting pick of Alan Ladd rather than for its activity and pageantry.

Alan Ladd in "This Sword for Hire."

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Source: http://mikesmoviecave.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-black-knight-1954-review.html

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