Pyöreän pöydän ritarit

This film was obviously cobbled together to continue the success of Ivanhoe the previous year. The script has that factitious quality indicative of several hands having worked on it; it is largely a series of loosely linked scenes between the action sequences, with some unintentionally funny effects. Robert Taylor attempting some medieval dancing is one of the awkward moments here. The leads look as if they have been summoned to a costume party, and not entirely comfortable being surrounded by all those capable English actors — Ava Gardner in particular seems unusually bemused.

M-G-M had a production unit in England, so the scenery is authentically lovely in Cinemascope (the first Cinemascope feature not made by Twentieth Century-Fox), with the master Freddie Young as DOP.

The brief cycle of "when knighthood was in flower" films was parodied in The Court Jester with Danny Kaye a couple of years after this film was released, and it is even funnier, albeit deliberately.