The Black Knight (1954)

During King Arthur's time, a sword maker wishes to win Lady Linet's heart but first he must become a noble knight.

Director:

Tay Garnett

Writers:

Alec Coppel (original screenplay), Dennis O'Keefe (additional dialogue)

Stars:

Alan Ladd, Patricia Medina, André Morell

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Alan Ladd	...	John
Patricia Medina	...	Linet
André Morell	...	Sir Ontzlake (as Andre Morell)
Harry Andrews	...	Earl Of Yeonil
Peter Cushing	...	Sir Palamides
Anthony Bushell	...	King Arthur
Laurence Naismith	...	Major Domo
Patrick Troughton	...	King Mark
Bill Brandon	...	Bernard
Ronald Adam	...	The Abbot
Basil Appleby	...	Sir Hal
Thomas Moore	...	The Apprentice
Jean Lodge	...	Queen Guenevere
Pauline Jameson	...	Lady Yeonil
John Kelly	...	The Woodchopper

Storyline

As a blacksmith John can't hope to win the hand of Linet, daughter of the Earl of Yeonil. Off he goes to prove himself a noble knight. He makes himself a suit of armor with a winged chicken helmet and runs around fighting for King Arthur as the Black Knight. Evil doings include plots by visiting kings and a Druid sacrificial ceremony at Stonehenge.

---

Plot Keywords:

king | knight | king arthur | sword duel | arthurian legend | 

---

Taglines:

Alan Ladd's greatest ! Bigger than ever ! Better than ever ! Bolder than ever !

---

Genres:

Adventure | History

---

Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 August 1954 (UK)

Also Known As:

El caballero negro

Filming Locations:

Black Park, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$1,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warwick Film Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

85 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Opening credits: Any resemblance of characters in this story to any persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

---

Goofs

In the battle at the church, when the stair and balcony railings are on fire, a combatant is knocked through a balcony railing and it breaks cleanly, revealing a straight sawed cut nearly all the way through it.

---

Crazy Credits

Opening credits prologue: The Earl of Yeonil's Castle.

---

Connections

Referenced in Cubby Broccoli: The Man Behind Bond (2000)

---

Soundtracks

Ballad:
The Bold, Black Knight"
Music by Leo Maguire
Lyrics composed and sung by Elton Hayes

User Reviews

One of the all time worst

OK this is supposed to be a kiddie matinée flick but its appallingly bad, even for medieval sword movies. Apart from the obvious anachronisms which one can probably accept in a fantasy (a saracen at king arthur's court and a viking/druid/saracen alliance) we have two things that lift it to the very highest of bad movie standards: (a) an awful lot of the action scenes appear to be stock footage from another film, possibly a Spanish one given that the backgrounds don't look like England at all. It looks as if the plot was fitted around this hence the whole druid sacrifice scene which makes no sense at all in the film's context. All of the shoddy action staging commented upon by other reviewers seems to result from trying to fit new footage to this stock footage. As a result, much of the action makes no sense at all and there are continuity errors galore. The brunette Medina gets fitted with a blonde wig in her druid sacrifice scene so that she'll match with the long shots of the stock footage (obviously a male stunt man in drag)!! (b) Alan Ladd's performance is simply abysmal. He can't act at all and for many scenes he is obviously doubled and you see his double's face several times. Ladd can't even convincingly cut a presence here and just looks awkward - the pint sized star just doesn't have the physical presence that the likes of Errols Flynn (or even Tony Curtis) could give to a role like this.