Camelot (1967)

The story of the marriage of England's King Arthur to Guinevere. The plot of illegitimate Mordred to gain the throne and Guinevere's growing attachment to Sir Lancelot, threaten to topple Arthur and destroy his "round table" of knights.

Director:

Joshua Logan

Writers:

Alan Jay Lerner (based on the play "Camelot" book by), T.H. White (novel)

Stars:

Richard Harris, Vanessa Redgrave, Franco Nero

Won 3 Oscars. Another 4 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Richard Harris	...	King Arthur
Vanessa Redgrave	...	Guenevere
Franco Nero	...	Lancelot Du Lac
David Hemmings	...	Mordred
Lionel Jeffries	...	King Pellinore
Laurence Naismith	...	Merlyn
Pierre Olaf	...	Dap
Estelle Winwood	...	Lady Clarinda
Gary Marshal	...	Sir Lionel
Anthony Rogers	...	Sir Dinadan
Peter Bromilow	...	Sir Sagramore
Sue Casey	...	Lady Sybil
Gary Marsh	...	Tom of Warwick
Nicolas Beauvy	...	King Arthur as a Boy

Storyline

The story of the marriage of England's King Arthur to Guinevere is played out amid the pagentry of Camelot. The plot of illegitimate Modred to gain the throne and Guinevere's growing attachment to Sir Lancelot, whom she at first abhors, threaten to topple Arthur and destroy his "round table" of knights who would use their might for right.

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Plot Keywords:

sir lancelot du lac character | sir mordred character | king arthur character | merlin character | queen guinevere character | 

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Taglines:

Relive the songs. Relive the romance. Relive the music. Relive the drama. Relive the magic. (re-release)

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Genres:

Adventure | Fantasy | Musical | Romance

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Certificate:

G

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 October 1967 (USA)

Also Known As:

Camelot

Filming Locations:

Alcázar de Segovia, Segovia, Castilla y León, Spain

Box Office

Budget:

$13,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$31,102,578

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Brothers/Seven Arts

Technical Specs

Runtime:

179 min

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (35 mm prints) 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Joshua Logan chose Vanessa Redgrave for Guinevere after seeing her in Morgan! (1966). He had to wait several months to get her because she was committed to a play in London, "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie".

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Goofs

When Arthur and Guenevere first meet in the woods, the wheeled base of a film lamp is visible (wide-screen version).

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Quotes

[first lines]
A Knight: The rules of battle are not for Lancelot Du Lac, Your Majesty! Let us attack now while they sleep!
King Arthur: [firmly] We will attack when I give the command - at dawn.
[the knight leaves, and Arthur begins to talk to himself]
King Arthur: Oh, Merlyn, Merlyn, why is Ginny in that castle, behind walls I cannot enter? How did I blunder into this agonizing absurdity? Where did I stumble? How did I go wrong? Should I not have loved her?
[sighs]
King Arthur: Then I should not have been born! Oh, Merlyn, I haven't got much ...
[...]

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Alternate Versions

The "30th Anniversary Edition", released on video in 1997, features the original sound mix as it was originally intended. Because of this, some sound effects and fragments of dialogue previously nearly drowned out by music are now heard distinctly. There is even a section--the comically disastrous, very first meeting of Guenevere and Lancelot, in which we hear offscreen court musicians playing on mandolins, whereas previously this scene was acted without music.

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Connections

Referenced in The Newsroom: The Blackout, Part 1: Tragedy Porn (2012)

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Soundtracks

The Simple Joys Of Maidenhood
(uncredited)
Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
Music by Frederick Loewe
Sung by Vanessa Redgrave

User Reviews

Begging for a remake, but...

Now that movie musicals are in vogue again, maybe somebody at Warner Brothers will give the green light to remake this Lerner & Loewe spectacle that was poorly filmed in 1967.

This version is really a shame, considering how beloved the original 1960 Broadway musical is. Lerner & Loewe wrote some of their best songs for this show: "If Ever I Would Leave You", "Camelot", "What do the Simple Folk Do?" and "Fie on Goodness". But when making the film, producer Jack Warner chose tone-deaf actors, one of the worst directors in the medium, and had Alan J. Lerner rewrite his script, stressing the drama over the comedy (to the narrative's detriment) as well as throwing out half the score (including, sob, the show-stopping "Fie on Goodness"). Richard Harris and Vanessa Redgrave ARE great actors, and in their dramatic scenes, they are quite effective, but they most certainly are NOT singers, especially poor Ms. Redgrave (although, her orgasmic rendition of "The Lusty Month of May" has to be seen to be believed). Franco Nero, a beautiful, beautiful man, has a great opening with "C'est Moi", but then goes downhill from there. David Hemmings manages to bring some mirth to the film, but he's only in the last third, and by that time it's nearly too late (plus, they cut his only song!).

On the plus side, the film DID deserve the 3 Oscars it won: Best Scoring (if you take the voices out, the music sounds magnificent), Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, and Best Costume Design (the flick IS sumptuous). And the cinematography is rather breathtaking at times. (If you do watch it, try to see it on DVD, where it's letterboxed.)

So, if anybody from Warner Brothers, or any other studio for that matter, is reading this, give it another go: go back to T.H. White's original source novel and Lerner's original B'way script, keep ALL the songs intact, and hire actors who are proven singers, say, Ewan McGregor (he demonstrated his pipes in Moulin Rouge!) as Arthur, Kate Winslet (who scored a British top 10 hit last year) as Guinevere, and Hugh Jackman (who got his start in a West End production of Oklahoma!) as Lancelot. Please....