Prince Valiant [Blu-ray]

Before the blu-ray of this mid-century matinee classic gets any more badmouthing from the cellphone generation, let's just say that it's doubtful that anyone would undertake an expensive restoration on a new negative or interpositive of a picture like this just for a blu-ray transfer. That said, it's great to have classic wide-gauge film prints transferred to 1080 line progressive, no matter what condition they survive in, and this early Fox Cinemascope print has seen better days - not to mention the fact that some of the coverage shots were poorly matched even during initial release. Movies like this still deserve high-definition treatment, even if it's from "best available" elements, so I'm frankly quite glad to have it. This picture is a fairly quaint swashbuckler, reminiscent of the kind of grand-scale costume pieces that the Hollywood studios put out to compete with TV in the 50's. The casting is superb and the production design remarkably favors the famous Harold Foster comic strip. The only element that has really stood the test of time is Franz Waxman's stunning score, presented here in a compromised stereo (for pro-logic matrixing), instead of the original discrete 4-track magnetic masters originally used for CinemaScope films. The sound on this Blu-ray does include the original panned dialogue, which is often unfavorably centered on later prints.
This presentation is far more blemished than the nearly perfect print of Universal's THE BLACK SHIELD OF FALWORTH that EUREKA released prior, but I would request that they continue releasing what early, first-year (1953-54) CinemaScope prints they can license. Some good examples would be: THE EGYPTIAN, KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES, BENEATH THE FIVE MILE REEF, DESIREE, GARDEN OF EVIL, RIVER OF NO RETURN, JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, etc., etc.

Prince Valiant is hokum pure and simple, but it's superior hokum thanks to lavish production values, sterling smooth villainy from James Mason and the odd moment of directorial panache from the undervalued Henry Hathaway. Infamous for Robert Wagner's tragic hairstyle - though if you think his Louis Brooks wig is bad, wait until you see Victor McLaglen's pigtails - the star's athleticism is more impressive than his acting as the exiled Viking prince trying to win his spurs in Camelot, the hand of Janet Leigh's Princess and win back his father's kingdom while he's at it. Sterling Hayden's Sir Gawain may be even more miscast than Wagner but he's clearly enjoying himself far too much for that ever to be a problem, which is pretty much the order of the day here. It may tread a familiar path but it ends up being great fun and exactly what it sets out to be - a colourful comic strip movie in glorious CinemaScope, with all he broad strokes and colourful silliness that implies (the Vikings must have used Texas Longhorns brought back by Leif Ericson for their helmets!), mounted with a big enough budget to enable Hathaway to stage a few big action scenes and throw in a few simple but impressive stunts inbetween while Franz Waxman's vividly exuberant score lifts the picture to another level.

Eureka's UK Masters of Cinema Blu-ray is wildly inconsistent: some shots are wonderfully vivid and pin-sharp, others short on detail and subject to colour fluctuation and pulsing, with the grading inconsistently moving from overcast to clear from shot-to-shot in some scenes (most notably the exteriors). This is down in large part to the limitations of the early CinemaScope lenses, which required more light and often lost detail (the lap-dissolves from scene-to-scene show massive deterioration in quality as was commonplace with optical printer work in the 50s and 60s), and partially down to the film not going through any kind of serious restoration, but it's still a massive improvement on the previous DVD issue from Fox themselves, though it's a shame the only extra is the wonderfully over the top trailer pushing the miracle of CinemaScope - `You see it without special glasses' - almost as much as the film itself.

Distant is right, you need binoculars to get close to some of the action in this early 'Scope extravaganza, particularly in its latter half. Derived from a somewhat scholarly comic-strip it promises fun and thrills but is hampered by plodding direction and a general lack of pizzazz though Franz Waxman's score does its damnedest,trumpets to the fore,to suggest flourish, bounce and sparkle. Robert Wagner makes a stolid protagonist as the Viking prince seeking asylum with King Arthur after his father's Christian kingdom is taken over by pagan rebels. Valiant finds friends, romance and secret foes at court - Sir Gawain (Sterling Hayden) begins mentoring him for possible knighthood, Princess Aleta (Janet Leigh) captures his heart but not fully his confidence and the silky-smooth Sir Brack (James Mason), Arthur's illegitimate cousin, schemes to seize the throne with the aid of said pagan rebels. Brack succeeds in delivering Valiant into the hands of his enemies who imprison him with his parents in their castle on the coast. Spearheading a fightback Val slays the pagan leader and returns to Camelot to denounce and challenge Brack in personal combat..

With its all-American guys and gals and polished Brit support it plays like a cross between IVANHOE and one of those high-school football movies where the young hothead and the veteran jock or coach bruise and banter, fall in love with the same girl and sub for each other on the day of the big game though the tournament-scene here with its last-minute replacements is so draggingly handled you feel like impaling someone yourself. The action set-piece against the pagans is a confused if not incoherent milling of bad-guys and loyalists shot from about half-a-mile away so you can't tell one side from another and in almost impenetrable darkness which makes you care even less. It's spiked however by a timely reference to the HUAC hearings in Washington when Valiant refuses to "name names" to his inquisitors. Though Sir Gawain doesn't figure in these scenes Hayden himself, in real life, did just that thing to save his career. The final set-to in Camelot, protocol hurriedly abandoned as broadswords clash and clang around and about the Round Table, is certainly a gripping piece of thud-and-blunder and when it's over Valiant gets his knighthood.

Mason,top-billed,provides the class, hovering discreetly till it's time to reveal his intentions, not too much of a surprise and hardly among his more distinguished roles while Hayden, moustachioed, provides genial muscle and a line "Sire, he crowned me with a rock," when describing to the court his first accidental encounter with Valiant which catches the mix of idioms beautifully and it's a pity the script didn't carry more of them. Brian Aherne as Arthur, Donald Crisp as Val's dad and Victor McLaglen as a loyal Viking are wasted in glorified bit-parts but Barry Jones is amusing as Aleta's father, struggling to marry off his picky child to a socially-appropriate partner. Gawain is initially smitten with her himself leading to a misunderstanding by Val but while she's away being penned-up by the pagans turns to her shy sister Ilene (Debra Paget). The right guys end up with the right gals, Valiant wins his pennant and Fox, no doubt, pleased the fans.