MovieChat Forums > Prince Valiant (1954) Discussion > similar movies?

similar movies?

posted 13 years ago by HolyDamnation666
5 replies | jump to latest

Can anyone recommend similar movies made during and between the 50s and 80s please?

[–] bebop63-1 13 years ago

If you mean similar in terms of knights, swordfights and such, here are some that come to mind:

1. The Black Shield of Falworth (1954) - starring Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh
2. Knights of the Round Table (1953)- Robert Taylor and Ava Gardner
3. Ivanhoe (1952) - Robert Taylor and Elizabeth Taylor
4. Sword of Lancelot (1963) - Cornel Wilde and Jean Wallace
5. Camelot (1967) - the musical starring Richard Harris and Vanessa Redgrave
6. Perceval (1979) - French film starring Fabrice Lucchini
7. Excalibur (1981)- Nigel Terry and Nicole Williamson
8. First Knight (1995) - Richard Gere, Julia Ormond, Sean Connery
9. Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1984)- Miles O'Keefe
10. Merlin (1998) - Sam Neill

Apparently there was another version of Prince Valiant made in 1997, but have yet to see this one.

[–] Jason_Radley 11 years ago

There's also the diabolical 1954 Black Knight with Alan Ladd, and the 1952 The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men with Richard Todd.

[–] [email protected] (1640) 6 months ago

Thanks guys! I will look for all of your recommended films!

[–] SceneByScene 9 years ago

It might be worthwhile suggesting 'The Vikings' (1958). It's not similar in style - it's far more violent and 'dark' in tone than this more lightweight 1954 film - but it is similar in these respects :
(a) like the 1954 'Prince Valiant' it is also (of course! 😆) about Vikings
(b) it also stars Janet Leigh as the love interest
(c) interestingly, it stars Tony Curtis - Leigh's then-husband - as the young hero
(d) the lead role/hero also has a decidedly un-Viking & un-British accent! 😊
(e) it was made only 4 years after 'Prince Valiant'

By the way, I have come across 2 later production of the same title:
(i) the 1997 film, also entitled 'Prince Valiant' (www.imdb.com/title/tt0119947/)
&
(ii) the 1991-1994 TV series, entitled 'The Legend of Prince Valiant' (www.imdb.com/title/tt0101171/). This is an animation, not live-action.
These are both based on exactly the same comic strip as this 1954 Robert Wagner film, as created by the renowned Hal Foster.
Sadly it is very difficult to get hold of either of these later versions of Hal Foster's comic strip. I have searched to hire both titles, but not even the DVD hire company LoveFilm at Amazon stock it; they only have a tiny part of the TV series, & do not stock the film at all. Shame 😞: it would have been nice to be able to compare & contrast the 3 adaptations!

from SceneByScene (UK) . . . I  films and Freeview TV! 

[–] Vortimer 9 years ago

The Vikings, as mentioned above, is probably the best of this style of film. Kirk Douglas was always better as a villain rather than a hero IMHO and in the Vikings he turns up the Evil Kirk to 11.
There's also 1964's The Long Ships, which somehow I've never seen, Quentin Durward 1955 - Robert Taylor doing another solid turn as a Sir Walter Scott hero with the short lived, jaw droppingly beautiful Kay Kendell as the heroine.
Then there's The War Lord 1964 a somewhat grim medieval film starring Charlton Heston (who's also in the never-ending epic El Cid of course) though this is almost a revisionist take on the middle ages, rather than a Victorian idealized Medieval painting brought to life in Technicolor.
If you want the worst of the bunch there's 1963's cheapie Siege Of The Saxons. It's really, really bad.