PRINCE VALIANTThe stirring story features betrayals and battles galore, lashings of hearty but not too bloody swordplay which makes it just the ticket for action-loving youngsters and there are some nifty cliff-hangers.
Starring Stephen Moyer and Joanna Lumley, Harold R Foster's celebrated mediaeval comic strip hero first appeared on February 13th, 1937, and briskly engaged in such traditional knightly deeds as slaying dragons and rescuing damsels in distress in world-wide syndication. In 1954 he was woodenly played in a pudding-basin haircut by Robert Wagner and now he returns on film in an epic derring do and dark deeds which is easy-going and entertaining thanks to its engaging tongue in cheek approach and, particularly, to its happy refusal to take itself too seriously!
It's difficult not to like a movie that includes such characters as Sligon the Usurper and such dialogue as, "Nice chain mail," and "Don't tell me the Welsh need a slapping as well," Prince Valiant is an all-smiting, all-swashbuckling tale of King Arthur's court, a comic-book brought to life. Stephen Moyer stars as Valiant, the young squire who eventually discovers that he's a king; Katherine Heigi plays the feisty princess who joins him in love and battle. King Arthur's wicked sister, Morgan Le Fey (Joanna Lumley) teams up with the aforementioned Sligon (Udo Kier) and the loutish Viking crowd as well. This evil lot, all too much makeup and overacting, has stolen Excalibur and let the blame fall on the Scots. Och! War is looming.
Meanwhile, Valiant must accompany a beautiful young princess on her dangerous trip home. He's pretending to be Sir Gawain (don't ask), and keeps his visor down, but sparks fly between the two. Their trip is interrupted by the usual barbaric attacks, which brings Ron Perlman into the plot and also allows the princess to show her stuff with a sword. Another ambush sees Valiant fall into a raging river. The princess, long velvet dress notwithstanding, dives in to rescue him - just as an underwater shot reveals Valiant with the fishes, walking about the river bed, weighed down by his armour. Whatever director Anthony Hickox is inhaling, we'll have some.
The actual plot of Prince Valiant is fun, so from time to time the live action turns into a comic strip to fast-forward events. This would be the comic strip which preceded both Superman and Batman, so the rest is the usual smoke-filled interiors, hairy fighting men, knights in armour, references to the Round Table, fights with giants, encounters with midgets, the requisite harem bathing scene, witch boiling, pitched battles, castle attacks, swordplay and the final understanding that Valiant is the rightful King of Thule.
Prince Valiant is the sort of film you might take young fans of television's Xena or Hercules to see. Actually the title puts us one jump ahead of humble but heroic squire Moyer who only thinks of himself as a squire. We know better and, by the end, so does he, he saves King Arthur's sword Excalibur from the wicked Vikings who swiped it, discovers his identity and, for good measure, gets to save and keep princess Katherine Heigl. Newcomer Moyer buckles a lively swash, Heigl is a feisty thoroughly modern princess and, as befits a German-British co-production, the bad guys are played by Germans and just as heartily meet their just desserts.
The bad woman, however, is well and truly played by English rose Joanna Lumley who hams up her character of evil sorceress Morgan Le Fey. It's good fun (even if It's not subtle as we know it, Jim) and if "Absolutely Fabulous" never returns, Lumley should have a comfortable Christmas career ahead of her as an over-the-top repertory pantomime dame.
Edward Fox - as always - plays King Arthur of Camelot exactly the same way he played Edward VIII on television. Mind you, according to the production notes, PRINCE VALIANT even had his own Royal fan. Edward, the Duke of Windsor, called PRINCE VALIANT 'The greatest contribution to English Literature of the last one hundred years'. Which, if you think about it, says a great deal about the reading habits, of Britain's brief monarch. Canny director and co-writer Anthony Hickox must have realised that what you get with Fox is Edward VIII and so arranged for him to embark on another abdication speech before Moyer bursts into Camelot's regal chamber on horseback bearing Excalibur and saving the day. And Hickox even gets to appear in front of the camera as a somewhat pallid Sir Gawain.
The stirring story features betrayals and battles galore, lashings of hearty but not too bloody swordplay which makes it just the ticket for action-loving youngsters and there are some nifty cliff-hangers (Moyer and Heigl end up suspended, ready to drop, over a pit of armour-plated crocodiles) in a merry medieval romp that simply sets out to entertain and succeeds very enjoyably.
If you have some youngsters you need to entertain for a few hours why not treat them with a cinema visit.
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