Monty Python Must Have Seen This

By Christopher P. Jacobs
Staff Writer

European distributors continue to release interesting foreign and American classics to BluRay that are unavailable in the U.S., some unfortunately region-locked for European players, but quite a few that are either combined region A and B or region-free that will play anywhere.

I received the new Eureka region-free BluRay of “Prince Valiant” (1954) last week, just in time so I could watch it on my birthday. The BluRay format currently has so few films made before 1970, and especially before 1960, that I couldn’t resist ordering it the week it came out.

Interestingly, except for a mediocre release of the original Japanese cut of “Godzilla,” the only films from 1954 currently on BluRay must be ordered from Britain, even though they’re American productions. And the only way to insure that classic, foreign, and independent films continue to receive BluRay releases is to buy those that are released. The first US BluRay release of an American film from 1954 will show up next month with Warner Brothers’ restoration of the Judy Garland version of “A Star Is Born.”

“Prince Valiant” is a medieval costume movie that’s definitely juvenile adventure formula fluff, but is much better than I expected, and a bit better both dramatically and in production values than “The Black Shield of Falworth” (1954), which came out on BluRay in England late last year.

The cast and credits of “Prince Valiant” are first-rate, with a script by Dudley Nichols, Henry Hathaway directing, fine CinemaScope cinematography by Lucien Ballard, and a rousing score by Franz Waxman. James Mason has fun as the shady Sir Brack, Robert Wagner is earnest in his first starring role as “Val” the title character, Janet Leigh and Debra Paget don’t have a lot to do but are nice to look at, Sterling Hayden is rather campy as Sir Gawain, Victor McLaglen is a lot of fun as the rambunctious Viking Boltar, and the other leads are well-rounded out by Hollywood veterans Donald Crisp as King Aguar and Brian Aherne as King Arthur.

Fox obviously put a lot of effort and talent into what’s really a glorified kiddie show for Saturday matinees, but what’s also an obvious attempt to sell the studio’s “new miracle of CinemaScope (you see it without special glasses)” and “the wonder of stereophonic sound.” In fact the trailer stresses those elements repeatedly and to amusing excess.

The plot is based on the newspaper comic strip, about an exiled Christian Viking king and his family given protection by the Christian King Arthur. Naturally the pagan Vikings now in power try to hunt them down, while one of Arthur’s knights is secretly plotting to overthrow his throne, the “Black Knight” terrorizes the land, and the Viking prince (Valiant) begs to train to become a knight of the round table. (We can only hope that “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” gets to BluRay soon!) There are also the usual romantic subplots fraught with rivalries and misunderstandings.

The BluRay of “Prince Valiant” is a lovely transfer overall, with just a little side-to-side weave showing up, especially in the beginning. A number of on-line reviews have warned about disappointingly erratic picture quality. However, it’s quite obvious from what they say that they’re simply not familiar with the technological artifacts inherent in optical printing or aging color film, as the only noticeable color shifts are during dissolves and a few optical effects.

This is a byproduct of splicing in opticals from a dupe negative between the scenes printed directly from the original negative. In other words, it might have looked more consistent in 1954 but that’s the way it would look on any new theatrical print, as the film stock used for effects usually fades faster than the original negative. The print is incredibly sharp throughout most of it (again softer in the dissolves and a bit soft in the opening credits), and it looks beautiful projected to eight feet wide in its original 2.55 to 1 aspect ratio.

This BluRay does include the stereophonic sound, but only in a 2.0 version rather than the 3.0 or 4.0 that I would have expected. It’s also a bit weak on the low frequency response, sounding a bit tinny when running with normal default settings, but by turning up my amplifier’s bass control to +10 (I normally keep it set at 0 or +2), it sounded much more natural. Even with only right and left channels and no center channel, the stereo was quite nice throughout, with good fullness to the music. Typical of early stereo sound films but less common today, quite a few scenes have very directional dialogue (one person on each edge of the screen and the sound coming from the appropriate speaker), and a few have sound effects panning across the screen to follow the action.

Sadly there are no bonus features other than the original theatrical trailer, and that is only standard-definition. Still, “Prince Valiant” is a fun movie that looks great and is worth getting for any fans of medieval adventures or 1950s early widescreen films, especially when it’s only about $16 plus shipping to order it from the U.K. Not only that, but my order from amazon.co.uk arrived just five days after placing it with the normal shipping option—roughly $12, or an extra $2 per movie since I ordered six at a time.
PRINCE VALIANT on BluRay: Movie: B+ / Video: A- / Audio: B+ / Extras: D

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