Prince Valiant (1954)

As much as I like the Sunday comics as a kid, I never really was a Prince Valiant comic strip fan. I tended to read Peanuts and Doonesbury and later, The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes. But you couldn't help but notice cartoonist Hal Foster's colorful Prince Valiant in the comics section, usually with his sword drawn against a gargantuan lizard and a beautiful damsel behind him. Oh, and that page boy haircut he wore. If PRINCE VALIANT were made today, the studio wouldn't dare make Shia LeBouef or Channing Tatum wear that terrible haircut. But director Henry Hathaway and 20th Century Fox did make young Robert Wagner wear the signature page boy wig.  At least 20th Century Fox pulled out all the stops for their motion picture version of the comic strip, filming it in Technicolor and Cinemascope.

PRINCE VALIANT (1954) takes place in a weird time warp where Vikings and Knights of the Round Table live in the same time period. The film opens with Prince Valiant (Robert Wagner), his father King Aguar (Donald Crisp) and Queen mother (Mary Phillips) living in a remote castle in northern Britain, exiled from their homeland of Skandia, hiding from the Viking tyrant Sligon (Primo Carnera).  A friendly Viking ship carrying their friend Boltar (Victor McLaglen) lands to warn the family that Sligon is hunting for them. Fearing for his son's safety, King Aguar sends Valiant to King Arthur's court at Camelot to train with the Knights of the Round Table.

On his journey to Camelot, Valiant comes across the mysterious Black Knight with Sligon's Viking marauders. Valiant barely escapes with his life and soon crosses paths with the noble Sir Gawain (Sterling Hayden). Gawain likes Valiant's courageous demeanor and invites him back to Camelot to be his squire. Valiant is introduced to King Arthur (Brian Aherne) as well as many other knights including Sir Brack (James Mason), who also shows a keen interest in Prince Valiant.  Arthur agrees to let Gawain keep Valiant as his squire and Gawain begins to teach the young prince the fundamentals of becoming a knight.

But Valiant is headstrong and restless and soon embarks on a quest to find and capture the Black Knight on his own. He meets up with Sir Breck who's also searching for the Black Knight but they get separated. Valiant is ambushed and wounded by the Black Knight's archers but manages to ride to a nearby castle inhabited by King Luke (Barry Jones) and his two beautiful daughters, Princess Aleta (Janet Leigh) and Ilene (Debra Paget). Sir Breck arrives later to the castle and after Valiant recuperates, they all return to Camelot for a jousting tournament with Princess Aleta to wed the winning knight.

The remainder of PRINCE VALIANT is mostly action with an extended jousting tournament followed by Valiant being lured out of Camelot to rescue his imprisoned parents from Sligon's castle. Valiant and Aleta are captured but Valiant manages to escape his cell and assist the good Viking Boltar and his men as they lay siege on Sligon's castle and army. The film concludes with a well-staged sword fight to the death between Valiant and the traitorous Knight from the Round Table who has betrayed King Arthur and Camelot.

Just as PRINCE VALIANT has a strange mix of Arthurian and Viking mythology, the casting for the film is also a weird combination of American and English actors.  The American side is represented by the young Robert Wagner as Prince Valiant and Sterling Hayden as the comical Sir Gawain. Both seem a bit miscast, at least in dialect, for a film set in medieval England. At times, Hayden sounds like a cowboy in shining armour. But British actors James Mason as Sir Breck and Donald Crisp as King Aguar lend more realism in their portrayals.  And then there's the utter waste of the talented Victor McLaglen as Boltar. McLaglen, well known for his Irish character roles in John Ford's FORT APACHE (1948) and THE QUIET MAN (1952) both with John Wayne, is entirely obscured in Viking garb and thick beard as Valiant's Viking ally. The Viking costumes in general are a bit hokey. The Vikings in PRINCE VALIANT all seem like rejects for a Minnesota Vikings mascot audition.

Now, I often complain that today's films rely on too many close-ups of actors but if there was ever a film that screamed for more close-ups, PRINCE VALIANT is that film.  Perhaps because he was trying to be epic and grand, director Hathaway films much of the story in wide shots to fill up the Cinemascope screen. But he loses the intimacy between the audience and the characters.  We never get a good close up of the handsome Robert Wagner or the beautiful Janet Leigh. With all the knight head gear and Viking helmets and thick beards, it's hard to tell who's who at times. A few more close ups would have helped.

Wagner does an able job at the athletic part of playing Prince Valiant as he spends a lot of time climbing up and down ramparts and trees and leaping over tables and walls. But his performance is a bit stiff not uncommon for young actors in the 50's and 60's. Wagner's Valiant needs a bit more cockiness. Wagner will become better known in the 1960's and 70's playing slick, romantic leads in television shows like IT TAKES A THIEF and later HART TO HART. Janet Leigh is a wonderful choice as the Princess in distress Aleta. Leigh would star in another Viking themed film with her then husband Tony Curtis in Richard Fleischer's THE VIKINGS (1958). Besides the character of Aleta, Leigh played strong female characters in films such as Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO (1960) and John Frankenheimer's THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962). As the villain, James Mason has a good time as the sneaky Sir Breck. He's always just a breadth away from catching Valiant or usurping Arthur's throne but his nefarious schemes are always disrupted. Even when he seemingly wins Aleta's hand in the jousting tournament, the last second entries of Valiant (disguised as Gawain) and then an injured Gawain thwart even Breck's wedding plans.

Director Hathaway does understand that a film filled with Knights and Vikings needs action and he stages some impressive action scenes including an exciting jousting tournament with knights somersaulting off of horses, the fiery attack on Sligon's fortress, and a fierce sword fight between Prince Valiant and Sir Breck.  Screenwriter Dudley Nichols makes sure to include humor throughout the film and my favorite subplot involves an injured Gawain mistakenly believing Princess Aleta loves him when in fact Aleta is in love with Prince Valiant and it's Aleta's sister Ilene who loves Gawain. Actor Sterling Hayden may not sound like a typical English knight but he hams it up nicely as the lovesick Gawain.

A pleasant surprise of PRINCE VALIANT are some nice special photographic effects and matte paintings of Camelot that enhance the grandeur of the film. 20th Century Fox also shot 2nd Unit footage of various real castles throughout the British Isles such as Alnwick Castle and Warwick Castle to give PRINCE VALIANT a more authentic look. However, most of the film was shot in Los Angeles. Having lived in southern California for several years, it's always fun to see movies that mix the Santa Monica mountains or the California coast with shots of actual English castles.  Edit it all together and it works.

We should be thankful that the filmmakers chose to make a live action version of PRINCE VALIANT rather than that other Viking comic strip Hagar the Horrible. PRINCE VALIANT is meant to be a big colorful spectacle and it achieves that with its production design and lavish sets. But it makes a bit of a spectacle of itself with a young hero with an awful haircut that we never quite wrap our arms around and embrace.

A Room With A View (1985)

It was my friend Pete who got me hooked on Italy. Pete was a huge Italy aficionado starting back in high school. He wasn't obsessed with Italy like Dennis Christopher in BREAKING AWAY (1979). Pete didn't wear an Italian bike jersey and speak Italian to his mother and father all the time. But he loved the country,the people, and the culture of Italy. And it rubbed off on me in many ways including cinematically.

If a film has an Italian location, I'll probably watch it. UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN, THE TALENTED MR.RIPLEY, CLIFFHANGER, even the dull NINE I watch as much for the Italy locations as for the film itself.  Which brings me to A ROOM WITH A VIEW (1985), one of my favorite period films, partially set in Florence, Italy. I must have first seen A ROOM WITH A VIEW in college because when I made my itinerary for my backpacking trip after college, Florence, Italy was one of my destinations. Landmarks like the Duomo, the Giotto Tower, and the River Arno are all places I visited and can be seen in the film.

Based on the novel by E.M. Forster, A ROOM WITH A VIEW was produced by the filmmaking team known as Merchant/Ivory. This team consisted of producer Ishmail Merchant and director James Ivory. Merchant/Ivory were synonymous with classy period films in the 80's and 90's like HOWARD'S END (1992), THE REMAINS OF THE DAY (1993), and JEFFERSON IN PARIS (1995). There was really a third member of this team, screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala who wrote many of the screenplays for Merchant/Ivory films including HEAT AND DUST (1983; based on her novel), MR.AND MRS. BRIDGE (1990), and A ROOM WITH A VIEW.

A ROOM WITH A VIEW is really a film of two halves. The first half takes place in Florence, Italy and the second half in southern England. The film begins in Florence where Ms. Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham-Carter) and her chaperon and annoying cousin Charlotte Bartlett (Maggie Smith) are staying at the Pensione Bertolini with several other colorful English tourists. Amongst the group are the eccentric Mr. Emerson (Denholm Elliott),a former newspaper journalist; his brooding romantic of a son George Emerson (Julian Sands); the jovial Reverend Mr. Beebe (Simon Callow) from Lucy's English village; and even a romance novelist Eleanor Lavish (Judy Dench).When Lucy and Charlotte don't get the room with a view of Florence they requested, Mr. Emerson and George offer the two women their room with a view. As Mr. Emerson puts it, "Women like looking at a view. Men don't."

One morning, Lucy goes for a walk on her own through Florence.  As she passes through the Piazza Santa Croce, she witnesses a fight between two men and one of them is stabbed. She faints but George, also strolling through the Piazza, comes to her aid. This act of violence seems to awaken Lucy to the physical sensations of life and to the keen interest George seems to have in her. Later, the English group joined by the Reverend Mr. Eager (Patrick Godfrey), Chaplain of the Anglican Church in Florence, take a horse and buggy ride to the Tuscan countryside for a picnic. While looking for the Reverend Beebe, Lucy encounters George in a beautiful meadow. George impulsively kisses Lucy to the horror of Charlotte, her meddling chaperon, who fears for Lucy's reputation. Charlotte insists they leave Florence immediately.
                                                                     

The film switches locations to southern England some months after the Italy trip where the pretentious and romantically awkward Cecil Vyse (Daniel Day-Lewis) announces to Lucy Honeychurch's mother Marion (Rosemary Leach) and Lucy's wild brother Freddy (Rupert Graves) that Lucy has accepted his proposal of marriage.  Cecil comes from a better class than the Honeychurch's. While Cecil might come from a better social standing, he's lacking in warmth and intimacy. But coincidence and fate begin to intrude as the Emerson's, through a chance encounter with Cecil at the London National Gallery, rent a cottage in Lucy's village. Once again, Lucy and George are near each other. Lucy lies and tries to tell everyone who will listen that she loves Cecil but in the end, Lucy gives in to her true feelings and breaks off her engagement to Cecil to marry George.

In my estimation,  A ROOM WITH A VIEW is the pinnacle film for the Merchant/Ivory/Jhabvala team and they never quite attained the same magic - both creatively and financially. A ROOM WITH A VIEW was like catching lightning in a bottle. The writing, the directing, the acting, the music (love Puccini's O mio babbino caro), and the locations all mesh in perfect harmony. The most famous scene in the film where George, Freddy, and Reverend Beebe are bathing naked in a local pond and are discovered by Lucy, Cecil, and Mrs. Honeychurch has to be one of the most naturally funny sequences I've ever seen. But almost every scene in this film has a funny moment that just adds to the overall charm of the film. Ivory uses a clever device in which he divides the film into chapters (just like the Forster book) with title cards like OFFICIALLY ENGAGED or LYING TO CECIL. Even this simple device gives the film a unique blending of the cinematic and the literary.

Merchant/Ivory's other two most famous adaptations HOWARD'S END (also based on an E.M. Forster novel) and THE REMAINS OF THE DAY are both well made and acted but they lack the humor, perfect casting, and exquisite scenery that A ROOM WITH A VIEW has. Most English costume films end with the heroine dying in the arms of her lover or the doomed lovers never being able to requite their love. A ROOM WITH A VIEW has a happy ending. Boy does get girl. Not everyone is miserable all the time. And everyone is happy in the end.

Each character is perfectly cast. Helena Bonham-Carter is luminous as the coming-of-age Lucy. We see her grow into an independent woman before our lives. Julian Sands is good looking and quirky as the free-spirited George Emerson. Daniel Day-Lewis takes the hardest role as the pompous Cecil Vyse and displays great comical flair yet makes Cecil sympathetic and even human in the end. Even the supporting roles are juicy and each player has his or her moment to shine. Simon Callow as the Reverend Beebe, Maggie Smith as dim Charlotte, Rupert Graves as the irascible Freddy Honeychurch, and Denholm Elliott as George's father give great life to their roles.

A ROOM WITH A VIEW was a launching point to stardom for several of these actors.  Helena Bonham-Carter went on to become queen of the costume dramas for awhile before marrying Tim Burton and starring in his films such as SWEENEY TODD (2007) and ALICE IN WONDERLAND (2010).  I fell in love with Bonham-Carter in A ROOM WITH A VIEW and she's still one of my favorite actresses today. Daniel Day-Lewis would catapult from small independent films like A ROOM WITH A VIEW to large scale blockbusters like THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS (1992) and THE GANGS OF NEW YORK (2002). Denholm Elliot as Mr. Emerson will always be remembered as Dr. Marcus Brody in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) but he solidified his status as a great character actor with A ROOM as did Maggie Smith as cousin Charlotte Bartlett who even my kids now know her for her portrayal of Professor Minverva McGonagall in the HARRY POTTER series.

The scenery of Italy and Florence is the last great character in A ROOM WITH A VIEW and what sets this film apart from Merchant/Ivory's other films. Italy represents romance and freedom and vitality. Whereas England is formality and manners and class structure, Italy is passion and sensuality and life. Other films have capitalized on this metaphor of Italy as romance and freedom, most notably ROMAN HOLIDAY (1953),  ENCHANTED APRIL (1992) and UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN (2003).

After I saw ROOM, I could not wait to see what literary adaptations Merchant/Ivory would film next and I was positive it would be greater and more entertaining than ROOM.  But none of their subsequent films ever captured my movie heart like A ROOM WITH A VIEW.  A recent viewing delighted me with new things I never picked up on before even as I smiled at scenes I never get tired of. If I could travel to Florence with this cast of characters, I would in a heartbeat.  I would have tea with the Reverend Mr. Beebe. I would listen to Lucy Honeychurch play the piano. I would walk the streets of Florence with Eleanor Lavish. And at my pensione, I would ask for a room with a view.