Camelot is the story of King Arthur (Richard Harris), Queen, Guenevere (Vanessa Redgrave), and Sir Lancelot (Franco Nero), the best knight of Arthur’s round table. To Arthur’s great sadness, Guenevere falls hopelessly in love with Lancelot. And so, we have a love triangle. Based on T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, Camelot opens with the meeting of King Arthur and Guinevere, covers Arthur’s noble ambition for a greater England, Lancelot and Guenevere’s tragic affair, and Mordred’s (David Hemmings) attempts to destroy Camelot.
Convinced he had another My Fair Lady on his hands, Jack Warner poured lots of time and money ($18 million to be exact) into the project. However, when the film came out many were disappointed that the original Broadway cast hadn’t reprised their roles. Richard Harris plays Arthur, and does a satisfactory job. But one wonders what a tremendous presence like Richard Burton could have added to the strength of the film, but he declined the part. Vanessa Redgrave plays Guenevere, and while there’s no denying Redgrave is at her most stunning here, Julie Andrews would have done her own, incredible singing and the songs are what make the movie special. But alas, Ms. Andrews declined the role. The worst casting decision came in replacing Robert Goulet with Franco Nero in the role of Lancelot. His performance is over-the-top and his singing voice was dubbed by Gene Merlino, which makes him sound like a great singer, but doesn’t fit with his speaking voice. There were even rumors that Nero’s accent was so thick that his dialogue had to be dubbed in places. One can only imagine how much stronger Camelot could have been with actor more suited to play this major role.
Other cast members include David Hemmings as a perfectly nasty Mordred and Lionel Jeffries a delightfully dotty old King Pellinore. Laurence Naismith plays Merlyn, though he’s very much a third rate character here. Given the lavish sets and incredible costumes it’s no wonder Camelot took home Oscars for art direction and costumes. The film’s third Oscar came for its best element, the songs. Of course, any fan of musicals knows the famous title song, then there’s “C’est Moi,” “The Lusty Month of May,” “How to Handle a Woman,” “If Ever I Should Leave You” and “I Loved You Once in Silence,” among others. Camelot has always been one of my favorite musical soundtracks, though I confess I prefer the Broadway recording to the film.
Directed by Joshua Logan who earlier helmed South Pacific, but was twice nominated for an Oscar as Best Director for dramas: 1955’s Picnic and 1957’s Sayonara, he is often credited with giving the film version of Camelot its dramatic tones. Unlike the stage play, the film is decidedly more real and dark. Despite all the glamour and the music, this is a film about King Arthur struggling to come to terms with the infidelity of his wife with his best friend. Despite its flaws, Camelot remains one of the last great examples of what musicals could be when studios believed they were box office gold.
Transferred to 1080p in its original aspect ratio of 2.40:1, Warner has done a reasonably good job here. While the colors are a bit muted, they still look perfectly appropriate. The image does look a bit soft and I couldn’t help but notice a few instances of grain and dirt on the image. However, there is little question that this is a major improvement over the previous DVD release.
The movie is packaged with a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. The stereo spread is quite good, and rear speaker ambiance occurs during the musical numbers. Dynamics are fine, which creates a nice listening atmosphere. There isn’t much in the way of bass or treble, but I wouldn’t expect that with a soundtrack of this type and vintage. Dialogue is clean and clear throughout.
English, English SDH and Spanish subtitles are included.
The following special features are available:
Because this is a Blu-ray Book, we get a forty-page hardbound book with color pictures and a series of informative notes.
- Commentary by Stephen Farber: an interesting and in-depth commentary that covers aspects of both the Broadway and film versions of Camelot, he discusses casting, production, and some other behind the scenes matters.
- Camelot: Falling Kingdoms (HD; 29:59) a well done mini-documentary paralleling the declining fortunes of Jack Warner and Warner Brothers with the end of Camelot as well as the nostalgia surrounding the Kennedy Era. Very informative and highly recommended.
- The Story of Camelot (SD; 9:45) a vintage featurette that starts with archaeologists digging in England for the “real” Camelot and then segues into a standard puff piece on the production of the film.
- The World Premiere of Camelot (SD; 29:04) takes us back to 1967 for the gala premiere of the film.
- Trailers: includes:
Theatrical Trailer #1 (SD; 2:06)
Theatrical Trailer #2 (SD; 1:04)
Theatrical Trailer #3 (SD; 3:10)
Theatrical Trailer #4 (SD; 3:17)
Theatrical Trailer #5 (SD; 00:26) - CD Containing Four Songs from the Score: “I Wonder What the King Is Doing Tonight,” “Camelot,” “How to Handle a Woman,” and “If Ever I Would Leave You.”
