Trailer
Plot summary
Prince Valiant is the son of King Aguar of Scandia, driven into exile with his family when the usurper Sligon seizes the Viking kingdom. King Arthur takes them under his protection, and when Valiant is grown he goes to Camelot to serve as a squire to Sir Gawain, a friend of his father. On his way there Valiant comes upon a secret meeting between Sligon's Vikings and a knight dressed in black, and though he is spotted he escapes. Gawain brings him before Arthur, who rules that Valiant must serve a squire's training before he can be knighted. Sir Brack offers to take the young prince on, but Arthur gives him to Gawain instead.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Prince Valiant (1954)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Henry Hathaway called producer Robert Jacks "a beach bum surfer" and said he directed Prince Valiant only as a personal favour to Darryl F. Zanuck, adding: "I didn't particularly care one way or the other and the picture looked it."
- Michael Rennie was set to play King Arthur and Robert Newton to play Boltar, but neither appeared in the finished film; Rennie ended up narrating Prince Valiant instead.
- Robert Wagner wrote in his memoirs that he had no idea Prince Valiant would become for him what "Yonda lies the castle of my fadduh" was for Tony Curtis, blamed miscasting and teasing over his appearance, and said he still has "a block about that movie".
- A castle set was built for the film at a cost of $83,000, and the castle battle sequence cost $250,000.
- Robert Wagner had his hair cut to match the Prince Valiant comic strip for the role, and joked that "Dean Martin passed me on the lot and thought I was Jane Wyman."
