Rating: 
Summary: Not really Foster's Val, but GREAT anyway!
Review: This movie, released in '54, must have frustrated many diehard fans of Foster's original classic strip. While it carries over much of its source material's spirit and enthusiasm, the plot is WAY off and some of the characters emerge as entirely different beings (e.g. Princess Aleta, Gawain, even Val himself.)Still, it works surprisingly well. In fact, this film is actually much more enjoyable than the far more faithful '90s remake. This fact is attributable, I believe, to the script for the '54 version, which transformed Foster's lusty picaresque strip into a glorious send-up of Victorian boy's books and blood-and-thunder dime novels. In fact, fans of the now-revived juvenile fiction of G.A. Henty should view this as almost a tribute to that great author, complete with relentless Victorianisms and a theme of paganism versus emerging "muscular Christianity." As a sidenote of interest, this film also seems to have influenced Foster's writing as well. His strips from the late fifties through the the sixties actually began to take on much of the world-view of this classic film. By the way, your kids-- even if they are jaded techno-junkies-- WILL love this. They may just have trouble admitting it.
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