The Adventures of Sir Galahad

Television's first Superman George Reeves stars in this 15 chapter serial set in mythical Arthurian England as Sir Galahad. You will not see Galahad gain the Holy Grail here. Nor will you see anything resembling the Arthurian tales of legend.

Using the familiar Camelot names we get a tale of young Galahad challenging a couple of King Arthur's knights in a tournament and besting both. Immpressed, the King offers him knighthood and the new man is always given charge of guarding Excalibur. But one of the villains in this piece and there are a few slips him a medieval Mickey Finn and Reeves falls asleep on the job.

That wins him prompt disgrace, but Reeves vows to get the sword Excalibur back or die trying. And with 15 chapters he has 14 near death experiences doing it. Along the way he picks up Sir Bors played by Charles King functioning as a western sidekick.

It certainly was a western set that was used for medieval England. In a film about that period I found it fascinating that no one bothered to cast British players in the roles. One of the most interesting bits of casting was with William Fawcett who later on would be Pete Wilkie of the Broken Wheel ranch in the Fury series. Fawcett played Merlin the Magician and I have to tell you that Felix Aylmer who played Merlin in Knights Of The Round Table is more my idea of Merlin.

Sam Katzman of Monogram Pictures produced this and it was a typical El Cheapo Katzman production. Working at Columbia I should think he'd have gotten something better in production values.

I'm not a big fan of serials as an art form so I'm prejudiced against them. But the King Arthur legend has received better treatment on the big and small screen.