When Knights Were Bold

Jack Buchanan, English musical comedy star from the first part of the last century is a rarity. He's primarily known for two films with American audiences, Monte Carlo where he co-starred with Jeanette MacDonald and The Band Wagon where he supported Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse and participated in that legendary Triplets number.

It was interesting to see Buchanan in something else. When Knights Were Bold concerns a young man who is of noble birth and when he's located in service in the Indian Army, he's told he's now got a title, lands, and a castle and all that goes with it. That includes tenants on his lands and a bunch of sponging relatives, one of whom Garry Marsh thinks he ought to have inherited the title. Another is Fay Wray who's a distant and kissing cousin who's real deep into the medieval scene.

Even though he's been a soldier on the frontier of the empire Buchanan doesn't quite measure up to her ideal of a medieval knight, the kind you usually find in Walter Scott novels.

The last third of the film is a dream sequence that's part inspired from Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur and part Monty Pythonesque. In fact this film could have served as an inspiration for the Monty Python players and their classic about the quest for the Holy Grail.

Sad to say Buchanan's few musical numbers were not quite up to the standard of Rodgers&Hart and not even up to what Burke&Van Heusen wrote for Bing Crosby in his film based on the Mark Twain novel. Still they do show off a considerable talent for song and dance and a bit of snappy patter.

I'd give When Knights Were Bold a look if for no other reason than to check out the talent of Jack Buchanan.