Lerner and Loewe's "Camelot" has always been one of those underrated musicals that has always suffered from unfair comparison to the team's previous successful effort, their monster hit "My Fair Lady". To critics who enjoyed both "My Fair Lady" and the witty screen musical "Gigi", "Camelot', with its basically tragic plot, slower pace, and its lack of dialogue by George Bernard Shaw, was a letdown, as if Lerner and Loewe couldn't be any good unless they were dulplicating their previous successes, or at least imitating it.
The screen version, produced on a huge scale by the same Jack L. Warner who gave the world the film version of "My Fair Lady", surpasses the Broadway version of the musical in every possible way. Lerner, perhaps aware of some of the faults in the original show, here does more extensive rewriting than in his "Fair Lady" screenplay, and his revisions only serve to heighten the drama in the story. Gone, for instance, is the silly comic interlude in the second act between Morgan le Fay and Mordred, in which Mordred convinces his aunt to cast a magic spell on Arthur to keep him away from Camelot during a crucial moment in the story. Instead, this is replaced by a beautiful, magical interlude in which Arthur reminisces in the forest and relives some of the lessons Merlin taught him. And Lerner, not wishing to commit the so-called "breach of faith " that he committed in the 1960 stage production (switching abruptly from a comic first act to a somber second act) , begins the film with a melancholy forboding of the tragedy that is to come much later.
None of the stage actors recreate their roles in the film, but that is a distinct advantage here, and I say that as someone who became familiar with the original Broadway cast album two years before the film's release. Richard Harris, as King Arthur, gives the performance of his life as King Arthur, and reminds us of how tragically this underrated, but magnificent, actor, has misused himself in most of his later films. His King Arthur is a performance to cherish, worthy of being ranked with Yul Brynner's in "The King and I", Rex Harrison's in "My Fair Lady", and Robert Preston's in "The Music Man". And as a portrayal of an ultimately tragic figure, Harris' may be the single greatest male dramatic performance in film musicals ever. And he can sing reasonably well. Although he is no Gordon MacRae (and who could ever imagine MacRae as King Arthur?) , that sort of voice isn't even required for the role, as evidenced by the fact that Richard Burton, an actor not known for singing, played the role on Broadway. Harris brings much more inflection and variety to his songs than Burton ever did, and under the intimate gaze of the camera and the guidance of director Joshua Logan, tones down his portrayal at all the right moments, as he later would not in his misbegotten 1980's stage performance.
Vanessa Redgrave, in one of her first screen roles, is equally impressive as Guenevere, convincingly portraying a sensual woman that any man could convincingly fall for and/or lust after. She makes the Queen far more than the innocent young woman that Julie Andrews (from the evidence on the Broadway album) made her onstage, and she, too, sings surprisingly well for a non-singing actress, "acting" her numbers as well as singing them.
Franco Nero plays Lancelot, and he does not sing. He is dubbed by Gene Merlino, who is good enough, but no Robert Goulet. His acting is reasonably good, but not on the level of Harris and Redgrave. However, David Hemmings, (shorn of his silly musical number) is a thoroughly nasty Mordred, Lionel Jeffries a hilarious, lovable Pellinore, and Laurence Naismith a completely believable Merlin.
Of the three film musicals that stage director Joshua Logan made, ("South Pacific", "Paint Your Wagon" and "Camelot") this is easily the best, although it is true that some of the time the actors are photographed in what Mike Myers of "Saturday Night Live" would call "EXTREME closeup". The sets are breathtaking, as are many of the locations (much of the outdoor work was done in Spain!). Alfred Newman's orchestrations are among his best. It is a scandal that "Camelot" did not garner Richard Harris and Vanessa Redgrave Oscar nominations for their memorable portrayals, and it will always be a shameful blot on the Academy's record that the musical they chose to nominate as Best Picture that year was not "Camelot", but the totally forgettable, critically drubbed, and justly neglected Rex Harrison version of "Doctor Dolittle". I guess the lobbying at 20th Century-Fox that year must have been incredible.
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