The Sword of the Valiant – The Legend of Gawain and the Green Knight

Writer/director Weeks made the low-budget medieval saga Gawain and the Green Knight in 1973 and not many people noticed, so somehow he persuaded Cannon to let him do it again, with perhaps predictably underwhelming results. Connery is, naturally, imposing as the legendary Green Knight, but O’Keefe’s Gawain is hardly a worthy opponent. His heavy-rocker’s blonde wig elicits more laughter than the script’s painful attempts at wit, as he crosses the land for solutions to the Green Knight’s riddling, facing the axe if he comes up blank. Dreary jousting, production values that make Monty Python and the Holy Grail look lavish, and an excruciating synthesiser score make this a real trial. No wonder grim-faced Trevor Howard’s the most miserable King Arthur you’ll ever see.