Charles Schneer is best remembered for the Ray Harryhausen films he produced; they took a long time to make with their elaborate effects, so he turned out the occasional cheapie to keep the cash running in. This was made to be released with Jason and the Argonauts and re-used sets and footage from other Columbia Pictures.
It's a cheerful, colourful tale, really for kids and no one else, which is ostensibly an Arthurian tale but is more a Robin Hood story. Ronald Lewis - a contract star for the Rank organisation - has a rather unfortunate blonde wig (to help match footage with Alan Ladd from The Black Knight?) - is a former noble turned outlaw who is actually trying to do the decent thing by King Arthur. That's not a bad idea - it gives Arthur a Maid Marian type daughter, Katherine, perkily played by Janette Scott.
Ronald Howard is an excellent villain, Edmund, and Jerome Willis very good as his sidekick. Mark Dignam was fine as Arthur and John Laurie should've been used more as Merlin.
The story is absolutely solid - we set up Arthur's key lieutenant is a secret traitor, Katherine meets Marshall the outlaw, Marshall tries to help Arthur, Arthur is killed, Katherine flees with Marshall, Marshall and Katherine squabble but fall in love, Katherine is captured and sees Edmund and his henchmen wipe out some protestors (a surprisingly full on sequence), Katherine is rescued, they rescue Merlin (maybe a bit of repetition here), they defeat Edmund and his gang with a final battle full of stock footage.
No classic, but bright and happy - something you could say for many films by Nathan Juran.
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