Pretty horrid adaptation of what reviewers and public alike regarded as a pretty decent Broadway musical play. Though I was too young to see it on the stage, I certainly heard the LP often enough growing up. My main question is directed to Jack Warner -- why? why? why? did you try and foist this travesty on the public if you couldn't get real singers? Richard Burton, Julie Andrews and Robert Goulet are traded in for Richard Harris, Vanessa Redgrave and Franco Nero? Did we just enter some weird parallel universe? Since when could Vanessa and Franco even sing? (Guess they were married at the time, so it was like some sort of package deal?) Richard Harris at least had a Top 10 hit single to his (dis)service with "MacArthur Park", so I guess he had some pretense as a singer (true, this movie does predate that psycho-babble "classic" about cakes melting in the rain!). Purists might say that Richard Burton was not a real singer either, but listen to the Original Cast recording of "Camelot" and judge for yourself -- I think he pulls it off admirably. Harris could barely handle the vocal chores, and failed miserably with his all-to-typical hammy, overacting self. His heavy makeup and wig make him look like a dirty, down-on-his-luck clown. Sadly, "Camelot" became just another in the long line of wretched musicals made in the wake of 1965's blockbuster "The Sound of Music" (most of which were also box office bombs, as well) -- Dr Doolittle, Man of LaMancha, Darling Lili, Lost Horizon, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Mame, Star, On a Clear Day, Godspell, Paint Your Wagon, Sweet Charity.... Geez, but no wonder MGM's retro-compilation "That's Entertainment" looked so good when it came out in 1974, after a decade of such garbage.
Review of Camelot
