A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT (1952)

Star: Thomas Mitchell; Boris Karloff; Barry Kroeger
Dir: Franklin J. Schaffner

(Original Shooting Script from Prof Fred’s Movie Marvels TV Show)

Hey students! Welcome back to Schlock Cinema 101, with me, your esteemed and dishonorable host, Prof. Fred Hopkins, and my assistant, Igor, and the entire Schlock Cinema Gang. We’re here to serve and have we come up with the cinematic lean cuisine of the day for you! Today’s offering is way, way, way off the menu! For insiders only!

Schlock Cinema, of course, specializes in the worst, most discombobulated B-movies ever made. We believe that these films have value because, unlike A-movies that play our local cine-plexes, B-movies aren’t conceived by studio accountants (“bean counters”) and gigantic corporate conglomerates who hire the director and stars as an afterthought.

No, B-movies are made outside the Hollywood studio system and are therefore free to express the opinions and theories and visions of their writers and directors. B-MOVIES CAN ACTUALLY TAKE A SIDE, EXPRESS AN OPINION AND MAKE YOU THINK ABOUT REAL ISSUES WITHOUT WORRYING ABOUT WHETHER ANYONE WILL BE OFFENDED OR WHETHER THEY WILL MAKE MONEY. That’s because not many people even watch B-movies and they’re not even expected to make much money.

The fact that B-movies are intended for small “niche” audiences, that they’re generally “genre” pictures (usually sci-fi or horror) has freed them from the mind-numbing and Machiavellian censorship and restraints of the Hollywood system. The fact that they’re small and unimportant is what makes B-movies big and important!

Anyway, B-movies come in all shapes and sizes and often, they are made for TV and shown for free—in the comfort of your own living room. In the early ‘50s, TV was conceived of as a copy of radio and thus, much of the programming in those early days consisted of one-hour dramatic programs (which were so popular on radio).

These were little mini-movies, with up-and-coming stars (Grace Kelly, Jackie Gleason) and more established stars whose careers were slowing down a bit. These shows were often named after their sponsors and they were essentially little mini-movies. Shot hurriedly on sound-stage sets, then quickly broadcast, these little B-movie masterpieces are now being re-issued and we’ve got a great one today---‘A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR’S COURT.”

Made in 1952 as one episode of a four part “King Arthur” series for Studio One, a popular show at the time, this particular episode has two bizarre peculiarities.

The first is that it is “Kinescoped.” Kinescope-ing is the act of filming a show, then projecting it and video-taping for live TV broadcast. It was done in the mid-50s because the demand for material was so great that there wasn’t time to edit the film for a broadcast quality presentation, so it was merely projected on a screen (with little or no edits and cuts, with gaffes and blown lines intact) and then shot on live video cameras to be broadcast simultaneously. Kinescoped prints look weird to the modern viewer—that is, they look sort of “hollow” and “puffy” and like a nightmarishly failed attempt at 3D.

The second is that this program is directed by soon-to-be-great director/producer, Franklin J. Schaffner. Schaffner directed Papillon, Boys From Brazil; and Planet of the Apes, to name just a few.

For these two reasons, “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” soars over most other “revived and formerly lost” TV episodes. Another plus is that the story is marvelously staged, with good “theatrical” sets and Karloff is superb as the somewhat perplexed King Arthur, trying to deal with the Connecticut Yankee (Thomas Mitchell) setting up a telephone system in Camelot and all kinds of other late 19th Century gadgets.

Additionally, Barry Kroeger excells as the usurper Knight, who has banded with Merlin, to overthrow King Arthur. Mitchell and Karloff go through the familiar plot machinations of Mitchell getting hit on the head during a labor dispute and waking up in 5th Century Camelot and realizing that the essential goodness and innate wisdom of these primitive people is something we lack in our own times, and they’re both having so much fun that their enthusiasm is contagious.

The print has lighting problems and some out-of-focus moments, which were endemic to live television in the early ‘50s, but any visual drawbacks are easily outweighed by the obvious craftsmanship and tight pacing of this 50 minute classic.


OK, let’s get to our plot! After Thomas Mitchell establishes himself as “Sir Boss” by having the good fortune to predict a famous eclipse and totally freak all the medieval people out, he starts to building telephones and all kinds of modern conveniences for the good folk of Camelot.

He does though, precisely because of his supposed “magical” powers, really get Merlin the Magician hacked off! Merlin senses competition and he’s not into that! Merlin is wearing a ZZ Top-style beard with a stove-pipe hat. He sort of looks like Boxcar Willie after he’s had one too many brewskies at the local hobo camp!

But the good King Arthur (who, with is droopy, over-sized king’s robe sort of looks like the uncle of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas) likes Sir Boss, so Merlin plots with the usurper knight (who really wants to be a usurper king!) to get rid of both of them!
Our Yankee hero hears about the plot and gets right on the phone to sound the alert and stop King Arthur from riding into an ambush! OK, no spoilers!

Hey, how about a pop quiz question while you’re watching the first half of the movie? Here ‘tis:
“Thomas Mitchell was one of the stars of a beloved Frank Capra film where he plays a discombooberated and ditsy uncle who gets the star of the film in big trouble when he loses an important bank deposit.”
Name the movie, the date it came out, and give the name of the character played by Mitchell in the film.

Let’s start the movie! Igor, Roll ‘Em!

1st break (20 minutes into film—where Thomas Mitchell raises his hands in greeting to King Arthur and where he will tell him about the plot)

Wow! Is this a cool “interpretation” of the classic Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) story or what? Is this story in the actual novel? Who cares? Hollywood movies never follow the books anyway! Everybody knows that!

OK, the answer to our Pop Quiz is “It’s A Wonderful Life!; 1946; and Mitchell’s character was named “Uncle Bill Bailey.” Thomas Mitchell died in 1962 He was 70 years old.

Karloff, as great as he was, rarely possessed Bela Lugosi’s ability to turn even the funkiest, most pathetically low-budget creaker into something at least worth watching, but he’s never been better than in “A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court.” Boris seems relaxed and bemused throughout the production, even though he’s forced to wear an elementary school pageant king’s crown and
A thrift-shop king’s gown. His lines are silly and undemanding but that’s what makes them good and Karloff keeps things moving at a whirling pace.

Thomas Mitchell, as the Yankee, is obviously way, way, way too old for the role (as was Bing Crosby in the movie version) but hey, he was probably available and the price was right, so what the heck! Mitchell wears his fuddy-duddy sort of New England industrialist clothes well and makes the best of his dog-in-the-manger casting. He grumbles and gripes and gets surly and cantankerous—and a bit constipated—but he acquits himself well in the role. Unlike Bing Crosby, though, Mitchell never changes into King Arthur-era medieval clothing at any point in the show. Man, that tight fitting three piece suit has got to be smelling pretty funky after a month or two! No wonder Merlin doesn’t like him!
Hey, don’t let anyone downplay the importance of physical hygiene---it was as important then as it is now!

And we never see him brushing his teeth! That can cause halitosis, back-breath issues. If only someone could have left a bottle of green “Scope” in his locker, but of course neither lockers nor Scope had been invented yet!

OK, let’s get back to the show. But before we go, let’s do another pop quiz, just to keep your wits sharp!
In 1957, just two years after A Ct. Yankee, Karloff, like many other American actors, went to Italy to star in a movie. The film was an uncharacteristic crime thriller, concerning drugs and organized crime and, when it was released in America, Karloff’s voice had been dubbed into English by another actor, so you see Karloff but you hear some other actor’s voice! What is the name of that 1957 Boris Karloff film?

BACK TO THE MOVIE

Wow! Great ending, right? And you thought the novels of Mark Twain were tough going? Nonsense!

Did anyone get the answer to our trivia question?
The name of that uncharacteristic Karloff movie is “Island Monster” (Monstro dell’isola) and it’s so horrible I even want to see it again!
Let’s take a quick look into the careers of some of the careers of the other stars of “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.”

Berry Kroeger, who plays Sir Sagramore, had small roles in thousands of TV shows from the ‘50s through the ‘70s. He specialized in playing dislikeable heavies and minor villains in shows like Burke’s Law, Man From Uncle, Longstreet and many others. His last performance was in a WKRP in Cincinnati episode and he died in 1991.

Salem Ludwig (Merlin) was a New York theatrical actor who got heavily into early ‘50s television acting. He was blacklisted in 1957, but came back in in such classic films as The Mary Tyler Moore/George Peppard classic “What’s so Bad About Feeling Good?” (1968, a comedy about people that catch a “happiness” virus. They’re trying to spread it, the authorities are trying to stop them). Ludwig was the writer of that, and he had a part in the classic “I Love You, Alice B. Toklas” (1969). Ludwig died in 2007, but before doing so, he played Mr. Sperry, the nursing home room-mate of Laura Linny’s father in the off-beat independent drama, “The Savages.”

Everyone knows about the careers of Thomas Mitchell and Boris Karloff, as both were actors who started their careers in the early ‘30s and kept on going until their deaths. Both jumped heavily into TV in the 1950s when film roles got scarce for aging actors, but while Mitchell died in 1962, Karloff was able to resurrect his career as the king of the monsters in the 1960s by starring in a gaggle of quickly made horror pictures and beach movies, aimed for the drive-in crowd. These films were tremendously popular and introduced Karloff to the baby-boomer generation who embraced him as their own. He was a top-billed star until his death in 1969.