Camelot
I love this dress by Tony Ward, who designs gowns and bridal wear from Paris. It looks like something a snow queen would wear or perhaps Vanessa Redgrave could have worn it in her role as the tragic Guinevere in the film Camelot.
Most know the story of King Arthur’s Round Table, Sir Lancelot, Guinevere, and of course Camelot, that magical place where time stood still almost long enough for happily-ever-after to catch up. Jacqueline Kennedy said her husband’s presidential administration was a time of Camelot and it’s known that she and the President often played the album from the broadway musical in the White House.
My parents used to play Camelot too, on their maple console hi-fi with the louvre doors that fit all their Broadway albums. However, as much as the musical score wraps around many of my memories of the sixties, it wasn’t until I watched the film on TV with my sister that I realized how enchanting it was.
Before DVR’s, DVD’s and streaming, if you wanted to see a movie at home, you settled in on a Sunday afternoon and watched whatever the networks were dishing up that weekend. I remember clearly the day my sister and I huddled on the sofa under an afghan on a cold winter day for Camelot. Movie-watching was a one-shot deal – there was no pause button so you could toss some popcorn kernels into a pot of oil and you couldn’t just rewind to catch any dialogue you missed. Most amazingly, you simply never knew when you would see a movie again because you were always at the mercy of some unknown decision-making entity in Television Land.
So my sister and I, two young working women with nowhere to go, watched a lot of great films those wintry Sundays. Camelot being just one, we caught Dial M for Murder, Carousel, and Ten Angry Men, and The Quiet Man. But we especially loved romantic Camelot and neither of us could decide between Franco Nero’s Lancelot or Richard Harris’ King Arthur.
Mostly, I think I preferred the king especially after seeing Harris sing “How to Handle a Woman” to his unseen and faithful acolyte, Merlin. I felt a warm endearment for the powerful and benevolent king who was so felled by his love for the flawed Guinevere, that he sang a song of pure poetry filled with piquant angst and longing. Even today, I am touched by the vulnerability which is clearly expressed on his handsome face.
There are some beautiful winter scenes in Camelot and although they were obviously filmed on a movie set, Vanessa Redgrave’s costumes were ethereal and otherworldly with fur trims and dramatic trains. I loved it all.
So when I saw the bejeweled tawny (it’s not yellow as it appears) dress above from the Ward collection, it instantly called to mind the mythical and bewitching Camelot. Since I now own the film on DVD, I was able to get lost in it all over again curled up on the sofa last Sunday. I did pause it twice, however. For more popcorn.
(The Dimpled King)
11 Comments
Smart_Margauz
Glad I came across at your post and this dress looks classic. Thank you for sharing this.
monika love
I have been rejected by my husband after three(3) years of marriage just because another woman had a spell on him and he left me and the kids to suffer. one day when i was reading through the web, i saw a post on how this spell caster on this email address Driyayi48hourslovespell@gmail.com, have help a woman to get back her husband and i gave him a reply to his address and he told me that a woman had a spell on my husband and he told me that he will help me and after 2 days that i will have my husband back. i believed him and today i am glad to let you all know that this spell caster have the power to bring lovers back. because i am now happy with my husband. Thanks To Dr IYAYI. His email: Driyayi48hourslovespell@gmail.com and His WhatsApp Number: +23480054613715
Freeman
Good day !!
We are Christian Organization formed to help people in need of help,such as
financial assistance, Do you need a loan to pay your bills? Do you need
Personal Business Car or Student loans? Need a loan for various other
purposes? If yes contact us today.
Please these is for serious minded and God fearing People.
Email: (jacksonwaltonloancompany@gmail.com)
Text or call: +1-586-331-5557.
Address is 68 Fremont Ave Penrose CO, 81240.
ALFONSO ARMANDO
Do You Need Personal/Business Loan At 3%? If Yes contact us Whats-app +1(301) 329-5298 urgent loan we offer worldwide loan to who in need of loan the business opportunity you having being looking for is here again: inforamzanloan@gmail.com
Madame Là-bas
I loved that movie! I cried at the end because it seemed so sad. The loss of a dream! No question I was a Richard Harris girl! But Franco Nero and Vanessa got together in the end! Isn't it romantic?
Donna Macdonald
Your comment made me smile!! Romantic!
galant
What a lovely film it was. Of course, I was a young married woman by the time it was made, and husband and I went to see it in the cinema, but haven't seen it since.
Ann
Hi Donna – Yes, I so agree that looks like Guinevere dress. I also loved the movie when it happened upon television. Sunday afternoons, the Late Show, and then in the late 1960's a Public Television station started broadcasting in our are of Pennsylvania and they would show older movies on weekends at 1 AM. My friend Joanne and I would stay up late and fell in love with some of the oldies….How lucky we are today to have them at our fingertips. Younger people today do not know how very lucky they are. Recently retired, when I would tell younger co-workers about the first date with my now beloved husband I would tell them we saw Gone With The Wind. They would always ask where we watched it (on VHS or DVD ), and where. I would laugh and say those were the days when every five years or so GWTW would come to the local movie theater and it was WONDERFUL to see it on the big screen. It is snowing here at my home now…not quite the same beautiful snowy scene in Camelot….but with my fire and my wonderful husband here with me, I feel at home in my Camelot!
Thank you for all your wonderful posts !
Donna Macdonald
Ann, you tell great stories! I enjoy your comments very much. Enjoy your Camelot!
Gramspearls
Dear Donna,
Thank you for this post. I remember seeing this picture at the theater with a girlfriend in eighth grade. As Is stood outside the theater, waiting for my mother to pick me up (it was winter) I couldn't stop crying. I think it was the first romantic movie I was 'allowed' to see and the beauty of it was overwhelming. I had never seen anything like it.
Vanessa Redgrave, in my mind, will always be the beautiful Guinevere in the snowy white hooded fur trimmed cape in the early scene.
Franco Nero was so handsome, those eyes, and the beloved Richard Harris. It was perfection. I cried because of the tragic end to the love story where everyone gets hurt. No happy ending there.
When I watch it today, I am again 13 and I fall in love all over again with it all.
I love hearing Vanessa's voice on Call the Midwives, and I love, in my romantic heart, that she and Franco Nero are now married,
Thank you!
Warmly, Kathleen
Donna Macdonald
Yed Kathleen and I do hope marrying Nero again has bern a comfort to Vanessa having now lost her daughter. Thank you!!!