When audiences think of England’s King Richard I in films – aka “Richard the Lionhearted” – I suspect they do so largely via his depiction as the absentee ruler of the Robin Hood tales. For a movie focused firmly on the ruler, we go to 1954’s King Richard and the Crusaders.

Set in the late 12th century, King Richard I (George Sanders) leads the Third Crusade to “liberate” Jerusalem from the Saracens. This pits Richard and his warriors against Saracen leader Sultan Saladin (Rex Harrison).

A variety of complications pop up along the way, a few related to infighting among the Crusaders and a desire by some to replace Richard. Romantic rivalries appear as well when a few suitors compete to woo Lady Edith Plantagenet (Virginia Mayo).

If that makes Crusaders sound like a film that pursues a lot of plot tangents, then you read correctly. The movie wanders down a few different paths, none of which threaten to connect.

Crusaders comes with a pompous sense of its own self-importance that sabotages the end product at every turn. The movie takes itself so seriously that it becomes comical.

Honestly, who thought the ever-so-English Harrison made sense as a native of the Middle East? Granted, “brownface” for white actors was common in this era, but Harrison seems utterly unqualified to attempt to pull off this role.

When Lawrence of Arabia If the movie’s issues ended there, I wouldn’t mind. Unfortunately, nothing else here succeeds.

Journeyman director David Butler can’t make the disjointed narrative flow, and he shows no ability to pull off the film’s stylistic variations either. The action feels dull and the romance seems flat.

Crusaders never finds any kind of a groove, so it plods from one scenario to another. We get a pretty good cast, all of whom overact relentlessly.

Perhaps the performers hoped that they might bring some spark to this dud – or maybe they just felt the need to go over the top to distract from their terrible wigs. Whatever the case, Crusaders becomes a hammy and stilted farce.

King Richard and the Crusaders appears in an aspect ratio of 2.55:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Despite a few iffy spots, the image usually looked strong.

Softness became the only mildly weak link, as occasional wide shots seemed somewhat tentative – and given we got some very wide shots, these popped up more often than usual. However, most of the flick came with very good delineation.

I witnessed no issues with jaggies or moiré effects, and edge haloes remained absent. The movie boasted light grain and suffered from no print flaws.

Colors turned into a strength. Crusaders gave us a broad palette that the disc reproduced in a vivid manner.

Blacks came across as deep and full, while low-light shots brought appealing clarity. Outside of a few soft elements, I felt pleased with this presentation.

In addition, the movie’s DTS-HD MA 2.0 soundtrack worked well. The stereo soundscape suited the widescreen format.

Music showed fine spread and engagement across the front speakers. The mix also boasted a fair amount of directional dialogue.

Effects brought appropriate localization and appealing movement. The soundfield added a lot to the movie.

Audio quality seemed dated but fine. Speech appeared reasonably natural, with only a handful of edgy lines.

Effects worked the same way. Although they lacked much range, they felt fairly accurate and didn’t suffer from much distortion.

Music became the strongest aspect of the track, as the score appeared pretty lively and rich. This became a well above-average mix for its era.

Along with the movie’s trailer, we get three vintage shorts. In addition to the live-action So You Want to Be a Banker (9:49), we get cartoons Satan’s Waitin’ (7:06) and Baby Buggy Bunny (7:07).

Banker comes from the “Joe McDoakes” franchise. These starred George O’Hanlon – the future voice of George Jetson - as the title character who endures a variety of minor trials and tribulations.

For this one, Joe’s career in finances takes an unusual turn. Banker deviates more from the social satire of the franchise and seems spotty due to that factor.

In Waitin’, Sylvester runs through his nine lives and ends up in hell when they expire. This becomes a darker than usual short but it works.

Finally, Buggy shows that a bank robber’s ill-gotten gains accidentally wind up in Bugs’ rabbit hole and the crook uses his infant shtick to fool the Bunny and retrieve his cash. This comes with a few laughs but seems less than memorable.

As an attempt to depict its title matter, King Richard and the Crusaders becomes a campy mess. The story rambles and suffers from problems at every turn. The Blu-ray boasts very good picture and audio along with a few bonus features. We find a dated and silly mix of romance and adventure.