Trial By Combat (aka Choice Of Weapons) (1976)

An organization going by the name of the Knights Of Avalon have taken it upon themselves to capture and execute criminals. When the founder (Peter Cushing) of the organization, who is unaware of these activities, stumbles upon one of the executions, he is killed. His son (David Birney) returns from America to find his father's murderer. Directed by Kevin Connor (THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT), the film suffers from its silly premise and its poor execution (no pun intended). The film wants to be an adventurous comedy but it's not remotely funny and there aren't any thrills. Birney in the central role is a charmless and unappealing actor and the chemistry between him and his leading lady (Barbara Hershey) is zilch. There are some fine actors involved like John Mills, Donald Pleasence and Margaret Leighton and you wonder how they got roped into this mess. It couldn't have been the script! Hopefully, they all got nice big paychecks. The film's best performance comes from Brian Glover as a cockney gangster and the movie perks up whenever he's on screen.