2025 marks 50 years since the initial release of a true British comedy classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail hitting cinemas way back in 1975 — May 25th in the UK, and July 18th across the pond.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail remains one of the most eminently quotable comedy movies of all time, with the famous comedy troupe sending up Arthurian legend in trademark absurdist fashion.
It’s one of those films that seems to be woven into the cultural fabric of the UK, with a deep familiarity that transcends generations, and even the trifling matter of whether you’ve actually seen the film or not. This is a the ultimate memeable, GIFable movie, even though it was released decades before those terms gained currency.
To mark the occasion, we’ve assembled some of the memorable moments, little known facts, and amusing morsels of trivia from this timeless film.
1. It was a debut, of sorts
Monty Python and the Holy Grail might have technically been the second Monty Python movie, but it marked a debut in a couple of key ways. It was the first film co-directed by Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones, and the first true stand-alone Monty Python movie – 1971’s And Now for Something Completely Different was merely a collection of sketches from the TV series.
2. It was funded by rock stars
In the absence of proper studio backing, British bands Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, as well as Elton John and Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson, all helped to finance the movie. UK taxes ran as high as 90% at the time for high earners, so movie investment was seen as an ideal tax write-off.
3. It was a huge success
It’s often tempting to refer to Monty Python films as cult classics due to their off-the-wall nature, but they were actually very successful. Monty Python and the Holy Grail took in more money at the US box office than any other British film of 1975 - £2,358,229 in its initial run (the equivalent of around £25 million today), and an estimated $5,507,090 in re-releases.
4. Basil and Sybil Fawlty reunited
In the hilarious witch trial scene (not a sentence you hear very often), the alleged witch herself is played by none other than Conny Booth – aka John Cleese’s then-wife. Later on in that same year of 1975, Cleese and Booth would appear together in the first series of Fawlty Towers, as husband and wife hotel owners Basil and Sybil Fawlty.
5. The opening credits were a result of budgetary and time constraints
Ever wondered why the opening credits are so sparse? It wasn’t a left field artistic choice. Rather, the Monty Python crew ran out of time and money, so Michael Palin threw in some cod-Swedish humour to keep audiences entertained. The rest is history.
6. The film’s first killer gag arose from practicality
The film’s first and most sustained laugh comes from an inspired sight gag, but it was born of budgetary constraints. Our impoverished King Arthur is introduced trotting around the British Isles, not on a horse, but with a hapless servant clopping together two coconuts. The simple truth is that the production simply didn’t have the means to afford any real horses.
7. A one-legged stunt double with a famous name
In the famous black knight duel scene, John Cleese’s stunt double was a one-legged silversmith named Richard Burton. Cleese would take great delight in pronouncing that his stunt double for the film was Richard Burton, in reference to the renowned Welsh thespian of the same name.
8. Michael Palin was the hardest working Python
The member of the Monty Python troupe with the most roles in the movie: Michael Palin, who played 12 different parts.
10. The opening castle scene almost didn’t happen
Fans of the film will be familiar with the memorable opening scene, in which a soldier mocks his would-be besiegers from atop the rampart of a castle. However, this nearly didn’t get shot, as the Pythons were unable to secure a suitable location. Fortunately, the privately owned Doune Castle in Glencoe stepped in right at the end of filming.
11. They got their coconut calculations wrong
That early castle encounter involving a pedantic soldier is often quoted, and it pays off further with the later Bridge of Death scene. However, if we’re to be similarly pedantic, the whole ‘could a swallow carry a coconut?’ calculation is off from the start. European swallows actually weigh less than an ounce – far less than the five ounces stipulated by the argumentative soldier. What’s more, they only need to flap their wings around a quarter of the “43 times per second” posited here.
12. Elvis was a huge fan
The King of Rock and Roll was known to be a huge fan of Monty Python’s output. According to friend of Elvis Jerry Shilling, he was a particularly huge fan of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, watching it dozens of times. Elvis was even said to have quoted from the film in his everyday life, spouting the line “It's just a flesh wound” in various scenarios.
13. It was the least male Python film
Of all four Monty Python movies, Holy Grail is the most gender-balanced. It’s still a predominantly male affair, but unlike the other movies, almost all of the female roles are played by women.
14. Game of Thrones quoted from the movie
Beyond the vaguely medieval setting, you wouldn’t think that George R. R. Martin’s gritty fantasy series had much in common with Monty Python and the Holy Grail. And yet at the peak of the hit TV adaptation’s popularity – specifically in the third episode of the fourth series, Breaker of Chains – a direct(ish) quote from the film was issued forth. The famous “Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelled of elderberries” line was translated into the fictional language of Low Valyrian and hurled at queen Daenerys’s champion.
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