IMDb user comments for
The Black Shield of Falworth (1954) More at IMDb Pro »

Filter:

Best Chronological Prolific Authors Loved It Hated It Hide Spoilers:

Page 1 of 2:

[1] [2]

Index

17 comments in total

---

9 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Enjoyable Adventure, Memorable Characters; Vivid as a Tapestry Come to Life, 3 July 2005

Author: silverscreen888

This is an adaptation of Howard Pyle's "Men of Iron", and an unusually enjoyable film from start to finish. Ignore Tony Curtis's accent; it hardly matters to anyone that young and everyone in the film is bright, lively and suitable to his/her part. The direction by Rudolph Mate gives a light, sunny feel to the entire piece, and he keeps the action moving splendidly in my judgment. The storyline is classic. Myles and his sister Meg have been raised as peasants. One day they journey to Mackworth Castle and enter a new world, the world of noble landowners, quarrelsome young prigs and knights. Myles continues to search for the secret of his origins and finds it in the Library finally, the Black Shield of Falworth, shield of an attainted traitor--his father; of course he was innocent; and when Myles turns out to be a promising young knight of courage and natural skills, he is willing to be knighted in order to fight it out--at Prince Hal (the future Henry V's) plan--with the villain of the piece to claim his rightful heritage and wear the family symbol again. Along the way, he falls in love with the daughter of the household and his sister with his best friend in the dangerous and unruly body of young knights. In the cast along with Curtis and Barbara Rush as Meg are Janet Leigh, then Curtis's wife, as his love, Torin Thatcher in top form as the master of knights, David Farrar, Herbert Marshall as Mackworth, Dan O' Herlihy as Prince Hal, Patrick O'Neal as Walter Blunt (very good), and Craig ill as his friend Frances; others in the stellar cast include Ian Keith as Henry IV, Doris Lloyd, Rhys Williams, Maurice Marsac and others. Music was supplied by Hans J. Salter, and the screenplay adaptation of Pyle's novel is the work of Oscar Brodney. Irving Glasberg's cinematography is delightfully rich,the art direction by Alexander Golitzen and Richard H. Ledel very good indeed. Rosemary Odell's costume are worth the price of admission. But this is an in-depth adventurous look behind the grim tapestries that usually baffle the seeker into the late Medieval Age, There is humor in this film, much hard learning for the young knight-to-be, mystery, skillful dialogue and unusually well-developed characters. This is an enjoyable and memorable work that is bright and lively from start to finish.

---

9 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Bad accents, but great flick, 16 April 2004
Author: MartynGryphon from Coventry, England

To my mind, this is the best knights of olde movie ever made. Years ago it was the habit of British tv station BBC2 to have a movie on at 6pm most evenings and they were usually, either 40 & 50's westerns, historical yarns, melodramas or swashbucklers. One such film was The Black Shield of Falworth, I was a big fan of such films like The Vikings (Incidentally or co-incidentally both starred Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh) and decided to record this movie, if it was any good I'd keep it, but if not just tape over the damn thing. The movie was that good I still have it after 15/16 years. The plot is similar to Henty's Novel 'St George for England' in as much as it tells the story of a peasant boy ignorant of his noble blood for most of his upbringing. though that's where the similarities end. The American accents in a film set in medieval England are ludricrous, but the plot of the film is so engaging that you don't mind as much. Torin Thatcher gives us another scene stealing performance as the firm but fair Sir James and if it's possible, betters his performance as Humble Bellows in The Crimson Pirate. This film has everything, action, romance, subtle comedy, and an excellent music score. This is not one to miss and I can't wait to get this movie on DVD so i can give my old VHS copy a well deserved retirement.

---

8 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Ever since childhood have I loved this!!, 3 September 2004

Author: beresfordjd from West Bromwich, England

I have always been a huge Tony Curtis fan and loved this movie when I was a kid. It has been marvelous to see his development from fluff like this (great fluff though) to The Sweet Smell of Success. He is one the the most versatile and underrated stars of the last 50 years.

This movie is fun anachronistic and historically inept but I love it almost as much now as I did as a child of 7/8 when I first saw it and reveled in the swash (and indeed buckle) of the medieval romp. Tony has never looked better and Janet Leigh is a dream. I remember playing Knights in armour all the way home with my pals after seeing this at the local fleapit. Power to you Tony!!!

---

6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
GO, TONY, GO., 19 August 1999
Author: ALAN MOUNT from CARDIFF, WALES

This romp plays like a medieval martial arts movie.It is very similar to the early Jackie Chan films with its story of a young man who goes to a fighting school to hone his brawling skills into those of a true warrior. Tony Curtis,like Chan,is energy personified in this movie.He doesn't walk when he can run, he doesn't run when he can jump and most of all he doesn't talk when he can fight. This bears comparison with "THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD" and "THE PRISONER OF ZENDA" and that over-used word 'camp' is only used by people who do not like or appreciate action fests like this and seek to denigrate them. Ignore those types and enjoy this zesty and bright adventure as an aperitif before watching Curtis in the truly great historical adventures like "THE VIKINGS" and "SPARTACUS."

---

4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Uneasy Lies The Head That Wears The Crown, 8 December 2007

Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

The Black Shield of Falworth is the only other story I know that concerns itself with the time of Henry IV. He's played here by Ian Keith and the film like the Shakespeare plays about him concern efforts to topple him from his throne. But other than Prince Hal, played here by Dan O'Herlihy, the rest of the cast are fictional characters from a novel by Howard Pyle.

Young Tony Curtis and his sister Barbara Rush have been raised in the forest by Rhys Williams. They are in fact of noble birth, but Dad was accused of treason, his lands forfeited and his family under a death sentence.

They're sent still unaware of their identity to another nobleman's digs in this case Herbert Marshall's. Curtis trains first as a squire and then a knight by tough drill sergeant man at arms, Torin Thatcher. It's for the day he can challenge villain David Farrar and his equally villainous brother Patrick O'Neal for plotting against his father.

Of course Curtis also falls for his then real life wife Janet Leigh who O'Neal is also interested in.

The Black Shield of Falworth was the first Universal film in cinemascope and Universal was far more interested in the spectacle of the film than the story because they were competing with the small screen that was populating the homes of America. In his memoirs Tony Curtis says that the lack of interest in the story was all apparent, but that he did like working with director Rudolph Mate and his then wife Ms. Leigh.

Favorite in the film however has to be Torin Thatcher. You won't forget this rough and rugged old knight with a Rooster Cogburn eyepatch and a staff to support him walking. Still he's one tough old bird. Coming in second is David Farrar who is plotting to take the throne away from Ian Keith.

Which if you remember your Shakespeare was one that a lot of people felt he usurped from Richard II. So what we're watching The Black Shield of Falworth is just another reason why Ian Keith was not sleeping good at night.

---

4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Perfectly Watchable, 26 June 2005

Author: loza-1

Instead of trying to portray real historical events, Hollywood instead opts for a fictitious story set in the England of Henry IV. Nothing wrong with that, of course. Unusually for Hollywood, they actually make an effort to get things right historically, and broadswords are used as broadswords and not as rapiers. The weaponry and military techniques are pretty OK for a Hollywood film, and are, on the whole, accurate.

The fight sequences are very exciting and, along with the training methods, are probably the best bits of the film.

As to Tony Curtis's accent. Well, we have in Geoffrey Chaucer an authentic idea of what the English language in London was like in the early 15th century. It is ridiculous to write the script in Chaucerian English - not if you want to fill the cinemas, at any rate. Compare Tony Curtis in Black Shield with Olivier in Henry V. Is Olivier's accent any more correct or authentic? This is not the deepest film ever made, but there is plenty to enjoy about it.

---

4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Tony Curtis as a Knight!!! REALLY?????, 9 April 2000

Author: gary renfield (gary_renfield@email.com) from New Jersey, USA

Looking back, it seems like they showed this movie every other Sunday afternoon (and I watched it everytime). It's of a time when knights were bold and their women were beautiful. And, a time when you settled your disputes on the 'field of honor'. Tony Curtis looks a bit awkward in the role of 'knight wannabe', but you soon suspend belief and accept him in the part.

The story unfolds in nicely presented vignettes (over the course of years), that are assembled effortlessly and almost seamlessly. Battles and glory await our hero (the girl awaits too). It's an entertaining journey to the climatic finish. Enjoy....

---

7 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Campy fun in the middle ages, 5 April 1999

Author: KimB-3 from Maryland

How could you not love Tony Curtis in a knights and armor picture? He's wonderfully miscast in this middle ages romp about a "boy" (Curtis looks in his mid-twenties) searching for his father's identity. Valiantly suppressing his New York twang, Curtis climbs vines to be with his illicit love, Lady Anne, dodges blows from jealous fellow-squire, Walter Blunt, and throws down the gauntlet to satisfy his honor against the evil Earl of Alban. This is Tony Curtis at his campy best, his manliness untainted by the dark implications of his later work (to wit, the "Oysters and Snails" scene in "Spartacus"). The middle ages never looked so clean.

---

11 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
A quibble with the critics about dialect., 13 March 2005
Author: mbuchwal from United States

Why do all the critics love to attack Tony Curtis for his accent in this movie? (Most frequently citing the line "Yonda lies da castle of my fodda.") Since Curtis's movie acting is invariably entertaining, doesn't he deserve the benefit of a doubt when it comes to the arcane question of what accent is appropriate to a fictional medieval character? The critics have always complained that his accent sounds too American or New York for a medieval knight. But how can the critics be so sure that they are right and the actor is wrong? I mean, what did a genuine English knight of the middle ages really sound like? Have they researched this question?

There were many races of people in England of the middle ages: Saxons, Angles, Normans, Celts, Scandinavians, Picts, Scots, Frenchmen, Jews, even some Moors. Back then, of course, they didn't speak modern English as actors do in almost every American-made movie, so the only issue is whether Curtis's pronunciation of vowels and consonants sounds wrong or right for a medieval knight.

In the Bronx in the twentieth century (Tony Curtis's time and place) there was a mixture of races similar to that of Europe in the middle ages. The pronunciation of the local dialect spoken most likely would have been similar to that of many European languages, including English of several historical periods. Most importantly, if Tony Curtis spoke Yiddish, then he spoke a dialect very similar to medieval languages like Old German or Old English.

It's pretty obvious that the critics had it completely wrong. If there had ever been a real knight of Falworth and we somehow had the opportunity to ask him to pronounce the "offending" line (which was actually the invention of a carping critic and not even in the movie), how might it have sounded? Tony Curtis had it right!

---

3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Great for its time and a classic, 7 April 2004

Author: Argon52 from Santa Fe, NM

My brother and I would wait and wiat and wait for this movie to be shown on TV on a classics show, and growing up loving D&D this was the closest thing we had for a movie that was clean and enjoyable dealing with the awesome subject matter and decient story line, and "OK" acting. But we did not care it had knights, and damsels, and kings, and jousting, etc... Great for the whole family and manI wish it would come to DVD!!!!

Even the used VHS is $100, that is just too much for me!

If you ever get to watch this film do yourself a favor and go see it without any expectations and realize the date it was made and you will enjoy it!

---

---

Page 1 of 2:

[1] [2]

Add another comment

---

Related Links

Plot summary	Ratings	External reviews
Plot keywords	Main details	Your user comments
Your vote history