Majorthebys Charming and brutal

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

ma-cortes Nice adventure movie with stunning heroes/heroines, whole fast-moving scenes and great energy running through it. A spoiled young called Myles, Tony Curtis, goes to the royal court and is subsequently trained for knighthood. He is son of a deceased lord accused as a traitor. Myles results to be an excellent swordsman, rider and brave warrior who fights enemy and saves maids . Later on , he is out to thwart a nasty conspiracy led by a villain noble : David Farrar against King Henry IV : Ian Keith . Meanwhile , Curtis attempts to win the Hand of a beautiful Maiden , Lady Anne : Janet Leigh.Typically Technicolor Universal International Pictures of the 50s , including spectacular and colorful scenes , comic-strip style , fair damsels in distresses , spectacular battles , glamorous costumes and many other things . Being loosely based on a popular novel written by the prestigious Howard Pyle . This exuberant movie is filled with battling bodies , invigorating vitality , romance and thrilling swordplay. Tony Curtis gives a sympathetic acting with his NY acccent as Myles , the son of a disgraced knight . At the time Tony Curtis played a number of swashbucklers and adventure movies as The Vikings , Purple mask , The prince who was a thief , Son of Ali Baba . He is well accompanied by his wife at the time , the beauty Janet Leigh , and the charming Barbara Rush playing his sister . Top-notch supporting performances from a great secondary cast , such as : Herbert Marshall , Torin Thatcher , Dan O'herlihy, Patrick O'neal , Craig Hill , Ian Keith , Rhys Williams , among others. It packs a brilliant photography by Russell Metty who along with Irving Glassberg were ordinary Universal cameramen .The motion picture was profesionally by Rudolph Mate , though it has some flaws . He was a notorious cameraman and turning as a filmmaker in 1947 . He directed all kinds of genres as SciFi : When the world collide; Historical /Adventure as Seven seas to Calais, The Barbarians, 300 Spartans ; Westerns : In the Siege at Red River , The Mississipi gambler , The rawhide years ; and Film Noir : Union station , Second chance. The pictures themselves were for the most part undistinguished with his best work probably being the classic Noir DOA with Edmund O'Brian .Rating : 6/10 , acceptable and passable adventure movie . The movie will appeal to Tony Curtis fans .

tuesda2 Having first read the book, Men of Iron by Howard Pyle, I was very pleasantly surprised that the film was more enjoyable. From the title, through the plot and concluding with the climax, it was and is superlative. Although it has been in excess of six decades since my first viewing, the thrill from this movie has not lessened an iota. My rating is a solid "10." If, though, you are one who relishes nit-picking, you will probably be disappointed, as Falworth is definitely not an Oscar quality presentation.

MARIO GAUCI As I am nearing the end of this eclectic but erratic month-long epic film viewing marathon, I have decided to dedicate this Saturday to revisiting my fondly remembered childhood memories of two vintage (but relatively minor) Technicolor swashbucklers which, thankfully, I purposely managed to acquire only recently: one is the latter-day Errol Flynn pirate yarn, AGAINST ALL FLAGS (1952; see below) and the other, naturally, the film under review.After all these years, THE BLACK SHIELD OF FALWORTH still emerges as the engaging romp I recalled it to be and is, in fact, a superior piece of Hollywood hokum – so much so that it’s quite a mystery to me how the film (which was even Universal’s very first Widescreen picture) is as yet unavailable anywhere on DVD and I have had to make do with a full-frame VHSrip which, in hindsight, is of surprisingly tolerable quality (with only the tell-tale excessive headroom being indicative of the fact that it was shot in a different aspect ratio). In any case, I think it is high time that, like Rock Hudson before him, Tony Curtis be given his own “Franchise Collection” DVD release from Universal which ought to contain (for starters) the equally exotic THE PRINCE WHO WAS A THIEF (1951; his first starring vehicle which was also directed by FALWORTH helmer, Rudolph Mate'), SON OF ALI BABA (1952) and THE PURPLE MASK (1955) – as well as any of the other Universal programmers Curtis starred in before emerging (if only briefly) with an altogether more adult image for Alexander Mackendrick’s superb SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957).Anyhow, back to FALWORTH: set in England during the reign of King Henry IV (Ian Keith), Curtis is (albeit unknowingly at first) the son of an unjustly accused and executed aristocrat who, along with his lovely sister (Barbara Rush), embarks on his way to knighthood by joining the men-at-arms school situated in the castle of an old ally of his father’s (Herbert Marshall) and tyrannically overseen by cantankerous but ultimately well-meaning one-eyed warrior (Torin Thatcher). The impressive cast is further bolstered by the appearance of Curtis’ then-wife Janet Leigh (as Marshall’s daughter who, naturally, falls for the uncouth graces of this “county bumpkin”), Dan O’ Herlihy (in a drunken, buffoonish caricature of Prince Hal – later King Henry V – which is merely a front to mislead the traitors within his father’s court), David Farrar (as the villainous Earl of Alban), Patrick O’Neal (as the latter’s brother and Curtis’ chief contender at training school and for the hand of Leigh herself) and Rhys Williams (playing the loyal servant who harbors Curtis and Rush at the beginning of the film).While some of the plot points got hazier with the passage of time, I still remembered the scenes of Curtis climbing the walls of the castle to go romance Janet Leigh during her afternoon croquet lessons, of Curtis stumbling around upon donning heavy armor for the first time and the exciting climactic jousting duel between Curtis and Farrar; needless to say, I now much preferred the various vivid sequences of training and combat to the bland romantic stuff but, still, I was disappointed that the immortal, much derided line supposedly uttered by Curtis in this film, “Yonda lies da castle of my fodda”, is never actually spoken, resulting in yet another Hollywood legend – a' la ALGIERS (1938; “Come wiz me to the Casbah”) and CASABLANCA (1942; “Play it again, Sam”) – which has, with time, grown to become accepted as fact!

beresfordjd 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. The unusually excellent cast make this movie rise above the usual such fare. As one of the other posters here state, the training sequences are great as is Torin Thatcher (almost as good as his evil wizard in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad).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 revelled 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!!! He never did say " Yonder lies the castle of my Fadda!" Suspend disbelief and enjoy!