The Black Shield of Falworth
6.6 /10 1 Votes6.6
Director Rudolph Mate Duration Language English | 6.6/10 Genre Adventure, History, Romance Country United States | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Release date September 2, 1954 (1954-09-02) Cast (Myles Falworth), (Lady Anne of Mackworth), (Gilbert Blunt, Earl of Alban), (Meg Falworth), (William, Earl of Mackworth), (Sir James) Similar movies Captain America: The Winter Soldier , The Avengers , Thor , Ant-Man , Avengers: Age of Ultron , Guardians of the Galaxy |
The Black Shield of Falworth is a 1954 film made by Universal-International, produced by Robert Arthur and Melville Tucker and directed by Rudolph Maté. The screenplay was adapted by Oscar Brodney from Howard Pyle's novel Men of Iron and starred Tony Curtis as Myles Falworth, Janet Leigh as Lady Anne of Mackworth, David Farrar as the Earl of Alban, Herbert Marshall as the Earl of Mackworth, and Torin Thatcher as Sir James. The original music score was composed by Hans J. Salter.
Contents
- The black shield of falworth trailer
- Plot
- Differences from Men of Iron
- False quotation
- The black shield of falworth 1954 tony curtis janet leigh david farrar
- References

The film was Universal-International's first feature in CinemaScope. It opened in New York City on October 6, 1954 at the Loew's State Theater. It was the second of five films in which husband and wife Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh appeared together on screen during their marriage (1952-1961).

The black shield of falworth trailer
Plot

Myles Falworth (Tony Curtis) and his sister Meg (Barbara Rush) live in obscurity on a farm in Crosbey-Dale with their guardian Diccon Bowman (Rhys Williams). This is to protect them from the attainder placed upon their family by King Henry IV of England (Ian Keith) because their father has been (falsely) accused of treason and murdered by the Earl of Alban (David Farrar). When a hunting party comprising the Earl of Alban, the lord of Crosbey-Dale, and another nobleman, Sir Robert, stop at their farm for refreshment, they are repulsed by Myles to stop them molesting his sister.

This confrontation accelerates Diccon's plans to send them to Mackworth Castle in Derbyshire (based on the eponymous castle). The Earl of Mackworth (Herbert Marshall), a close friend of their father, becomes their protector, and he sees in Myles the man who can rid England of the evil machinations of the Earl of Alban. Myles is trained to be a knight, is knighted by the king, and kills the Earl of Alban in trial by combat, foiling Alban's attempt to seize the English crown. Myles then marries the Earl of Mackworth's daughter, Lady Anne (Janet Leigh).
Differences from Men of Iron

The story of The Black Shield of Falworth differs from the novel in a number of ways. In the novel:

False quotation

The film is famous for an apocryphal line, rendered as "Yonda stands da castle of my fodda" or similar. The plot details above show that this would not fit the story: there is no "castle of my father". The line is said to have come from a remark made by Debbie Reynolds on television.

This chestnut used to be quoted in Radio Times whenever the film was on BBC television, and found its way into a 2007 study of Tony Curtis's work by Clive James. Curtis has denied ever saying that line, but he did actually say a similar line in the movie Son of Ali Baba, released in 1952, that reads, "This is the palace of my father, and yonder lies the Valley of the Sun", and he did deliver it in a markedly New York accent.
The black shield of falworth 1954 tony curtis janet leigh david farrar
References
The Black Shield of Falworth WikipediaThe Black Shield of Falworth IMDb The Black Shield of Falworth themoviedb.org