Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

rogerblake-281-718819 The Black Shield of Falworth is the film where Tony Curtis DID NOT quote the line "Yonder lies da castle of my fadda",though he does have a rather unusual accent.There again you only have to read Chaucer aloud to realise that ordinary folk did not speak with cut glass English accents so maybe Curtis had the last laugh after all.Like Cornel Wilde and John Derek Curtis was rather good in these tights and rapier romps.Here he is trying to restore the family honour and in the process stops the evil Earl of Alban,played by David Farrar,from seizing the throne and also wins the hand of the fair lady Anne,played by the lovely Janet Leigh.Amusingly Daniel O'Herelihy plays the future Henry V as a bit of a drunk but its only a cover to find out what the Earl is up to.He manages to do this without resorting to any great Shakespearian speeches.Curtis's best friend,one Francis Gascoigne,fancies Curtis's sister Meg.Don't you love a happy ending where both the hero and his mate get a girl?All this is played out in glorious Technicolor and in an idealised merry England where mud, muck and the usual unpleasantness do not exist.While the romantic stuff is par for the course what raises the film to a higher level is the standard of the action sequences.The sword fighting and jousting have a bone shaking reality about them and Curtis proves to be a dab hand at fighting with furniture,tables,chairs etc.A quick mention in dispatches for Torin Thatcher who plays Sir James.He teaches Curtis all the tricks of the trade in training for knighthood.A tough,gruff man capable of using brutality to make his point but fair minded and with a sense of humour.Medieval England was never quite how Hollywood depicted it,English history lessons might have been a lot more fun if it was.I thoroughly enjoyed this film and the cast all rose to the occasion with the right mixture of seriousness and tongue in cheek.

ianlouisiana Tony Curtis...how I wanted to be him back in 1956.The hair,the voice,the athleticism and grace....and married to Janet Leigh,it must have been just about the perfect life.I saw him on "The One Show" on BBC last month and he still looks better than me,still has the ladies swooning,and he's in a wheelchair for heaven's sake.Go figure. Unfairly denigrated and ignored for nearly half a century,"The black shield of Falworth"is just getting the recognition it deserves as a near perfect example of the Hollywood technicolor costume picture. It has no pretensions to historical accuracy,not a huge use is made of the iambic pentameter,the general filth and casual cruelty and violence of the Middle Ages is nowhere to be seen.This is Henry IVth's England as it never was,presented to ordinary 20th century audiences as a world of gentle knights with perfect teeth,dimpled maidens and big bad barons. It's entertainment,not a history lesson.And very successful entertainment too. Mr T.Curtis is outstanding as the young Falworth.Fizzing with suppressed energy,he tears into the part like a young puppy with a new toy.As a dispossessed heir,it is a role not unlike the one he would later play in the mighty "The Vikings".Mr T.Thatcher(no relation) gives his customary all as his mentor.Miss Leigh is charming and demure,Mr O' Herlihy a bluff Prince Hal. This picture is best viewed from behind a stick of candy floss,having just finished your "Kia Ora" and prior to daring to sneak your hand into your girl friend's.As your heart beats louder in your chest you can think that maybe you wouldn't want to swap places with Tony Curtis after all.

Prof-32 I'm surprised and delighted to see so many other comments, two or three of them identical to the one I had planned to make. I too saw this movie at age 8, and enjoyed it so much, I thought it my favorite movie the whole time I was growing up. I haven't seen it since it came out 53 years ago (!) yet I still looked it up, when IMDb was invented. Other little boys obviously had the same experience I had. My favorite comedy moment (no plot spoiler) at age 8 was the one in which Tony, being disciplined, is forced to hold a cannon ball at arm's length overnight, and in the morning can't put down his arm. The young Janet Leigh was in the film too? She must have been ravishing, but I never even noticed, of course. Hope an affordable DVD comes out which I could share with my son before he's too old to fully enjoy it. Best wishes to you other guys. It wasn't your imagination; it really was special, if you were a boy.

LRonCupboard Written as a document the "pink casting couch" phenomenon of the 1950's this movie sees a lot of well turned out lads with greaser haircuts being groomed for knighthood (starring roles) by a lot of Ado-masochistic old men (producers/directors) while being warned away from women. Amazingly this movie got past the Hollywood brass and the censors to become a minor hit which is a testament to Rudolph Mate, a lifelong celibate and dog-handler. Much rambunctious dorm tomfoolery ensues between these little honeys. Critics pan Tony Curtis for his Medieval English accent and at the time some of these critics were old enough to remember the era so their words may ring true. Janet Leigh looks like a pint of milk rubbed with lipstick which may be intentional.