There's this film I saw when I was a kid and I have absolutely no idea what it is called, who starred in it and who directed it. This is what I can remember, I was only a kid when I saw it:
There is a major battle sequence at the end of the film. It's something to do with a castle/fortress.
It's deffinately a medieval film as I can remember plenty of people on horses.
There seemed to be a large cast, plenty of everything in terms of production design. There were loads of soldiers and extras. I think that they were all wearing medieval body armour. It must have had a major budget!
I can remember a scene with a crossbow. The film had great atmosphere and I know it was British because it just had that british feel to it.
There was an english actor in it, he was deffinately some form of character actor. The rest of the cast featured lots of english guys. I think he had a beard. It may have been Harris or Reed, but this is just a guess!
It was very similar to 'Zulu', in terms of a build up of soldiers and a narrative build up of tension and suspense leading to a final battle. All of this takes place at the end of the film at the enemies castle. It was a massive structure and was the most impressive castle I have seen in any film!.
There was some sort of feud between a major character and a man in the castle. They had many scenes where they were meidating between the castle and the battlefield. Kind of like a psychological barrage, 'we'll get in old boy in the end, we always do' kind of thing, lol
Earlier in the film I can vaguely remember some village scenes, there seemed to be a hell of a lot of mud around the village!. Everything was all very diry and seemed very authentic. I know it was an english film, it's so obvious of the type of historical epic that we made in the 60's/70's. It must have been in the the latter two decades.
It was colour and seemed to be on a long time and it had a wonderful atmosphere.
You could see the actors breath when they were outside the castle, it looked really cold, it may have been in Scotland, just a guess.
I might be wrong but there seemed to be some barbarism towards some of the villagers in some scenes. I can deffinately remember a character actor taking food from an open village market stall without paying for it!, some quip and I think he pushed the woman down and knocked her stand over!
It was quite gruesome but it was on in the afternoon and there were lots of fighting scenes. The director paid a great attention to detail and the battle scenes were outstanding!.
I can remember vividly one scene of the main character in some sort of blood speech, vengeance to the death and all that. It's a great film and theres a scene towards the end of the main character actor on foot slaughtering the enemies with a sword, enough gusto and energy to defeat a thousand enemies. It so sounds like a Richard Harris performance.
Also the main bloke had one of those spikes on a stick at one point, I'm sure his best friend gets killed by an enemy too which only fuels his anger to kill them all. It sounds a bit like Braveheart but it's ten times better than that with an atmosphere like no other. It was a very dark film.
I think as well, I'm certain there was a third major character actor, her may have been American!, it could have been Orson Welles, he seems to come to mind when I think of the role in the film. He was the kind of pessimistic character who was telling the Harris character that they'll get inside the castle. I also remember that the actor stayed mainly still while he was sat on his horse. It could even be Rod Steiger!
How it ends I can't quite remember. It was such a tour-de-force of a film and I was about 8 when I must have saw it. It was the first film that really made a great impact on me. There are images and memories that have stayed with me for 14 years since I saw it. I'd hate to have to wait another 14 years to see it.
I'm desperate to find out what it's called and if any one can help, has any suggestions to what it might be, please reply because any leads would be great. If you think it sounds like a film youve seen, tell me because this is one film that needs a greater appreciation. I've been keeping an eye on the TV guides for years trying to catch this old medieval epic and it's never popped up. I have a bug suspicion that this film is lost in a film archive somewhere, never to be seen again.
please help!
cheers :)
Yes like you whilst watching The Vikings remembered an even better siege type realistic film.
My memory through up an American actor with a bowl like haircut, thinking for some reason of Charlton Heston, I tracked down The War Lord on The AllMovieGuide.com.
Reading the synopsis it seems to be the film I was thinking of, I hope that it was yours
Right, this forum is amazing!.
Thanks for your reply Russ, it could very well be Chuck Heston himself. One reviewer on the imdb mentioned giant catapults at the end of The War Lord. Does anyone else remember this?. And is it me, or is my subconscious telling me those catapults were firing flame filled mortars at the castle. I'm sure I can remember the giant block stones of the castle being pushed in!
I had a look at The War Lord on the net and it does sound very similar to the film I saw. But now I've found another film that is also very similar, The Last Valley starring the Zulu man himself, Michael Caine. And it even has Omar Sharif (big character actor on a horse as I remembered?).
But, there's more. Could the film I've been searching for years me Cromwell (1970 with Richard Harris himself?. It's got the great Alec (I hate Star Wars) Guinness in and even has a big character actor (Robert Morley on a horse?). I don't know whether it's my imagination but I'm sure Morley spits his lines to Harris whilst on a horse! Lol Cromwell could very well be the one. So, it's got to be one of three films:
The War Lord
Cromwell
The Last Valley
I'd have to see all three to be sure. It does sound like The War Lord but it also strongly sounds like Cromwell!. I think that it would more likely be Cromwell because Richard Harris is the actor I most stronly associate with my memories of the film. Cromwell is also littered with great english character actors.
But what about a castle or fortress, can anyone who's seen Cromwell tell me if there's fortress type thing in the bulk of the film?
I would have to say that it's either Cromwell or The War Lord. Thanks for the info Russ. :)
Does this film ring a bell with anyone else?
Charlton Heston in "THE WARLORD" 1965 gets my vote too. Guy Stockwell with that haircut. Good old Richard Boone eating the scenery and it was a great tower, moat and all. But then I might be wrong. Could it not have been an episode of the Danziger produced 1962 t.v.series "RICHARD THE LIONHEART" starring Dermot Walsh and Glyn Owen?. With Trader Faulkner as Prince John trying to kill them in a castle they were Kipping in over night. No! thats right could not have been that one. You remember it as having high prodution levels and that episode cost less than Mr.Heston's Wig.
Hackett, are we implying that Mr. Heston wares wigs! lol :)
He's made some pretty cool films in his time though has Charlton.
The Omega Man
This stands as the pinacle of seventies tack, with Heston hunting down vampires after a bio-apocalypse has left him quite literally 'The Last Man On Earth' : book and film was made orginally with Vincent Price in, wait for it, The Last Man On Earth, a rare film which inspired George A. Romero to make Night Of The Living Dead. Check out the score in this film from the bloke who did the zany music from The Prisoner TV Series.
Soylent Green
The ever powerful cult eco-film Now watch this for loads of reasons. It's classic for
starters but also features Edward G. Robinson's last screen performance. The scene where Robinson dies is one of the most touching scenes in seventies cinema, and has me in tears everytime. Watch the ending and spot the strikingly similar scenes to Bladerunner a decade later!. it even has the same setup for the end.
"Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!"
And last but not least, Franlin J. Schaeffner's Planet Of The Apes. Forget the remake, which isn't a hard thing to do. This has everything, sixties acting, costumes, the best score of Goldsmith since The Satan Bug and the camera work is enough to make you faint. And lets not forget Roddy McDowall as an ape :) Got to love that twist ending!. All together now...:
"DAMN YOU! GOD DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!!"
And if you're feeling extremely brave, check out ANY film Heston made in the seventies, what a star. Earthquake doesn't get any better. How many times can you watch Ava Gardner absolutely sloshed onscreen? Timeless. And the matte shots
by British matte artist genius, Albert Whitlock are out of this world. I think Whitlock has alhzeimer's or something now
But what about Charlton Heston in english films?
He has made - films in the British Connection, as I call it: All of these films were made in england/produced by england
The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959)
Gr8 Cinemascope cinematography and gr8 english location filming, along with some pretty nifty FX scenes. It even has an aging Gary Cooper in it (his face looks super stretched, he had a face-lift after High Noon!). The task of bringing this novel to the screen was originally assigned to writer Ernest Lehman and director Alfred Hitchcock. Lehman eventually went to Hitchcock and told him that he couldn't come up with anything. Hitchcock told him not to worry about it, that they'd do something else. Lehman said "But what about MGM?" Hitchcock replied "We won't tell them." That "something else" that they came up with was North by Northwest.
English director Michael Anderson made this film and he has made some classics in the past including:
The Dam Busters (1954),
the overlooked David Niven epic Around the World in Eighty Days (1956),
the atmosopheric war thriller The Yangtse Incident (1957),
The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959),
the fantastic war film Operation Crossbow (1965) with super evil Nazi Anthony Quayle in black leather lol,
and an espionage gem of a thriller with Alec Guinness The Quiller Memorandum (1966) he also made the nifty sci-fi thriller Logans Run (1976).
Khartoum (1966)
An epic cinerama production and taking the collective talents of two directors to bring the epic story to the screen. British director Basil Dearden and yank Eliot Elisofon also directed (though it was the only film Elisofon ever made) Film tells the story of the 19th century war on Sudan. It's an underrated epic film in every sense of the word. Well worth looking out for. Unfortunately, Dearden died in an auto accident in 1971
He knew the scale of entertainment and never let up. Select Dearden films include:
Dead of Night (1945) scary as the devil this film is!,
the only film that star Stewart Granger ever liked of his own work Saraband for Dead Lovers (1948),
the gripping police drama the Blue Lamp (1950),
The Smallest Show on Earth (1957), a magical film about a tiny village cinema starring Peter Sellers,
and the crime thriller with a touch of humour The League of Gentlemen (1959). With english superhero Jack Hawkins!
Julius Caesar (1970)
British filmmaker Stuart Burge brought his own ideas of the play to the screen. It has a gr8 cast featuringthe creame of our british film talent. Stars opposite Heston are:
Sturge had a varied careet specialising mainly in well-constructed television work. He made 5 films in his 40 year career:
There Was a Crooked Man (1960) with Norman Wisdom,
Uncle Vanya (1963),
Othello (1965), with Laurence Olivier,
The Mikado (1967)
and then topped off his career with Julius Caesar (1970) with good old Charlton Heston. Burge died in england on 24 January 2002 with little attention from the film world.
Call of the Wild (1972)
British Ken Annakin directs Heston in the film about a house dog that is abducted and brought to the north as a sled dog. Hey, it's the seventies, they're aloud to be weird! I haven't seen it, but it sounds pretty good to me.
Three select films of note by Annakin, all brilliant, include:
The Longest Day (1962) with an international cast that will astound anyone. Watch for Richard Burton gasping for a fag. And watch out for Sean Connery moaning about bagpipes on the beach :) ,
Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 hours 11 minutes (1965), fun film that has to be seen in Widescreen to be trully appreciated,
Battle of the Bulge (1965), another kickass war film with evil Nazi Robert Shaw, proving he can out act anything, even tanks!. The latter two films are desperately calling out for DVD releases.
Antony and Cleopatra (1973)
Heston directs himself for a change in this rarely seen Shakespearian masterpiece. Also starring Eric Porter. Has a great soundtrack too.
Crossed Swords (1978)
Richard Fleischer directs a massive cast in this rip-roaring adventure yarn about a pauper who swaps identities with a prince. Cue adventure.
The cast includes: Oliver Reed, Raquel Welch, Ernest Borgnine, George C. Scott, Rex Harrison, David Hemmings, and the brilliant english character actor Harry Andrews.
Gr8 Fleischer films include:
20000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), with a wicked turn from James Mason as the ultimate Captain Nemo. One fun film!,
The Vikings (1958), as you've already said, a wicked siege film with Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis,
Fantastic Voyage (1966), with Donald Pleasence squeezing into a white diving suit, that has to be seen to be admired :) ,
Doctor Dolittle (1967), with sexy rexy (Rex Harrisson to you),
The Boston Strangler (1968), a gem of a rare film with Tony Curtis playing serious and Henry Fonda trying to track down the killer holding Boston in a tight grip of fear!,
Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), one of THE best war films ever made with some spectacular footage, some of the stunts went wrong and one scene has a stuntman narrowly missing a plane crashing in flames, spectacular. The Japenese sequences
are actually directed better than the american sccenes by Fleischer I'm afraid
10 Rillington Place (1971), Richard Attenborough plays John Christie, the murderer of 10 Rillington Place, John Hurt puts in the performance of a lifetime too. Channel 5 are showing this film soon, and,
Soylent Green (1973) my favourite Charlton Heston film.
Other english films featuring Charlton Heston are The Awakening (1980), one dodgy english eighties horror film, but still worth a look, and a role in Brannagh's Hamlet (1996).
What else can I say, except that good old Charlton Heston has been in some good english films too to add to his long career in motion pictures.
It's funny that the film The War Lord, might be the english medieval film I've been searching for all years. The film is actually an american film shot in California, USA. :) lol
At least Charlton Heston, when making english films, was wise enough to mostly be directed by english directors who clearlly knew what they were doing.
I always though that "WRECK OF THE MARY DEARE"1959 was made in England, but not so. It was shot on the old back lot of MGM. If you look close you can see the bridge and houses used as the Scottish village Rock Hudson sets off from in "ICE STATION ZEBRA" when Chuck and Coop nick the tug. Also I read it in a book about Richard Harris. I remmember reading a book by Charlton Heston who said that when he was in Spain making "KHARTOUM" one of the female stars said to him after a run in with the director "WHO DO I HAVE TO F--K TO GET OFF THIS MOVIE". Any guesses?.
As I recall there were no female stars in Khartoum or many females either. Perhaps you mean El Cid?
Hackett,
The Wreck Of The Mary Deare was a co-production between england and america. Many of the scenes were filmed in London as well as Long Beach, California. MGM, being known as a film studio that favoured back lot filming pulled off a technical feat with Ice Station Zebra. Filming the ice soundstage in the open air to capture natural sunlight!. Now, that's what I call cool. No arc lights on that set. I am a huge fan of the films of John Sturges and wish he would get the credit he trully deserves. He even made his last film in England, The Eagle Has Landed.
MGM acquired many talented british film personnel to pull of an even bigger technical achievement on The Wreck Of The Mary Deare. Can you even begin to imagine the budget of a film of this standard if it was done today. If done today it would no doubt be an all american production. But, as the 1959 production stands it was 75% filmed in England at the ever productive Elstree Studios in London.
MGM was not the only prodcer of this film, MGM shared the films production with an independent production company called Blaustein-Baroda. The Wreeck Of The Mary Deare was their only production. Deare stands as one of the first independent co-productions with a major studio. After all the sixties turned out to be the worst decade for the Hollywood studios, and the best decade for the rise of independent companies. The indie company on Deare was fronted by independent film producer Julian Blaustein. It might interest you to know that Blaustein also executively produced Charlton Heston's Khartoum :) . Blaustein's last production was the british Three Into Two Won't Go made in 1969 and starring Rod Steiger and Claire Bloom, directed by the great Sir Peter Hall.
British Art Direction Hans Peters completed a lot of the excellent Art Direction on Mary Deare. Now you know why the sets looked so good!. Mary Deare's set decoration was by Henry Grace and should be credited with making the ship as grimy as could be. He also handled the brilliant set decoration on Ice Station Zebra too. So now we know who was in charge of those wonderful looking icebergs. :) Set decoration was finished by Hugh Hunt who also finished the set decoration on Ben Hur.
Franklin Milton was the recording supervisor and he also worked on Ice Station Zebra too. Harold E. Wellman handled additional photography and was also involved with Diamonds Are Forever.
British Freddie Young also did some special photography work on Deare as well as doing some impressive work on Lawrence of Arabia, Lord Jim, Doctor Zhivago, You Only Live Twice, Battle of Britain and Ryan's Daughter. He was a man of great visual scope.
The Wreck Of The Mary Deare is showing on TCM on Wednesday, July 23, @ 0:15 A.M. in it's original CinemaScope aspect ratio of 2.35:1. You'll be able to spot the Elstree scenes a mile off, they're the best bits in the film, especially towards the finale with British Richard Harris.
Also, some of the Scottish village scenes in Ice Station Zebra were filmed in San Diego as well as the MGM open-back lot.
dylan is right about Khartoum, there were no actresses to have run ins with Khartoum's british director. Besides, the film was filmed entirely on location in Egypt. You are probably thinking of Anthony Mann's El Cid as dylan states. That was filmed in spain, and I can easilly imagine Sophia Loren coming out with a comment like that, bless her :) . El Cid was also filmed in Bamburgh Beach, Northumberland, England. Now, not many people know that when watching the american/italian epic. I easilly prefer Mann's later epic The Fall Of The Roman Empire with Loren anyday, it has better sets and better music by Dimitri Tiomkin as well. As Charlton Hestons stated about El Cid: "epics are the easiest films to direct badly". But Mann did a pretty good job.
STE Nottingham, I hope I'm not complicating it further since you seem to have it narrowed down to three films, but could this be "Prince Valiant" (1954) starring Robert Wagner as P.V. and James Mason as the villianous Black Knight? Plenty of battle scenes.
One particullary memorable scene (I saw this in the theater with my parents when it was first released) is one in which P.V. has to dive into a stream and breath through a reed to avoid capture by B.K.
P.S. - Your above reply concerning Charleton Heston in Planet of the Apes - "Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!" doesn't quite cut it compared to Dirk Bogart in 'Damn the Defiant' - "Take your hands off me you mutinous filth!"
Thanks everyone, maybe it was "EL CID". I do get things mixed up as I have pointed out before. Me thinks it's like a substance abuse thing only instead of Overdosing on drugs I O.D. on reading about celebritys. Perhaps I should book myself into that famous Hollywood medical centre. Is it THE JOHN FORD CLINIC?. No thats silly. Is it THE HENRY FORD CLINIC?. No thats for road rage. Thats right it's THE BETTY FORD CLINIC.
This has been a fascinating thread to read!
May I just chime in with the suggestion that the film in question may be the David Hemmings starrer, "Alfred the Great", from 1969 directed by Clive Donner. A big budget financial disaster, I recall seeing it as a kid (and loving it) but to my knowledge it has not been on Australian TV here for the last 20 years.
Oh, and having seen it recently, I doubt if "The Last Valley" is the film you are after.
Alfred the Great seems to be on TV about every five minutes here! I exaggerate (only slightly tho)
Rob
No sorry chaps this film has to be the War Lord with Chuck Heston as I posted earlier.
Now that's sorted would anyone help me out with my Holiday Camp thread.
Please
PRINCE VALIANT ends with an assault on a huge castle, built on the Fox backlot on Pico Blvd, all of which was demolished. The battle, shot at night so as not to give away the location, has vats of burning oil etc. with Victor McLaglen as a Viking. Main villain is James Mason as the Black Knight. Sterling Hayden gives a bizarre performance as a thoroughly American knight of the round table. But Robert Wagner and Janet Leigh looks perfectly like the drawings in Hal Foster's comic strip.
Eating my words time !!
The War Lord was on last night on ITV Granada, and it isn't the film, sadly it was a studio bound waste of time.
So what was Ste's flm, I'm back on the trail
I'm intrigued by this thread. So far you have given us these clues
1. medieval fortress / epic battle
2. village with mud
3. "plenty of people on horses/loads of soldiers."
4. scene with a crossbow
5. a British feel to it
6. An English actor who gives a Harris or Reed type performance
6A Possible Rod Steiger or Orson Welles appearance
7. "quite gruesome" (spikes, swords)
8. Tone: dark
You say you saw it when you were a kid. But Nottingham...how old are you?
If not for the Welles/Harris business, the emphasis on atmosphere and gore makes me think of Paul Verhoeven's FLESH AND BLOOD (1984), with Rutger Hauer. Of course it is not British. But it is notoriously gruesome, with lots of mud and a lengthy siege of a medieval castle. Could your movie have been as recent as that?
Another possible candidate is "Siege of the Saxons" (1963) starring Ronald Lewis and Janette Scott. This was a British film featuring a siege of King Arthur's castle.
Can't remember much about it except thinking it odd that the "bad guys" were the people who eventually became the English!
Too late to ask the original poster now but could this be Trial By Combat (1976)? The bearded actor he was thinking of may be Donald Pleasance.
Among the cast - and returning to haunt me yet again - is Thomas Heathcoate, who has spookily turned up several times in the last few weeks, in both name and spirit.
Could it be Tarus Bulba with Yul Brynner and Tony Curtis.
This film has all the elements in it you describe even though it is set in Eastern Europe.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056556/
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