Tonight's Movie: The Black Shield of Falworth (1954) - A Universal Blu-ray Review

The swashbuckling classic THE BLACK SHIELD OF FALWORTH (1954) has just been released on Blu-ray by Universal Pictures.I don't use the word "classic" lightly; like Curtis's earlier SON OF ALI BABA (1952), this film is a joy start to finish, '50s era studio entertainment at its best.The movie played on local television often when I was young -- I seem to recall it was KHJ Channel 9 which showed it -- and the wonderful cast and combination of action, humor, and romance helped draw me into the world of classic-era movies.It's a tired cliche to make fun of the casting of Tony Curtis as a knight, given that he was born Bernard Schwartz in New York, but we'll have none of that here. Proper accent or not, the handsome young actor is absolutely perfect as Myles of Crisbey-Dale, a peasant farmer with a mysterious past.Myles has a run-in with the Earl of Alban (David Farrar, THE GOLDEN HORDE) after one of the Earl's men attacks Myles' sister Meg (Barbara Rush), after which Myles and Meg's…