The golden sword

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Movie
German title The golden sword
Original title The Golden Blade
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1953
length 81 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Nathan Juran
script William R. Cox
production Irving Gertz
Herman Stein
for Universal Pictures
music Irving Gertz
Herman Stein
camera Maury Gertsman
cut Ted J. Kent
occupation
synchronization

The Golden Sword (original title The Golden Blade ) is an adventure film made in 1953 by Nathan Juran . Rock Hudson as Harun and Piper Laurie as Princess Khairuzan can be seen in the main roles . The film is set in fairytale Baghdad and uses motifs from the stories from 1001 nights .

action

A battle rages in the desert between the cities of Basra and Baghdad , during which the father of Basrani Harun is badly wounded. Shortly before his death, he was able to slip a medallion to his son, which he could snatch from his murderer. He implores Harun to end the war.

Harun travels to Baghdad, where he meets the beautiful young Khairuzan and the merchant Barcus, in whose back part of the shop he discovers a golden sword. When an uprising breaks out, Harun defends Khairuzan and the trader with this sword, and it turns out that he has a special power that helps Harun to be invincible. Shortly after the fighting, Harun finds a medallion that is identical to the one he received from his father at the hour of his death. Barcus is now trying to decipher the two inscriptions on the sword, believing that the weapon correlates with a legend. However, he does not manage to read them immediately and warns Harun that every sword has two sides and that he must be very careful as long as he does not know how the sword's powers work.

At around the same time, Grand Vizier Jafar wants to force the Caliph of Baghdad into renewed battles against Basra, which he refuses. Shortly afterwards, Khairuzan - she is the daughter of the caliph - is brought in by her guardian, Hadi, the son of Jafar. Jafar succeeds in convincing the caliph that the stubborn young woman can be tamed by marrying his son. Jafar has dark intentions to which his son Hadi, who is as devious as his father, is privy to. Jafar is working to undermine the position of the caliph and instigate further battles against Basra.

When Khairuzan learns that she is going to be Hadi’s wife, she disguises herself as a boy and is able to escape the palace walls. At the same time Harun is waiting in front of the palace for an audience with Jafar. Although Khairuzan manages to flee with Harun's horse, which is waiting, she is quickly caught by Hadi and Harun, and a fight ensues between the men. With the help of the magic sword, however, Harun remains unharmed. Khairuzan claims to be a servant, so Harun takes her into town and there to Barcus. She learns from the dealer that he has now deciphered the first inscription on the sword. It says that he who pulls the sword out of an insurmountable material wins the throne. Only now does Harun realize that Khairuzan is a girl in disguise. When they both get hold of and throw them in jail, there is a first kiss, which in turn ends in an argument. Since it is now known who is Khairuzan, she is released to her father's home. The young woman explains to her surprised father that only those who emerge victorious from a tournament can ask for her hand. Before that, she made sure that Harun, whom she describes as her servant, was also released. Only now does the young man realize that Khairuzan is a princess. Although he is angry with her at first, it quickly subsides, and he admires the way the princess gives alms to poor townspeople.

In the meantime, Khairuzan's maid has informed Bakhamra Hadi about the magical sword, who immediately developed a plan with his father to steal it. They make a copy, drug Harun and swap the two swords for each other. Meanwhile, the tournament is about to begin and Khairuzan manages to convince Harun that he has to register too. She contradicts his objection that he is not aristocratic enough, whereupon Harun kisses her with a feeling of happiness. He then hurries to Barcus to announce the good news to his new friend. When Barcus warns him that the second inscription says that the wearer's real reward has to do with a stone grave, he does not want to hear it.

It doesn't take long for everyone except Hadi and Harun to be eliminated from the competition. Finally Hadi wins, who succeeds in pushing Harun out of the saddle. Harun is now clear that the swords have been exchanged, his suspicions are directed against Khairuzan. In the palace he comes across Bakhamra, who has just received the passport from Hadi, so that, disappointed, she reveals the true facts to Harun. Harun can just prevent Hadi from trying to force the princess into bed, but has to face a fight. Shortly afterwards, he is captured by Hadi's guards and brought to Jafar. In his company are the caliph and Bakhamra. Jafar now declares that Bakhamra will be killed and Harun will be blamed, and the caliph will also be eliminated. When Jafar takes out his locket, Harun sees that it is the same one he has. The Grand Vizier's attempt to kill the caliph with the magic sword, however, fails because the sword gets stuck in a stone pillar. The guards then kill the caliph. Harun and Khairuzan manage to escape by faking their deaths for the guards.

Jafar and Hadi are now trying in vain to pull the golden sword out of the stone pillar. Their plan to have this done by strong men and magicians from Baghdad also fails. Meanwhile, Khairuzan gathers the residents of Baghdad while Harun and Barcus sneak into the palace. Harun has to fight the guards there. Before he can be captured, Khairuzan arrives with her army. When Harun reaches for the sword, it comes loose from the pillar, which collapses and buries Jafar and Hadi under them. Now that Baghdad's true enemies are dead, Khairuzan proclaims that Harun is a hero. They kiss to the cheers of the townspeople.

production

Production notes, background

The working title of the film, filmed at Castle, Blacklot, Universal Studios from mid-November to mid-December 1952, was The Sword of Damascus .

After Farley Granger and Tony Curtis , who had previously been offered the role, turned it down, it went to Rock Hudson.

reception

publication

The film premiered on August 12, 1953 in Los Angeles, California, before it was generally released in US theaters on September 23, 1953. The following year it was published in Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Japan, Australia and France (Paris). It premiered on April 9, 1954 in the Federal Republic of Germany.

In 1955 it was published in Turkey, Spain (Madrid), Denmark and Portugal. He was also seen in Belgium, Bulgaria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Greece, Italy and Romania.

The film was released by Koch Media GmbH on July 22, 2008 with a German soundtrack on DVD. The golden sword was also released in HD as Blu-ray in 2014 by Koch Media along with two other stories from 1001 Nights .

criticism

"Magnificent, colorful and adventurous fairytale film in the American Thousand and One Nights style."

- Lexicon of international film

At cinemusic.de it was said that this type of film would provide an "unmistakably nostalgic flair", as well as "the encounter with Rock Hudson and Piper Laurie and the later star from La Dolce Vita (1960), Anita Ekberg." These “rather simply knitted, but visually memorable adventure strips” were “definitely a welcome, pleasantly relaxing nostalgia trip for a rainy Sunday afternoon or something similar”.

Dennis Schwartz of Ozus' Welt Filmkritiken spoke of an entertaining but standard adventure film directed by Nathan Juran and concluded: A typically lavishly photographed Technicolor film of its time.

The At-A-Glance Film Reviews rating saw the film as an interesting entry in a long line of films from the Arabian Nights adventures of the 1940s and 1950s. For people who have a weakness for this genre, it is definitely recommendable and it is always entertaining.

Dave Sindelar wrote that this is an Arabian Nights film, the most interesting aspect of which is that the eponymous sword (which is not used very often) gets stuck in a pillar and plays a role similar to King Arthur's sword Excalibur. George Macready is a good villain (and when isn't he?), Piper Laurie is really cute (but which princess in an Arabian Night movie isn't that?). Everything is colorful, but the best thing about the film is Rock Hudson's performance, because he manages to find exactly the right balance between seriousness and fun. That was really well done and this film was probably one of the better films of its kind.

On the page of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops it was said that under the direction of Nathan Juran the formula worked, the film also had some good action sequences, but the plot was flat and the actors' performance ranged from wooden to exaggerated theatrical , stylized violence is also involved.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The golden sword , dubbed 1954 by Ultra Film Synchron GmbH Berlin, dubbing director and dialogue book Josef Wolf
    see synchrondatenbank.de
  2. ↑ The Golden Blade Original Print Information at TCM - Turner Classic Movies (English)
  3. ↑ The Golden Blade Notes at TCM (English)
  4. ↑ The golden sword sS dvd-sucht.de with illus. DVD case
  5. ↑ a b The most beautiful classics from 1001 Nights (Blu-ray) sS cinemusic.de
  6. ↑ The golden sword. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed May 1, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  7. ↑ Dennis Schwartz: The Golden Blade sS homepages.sover.net (English). Retrieved May 23, 2018.
  8. ↑ The Golden Blade sS rinkworks.com (English). Retrieved May 23, 2018.
  9. ↑ Dave Sindelar: The Golden Blade sS fantasticmoviemusings.com (English). Retrieved May 23, 2018.
  10. ↑ The Golden Blade sS archive.usccb.org (English). Retrieved May 23, 2018.