The Sword and the Rose (1953)

This Disney review was written as the movie was playing on the TV. It may be longer then other reviews as I will jot down all the interesting story points as this film continues along. Perhaps I will edit this down to a bitable size at some point in my writing carrier.

This particular story takes place during the rolly polly days of King Henry the VIII. It starts out with a 16th century WWF wrestling match, complete with colorful outfits. O Henry is upset that no one can beat the "fantastique" French Wrestler . BUT THEN a young man on his way to America beats the tar out of him. The King’s sister takes a fancy to him and appoints him  'Captain of the Guards' to keep him around a little bit longer, delaying his trip to America. But the Duke of Buckingham has a fancy for Mary Tutur (the kings sister) which is sure to cause romantic strife with this trio of characters. Mary crushes the Duke's romantic aspirations however when  she gives him the ‘Lets Be Friends’ speech.

I must say that music and dancing has very much improved since the O Henry the VIII days. Charles Branson (not Bronson) thinks so too and when he ( the Captain of the Guards) tries an early form of Swing Dancing,  which causes Mary and later the queen (One of O Henry's wives who still had a head) to be in shock. All the more shocking is when O Henry starts to bust out some ditty rap. ("Your Not Funny says my wife as I read this line to her). But soon the latest dance craze of  O Henry's court catches on and everyone is trying to do the medieval shuffle,  not without one couple falling to the floor in embarsement. These are the very first interesting moments in Disney’s 3rd full length all live action film ‘The Sword and the Rose’, not yet released on DVD. The only place to find such treasures not on DVD is at the library where they still rent VHS or on the internet where you can still buy VHS.

Mary manages to get the Captain alone in the woods where she coaxes him to recite some sweet love poetry to her.  He gives her the 'It won’t workout' speech in prose. She responds in Shakespearian prose back to him her disapointment.  She  is not happy with his rejection. Mary  is not happy that she is supposed to marry the French guy . She must marry him becsue her brother said so.  She later retires to her room where she refuses to come out and Marry the French guy
This makes O Henry not happy.

O Henry  goes up to drag her out of bed, only to find her rebuffing her brother by laying in her bed in the buff.  She  threatens  to rise out of bed with him there as he commands her to get out of bed and get dressed and get married. This is something you don’t normally see in a 1950’s Disney film. It then drifts to a scene where she pretty much disses the kings ambassador by throwing his pre-wedding gift in his face.
As Charles gets up in the morning he is handed a beverage and told to drink his morning beaver. Mary then bursts in and asks him to take her with him to the new world. The fact that he kisses her is a big YES. Unfortunately women won’t be allowed on such a voyage, so she dresses as a page for him to take her away with him. I’m sure many people will be fooled by a pretty women trying to look like a feminine page. The boat crew somehow finds out she is a women and they kick them off the boat and then they escort Charles off to the tower of London. So much for that romance. She does swear however that she will get him out of prison, or her name is not Mary Tutor.

To save her honey’s head, she says she’ll marry the king of France. What a sacrifice. So far this is a great historical dramatic romance. It is not the type of film I would like to watch over and over but it is pretty good  and I would recommend it to Disney fans and film buffs alike.

Oh my head, her husband to be just fell over from poison wine. Good thing she didn’t drink it.  I guess she is saved from that marriage after all.  Just to note, Her husband to be was a short man. Why does this matter you may ask. I really don't know. I think when I orginally wrote this, it menat something more.

 I think the previous guy was someone different. I'm not sure what this means.  I took notes and I’m still lost in the what is going on (probably like you are reading this review.) The man of her dreams (Charles) tries to escape from prison and gets caught and apparently killed.

Important Character Note:   Mary is a spirited and lively young women prone to sarcasm and exaggeration when she needs to give it. Gosh this is already a page long.

She is told by her buddy, the  Duke of Buckingham, that her lover Charles died during an escape attempt, although that is not entirely true. He set u it up so he would die as he attempted the escape.

Scoundrel.

Rouge.

All around not nice guy.

He probably killed the French guy as well. He tries to sweet talk Mary into marrying him. I mean her fiancee and seceret lover are both dead, so why not.  When she gives the ‘friend’ speech again, he begins to slap her around until the undead Charles shows up and puts the Duke in a closet at the point of a sword. You see, the Duke's plan to kill him FAILED. Charles and Mary then try to escape to a ship to sail away to a new life. The Duke gets free from the closet and  chases them until he catches up  and then a sword fight breaks out between the two main male stars. It starts in the water and then up onto the rocky beach. The Duke tries to get all Darth Maul on him and slash him with two blades, but Charles out swords him. But because he is a all around good guy, he doesn’t kill him.

Actually I’m wrong, the villain dies. He had his chance to live and go away but NO, he had to try to get Charles one last time.

She then ends up marrying Charles afterall. Henry is not happy at first, but Mary reminds him of a promise he made that she could choose her own husband after the death of her first husband. And then somehow Charles says something sweet about the gift of gold from France and everyone is happy. Henry then begs Charles to take her away before she takes his gold away with her.

This is not as much fun as Robin Hood but it is still a very fun and adventures historical romantic Disney movie that deserves a place on DVD. It is well paced for the short 90 minutes that it is.