Chrysagon, an 11th century Norman Knight and war lord, is given command of a Druid peasant village. Battling enemies from both the north and from his own ranks, he falls in love with Bronwyn, engaged to the son of the tribe's chieftain. This sets the stage for betrayal, bloody battles, murder and forbidden love as Chrysagon and Bronwyn vow never to part.
The War Lord Chrysagon, a Norman knight defending shoreline settlements against Frisian raiders, decides to take the "right of first night" with a beautiful peasant woman. He falls in love with the wench and she in turn chooses to stay with the knight. But her husband, enraged by her decision, joins the forces of Draco, Chrysagon's traitorous brother who is plotting to usurp the War Lord's authority in the region. Together with Frisian warriors Draco attacks and lays siege to the village.
Copyright 1965 Universal Pictures Company, Inc. & Carter Management Company, Inc.
Color by Technicolor.
Purchased by Charlton Heston for the price of $50,000, the Leslie Stevens 1954 Broadway play, "The Lovers," went before cameras in October of 1964 under the title "The War Lord". The production was to be helmed by Daniel Mann, but because of scheduling conflicts Mann was replaced by Franklin Schaffner.
The art directors Alexander Golitzen and Henry Bumstead built a medieval village with a tower, a moat and a drawbridge on four acres of Universal's Upper Lake backlot. A river was re-directed in order to create an island and a bank ninety feet in width. Technicians restored the landscape after the production wrapped. Total costs of the set amounted to $250,000, which was dramatically lower than the cost of taking the entire production to Europe, as was originally planned.
Location sequences were filmed at a waterfoul game refuge in Calouse, California.
Excerpt: "[We] planned [the film] as a simple love story, contrasted with an examination of witchcraft rituals of the Middle Ages. But Universal saw it differently -- as a minor league `El Cid.'
"Most of the witchcraft material wound up on the cutting room floor... with the studio insisting on the climactic siege to be built up..." Charlton Heston.
DVD Features:
Region 1
Snap Case
Audio:
Dolby Digital Mono - English
Additional Release Material:
Trailer - Original Theatrical
Interactive Features:
Scene Access
Interactive Menus
Director of Photography
Russell Metty: American Director of Photography
Production Designer
Henry Bumstead: Production Designer, MILLION DOLLAR BABY (2004)
Story
Leslie Stevens: Director/Prod./Screenwriter
Writer
John Collier: British Writer
Writer
Millard Kaufman: American Screenwriter
Production Designer
Alexander Golitzen: Oscar winning production designer, SPARTACUS
Review 1:
"...Climactic castle-storming sparks one of Heston's best..."
Source: USA Today
p.3D 11/18/1994
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