The Castilian (1963)
"El valle de las espadas" (original title)

Director:

Javier Setó

Writers:

Anonymous (poem), Paulino Rodrigo (story),

Stars:

Espartaco Santoni, Frankie Avalon, Cesar Romero

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Espartaco Santoni	...	Fernán González
Frankie Avalon	...	Jerifán
Cesar Romero	...	Jerónimo (as César Romero)
Tere Velázquez	...	Sancha
Tomás Blanco	...	Don Nuño
Rafael Durán	...	Gonzalo Díaz
Germán Cobos	...	Abderramán
Alida Valli	...	Reina Teresa
Fernando Rey	...	Ramiro II, rey de León
Broderick Crawford	...	Don Sancho
Julio Peña	...	Iago
George Rigaud	...	Millán (as Jorge Rigaud)
Ángel del Pozo	...	Don García
Luis Induni	...	Capitán
Beni Deus	...	Íñigo (as Beny Deus)

Storyline

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Taglines:

TRUE...Actually Shot in the Medieval Locations Where the Actual Story Took Place!

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Spain USA

Language:

Spanish English

Release Date:

6 September 1963 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Castilian

Filming Locations:

Arlanza River, Burgos, Castilla y León, Spain

Box Office

Gross:

ESP 7,444,254 (Spain)

Company Credits

Production Co:

M.D. Producciones Cinematográficas, Cinemagic Inc.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

128 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording) Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Panacolor)

Did You Know?

Soundtracks

"Canción de Fernán"
Music by José Buenagú
Lyrics by Paulino Rodrigo (as P. Rodrigo Díaz) and Javier Setó
Performed by Frankie Avalon

User Reviews

Before There Was El Cid

The Castilian tells the story of the legend of Fernan Gonzalez who led the first successful resistance to the Moslem Moors in 10th century Spain. For the American audiences and the only actors who did not need English dubbing, Cesar Romero, Broderick Crawford, and Frankie Avalon are in the cast.

I kid you not, Frankie Avalon. The then teenage idol is a minstrel who sings a few songs accompanying himself on the lute and does the narration. He does look kind of cute in his minstrel boy outfit, although voices like Orson Welles or Alexander Scourby are normally used for the role of narrator in epics. But Frankie sings real nice.

The role of Fernan Gonzalez is played Espartaco Santoni who had a fairly decent career in the Spanish cinema according his list of credits here. He's was no threat to Charlton Heston though.

As history and the story line of the film have it, Castile would not have been a betting man's choice as the place that would eventually take over and unite the various turfs that made up Spain. It was a small county caught between two bigger Christian kingdoms, Leon and Navarre, and to the south by the Moors. Everybody wants to be top dog.

Allegedly the patron saint of Spain, the disciple James and the patron saint of Castile, Milan long dead were sighted riding in battle against the Moors. That's shown here in the film and for sincere believers it is part of the record.

The film was shot at the actual battle locations, no doubt with the great cooperation of the Franco government which never missed an opportunity to emphasize Spain's Catholic tradition. On the other hand, financing was on the cheap, El Cid was done a whole lot better.