Okay, so I'm really stretching the definition of "cult movie" to include this mainstream Hollywood picture in the pages of EC. But The War Lord does star that Dirk Squarejaw of early '70s sci-fi, Charlton Heston; it's also something of a forgotten film. Besides... I like it quite a bit.
    Heston stars as Sir Chrysagon de la Cruex, a Norman knight of the 11th Century, tasked by the Duke of Ghent to defend a rural coastal province against Viking raiders. For 20 years he's lived a warrior's life — always on campaign, no wife or children, no mistress but the cold steel at his side. He arrives in the marshy fiefdom with a small company of professional troops, his devoted servant and aide de camp Bors (I Bury the Living's Richard Boone) attending. Also accompanying Chrysagon is his younger brother, the sarcastic, sharp-tongued Draco (Guy Stockwell). A brave and skilled warrior himself, Draco nurses a deep-seated grudge against his brother, a cancerous envy which eventually results in tragedy.
    The film opens with a short but rousing battle sequence, as Chrysagon arrives just as Frisian raiders are mopping up the village and carrying off the spoils. The raiders are driven off by the Normans' surprise attack. During the combat Chrysagon misses a chance to kill his mortal enemy, the Chief of the Frisians (Henry Wilcoxon), who left his father a pauper knight after holding him for ransom. Chrysagon blames the enemy chieftain for the loss of all his family's ancestral lands. The chief is pulled to safety by his men and the raiders take to their longboats. Missing in the withdrawal is the chief's young son, who is captured by Chrysagon's men. Adopting him as a sort of mascot, the Normans train the boy as a servant not realizing who his father is. Meanwhile, Chrysagon moves into the siege tower that dominates the area where the river meets the sea. He begins to fortify the tower against future attack and assert his command over the province.
    As the Duke's man in control, Chrysagon views his new subjects as little more than brutes. The serfs are Druidic pagans to whom Christianity is new. Simplistic in his own Christian faith, Chrysagon scoffs at their "devil's customs." But he is not a cruel man despite his long years at war. He intends to carry out the Duke's wishes and treat the populace fairly, earning their good will. (Draco, who refers to the land as a "dung heap", sees things in more mercenary terms.) His administration of the fiefdom is thrown into turmoil, however, when the battle-weary knight falls in love with Bronwyn (Rosemary Forsyth), a beautiful virgin peasant girl already pledged to marry the son of the village elder. Unhinged by his romantic "fever" — Draco claims he's been bewitched — Chrysagon throws caution to the wind and exercises the feudal right of droit de seigneur, claiming Bronwyn for a night of passion on the eve of her wedding. Bronwyn reciprocates his love and he refuses to part from her. This reckless act turns the locals against his rule. Learning that the son of the Frisian chief is also kept in the tower, they ally with the Norsemen to destroy him. Soon Chrysagon and his handful of troops find themselves under siege and fighting for their lives.
    The War Lord is an old-fashioned 'star' vehicle for Heston, produced by Walter Seltzer (The Omega Man) and helmed by Franklin Schaffner, director of Planet of the Apes and the Oscar-winning Patton. Heston is more than capable of shouldering the load, with his carved-in-granite features and consummate ability to chew the scenery to tiny splinters. He's given excellent support by his co-stars, notably Stockwell (who nearly steals the show and gives Heston a run for his money in the scenery-chewing department), Boone (perfectly cast as the hulking, cudgel-swinging Bors), Maurice Evans (Dr. Zaius in Planet of the Apes) as a kindly priest, and Niall MacGinniss (Curse of the Demon) as Odins, the village elder. That these performers are working with an intelligent script, based on a play by Outer Limits scribe Leslie Stevens, is a tremendous boon. Schaffner's fine direction perfectly balances the romantic elements, which consume the film's middle act, with the hack and slash set-pieces. The battle scenes are not gory but are thrillingly staged — action fans won't be disappointed in this regard. A beautiful, elegiac score by Jerome Moross (The Valley of Gwangi) sets the appropriate tone, be it lushly romantic or energetically martial. The film also does a fine job of portraying medieval life.
    But the movie's not without flaws, of course. Forsyth, while gorgeous enough to make Chrysagon's bewitchment understandable, is something of a vacuous presence — she's little more than eye candy. (Did medieval peasant women shave their legs?) Instances of studio cost-cutting also work against the film. Some 'outdoor' scenes were filmed on painfully obvious indoor sets — Spartacus has this same problem — and one key moment, as Chrysagon encounters Bronwyn when she's out picking herbs, is ruined by very phony-looking rear projection shots of the surrounding marsh. Were it not for these missteps I think the movie would be damn near perfect.