Hear ye! Hear ye! On this day in the year one thousand, nine hundred and fifty-three, it shall be held forever true that the film The Sword and the Rose was released in theaters across our fine country. When much of Disney’s earned funds in England were blocked off during the war, Walt decided he could use that money if he made films in England, and The Sword and the Rose was the third, and certainly the most elaborate, out of four of those films. The film took place in England during the reign of King Henry VIII, and tells the love story of Charles Brandon and Mary Tudor, portrayed respectively by Richard Todd and Glynis Johns, both of whom have since been named Disney Legends. Todd also appeared as the title characters in Disney’s live action films Robin Hood and Rob Roy. Johns also appeared in Rob Roy as well as The Ref and While You Were Sleeping, but her best loved Disney film role was as the mother, Winifred Banks, in Mary Poppins, who desperately fought for the equal rights of women with her sister suffragettes.
