
The NFSA has completed a digital restoration of The Sword of Valor (Duke Worne, USA, 1924), starring Snowy Baker as an American sailor who falls in love with the daughter (Dorothy Revier) of a Spanish noble.
We restored the film in collaboration with Haghefilm Digitaal in the Netherlands, completing a new HD scan of a 35mm tinted nitrate negative following an extensive clean-up of the image.
Baker utilises his strong horseriding skills in this action comedy set in Spain and the French Riviera. His beloved horse Boomerang receives a prominent credit and is even front and centre on the film's poster!
The Sword of Valor also features daring stunts and fine swordplay between Baker and the moustache-twirling villain played by Edward Cecil.
While Baker only made one major film after The Sword of Valor – Fighter's Paradise (Alvin J Neitz, USA, 1924) – he found a new career as manager of the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles. There he taught Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn sword and fencing techniques and coached the 12-year-old Elizabeth Taylor in horseriding for National Velvet (Clarence Brown, USA, 1944).
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.