The Castilian (in Spanish El valle de las espadas) is a 1963 independently made historical action film drama in Eastmancolor, produced by Sidney W. Pink, directed by Javier Setó, that stars Cesar Romero, Frankie Avalon, Broderick Crawford, Alida Valli, Espartaco Santoni, Tere Velázquez, Fernando Rey, and Soledad Miranda.

[1] The film's storyline concerns Fernán González, the first independent count of Castile, who lived and ruled in the early 10th century.

Don Sancho is a despotic 10th-century king who, in league with the Moors, has banished handsome nobleman Fernán González.

With the surreptitious aid of Don Sancho's daughter, Sancha, Fernán González assembles an army to march against the Moors.

[4] Pink called the original script "over-long, verbose, dull work... its characters were boring, the perfect example of the Spanish movie industry’s inability to comprehend international tastes.

Most of the time that he worked with us he attempted to understand what we needed and cooperated, but when he felt his Spanish pride and machismo challenged, he became as stubborn as Sancho Panza’s donkey.

Filming took nineteen weeks and Pink says it was difficult due to the inexperience of the crew working on such a large production and the bad behavior of Santoni.

[16] Filmink wrote "Avalon’s character performs no real function: he’s a strolling balladeer, which is at least different (and helps explain the story).