In recent months, I've been checking the Turner Classic Movies channel every week looking for movies which I have never seen before, but which I believe I should have. And they manage to air a couple of movies each week which meet that standard. For example, last month I saw The Searchers for the first time. Another week, it was Hang 'Em High. Then it was The Bedford Incident with Richard Widmark, Martin Balsam, and Sidney Poitier. And more recently, I saw1953's Roman Holiday with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn. So like I say, movies I have never seen but which I think I ought to have.
Anyway, at one point, a large plane from the unnamed English-speaking kingdom that Hepburn's princess comes from lands at the Rome, Italy airport and discharges a bunch of men who are there to search for her because she's gone AWOL and they want her back.
Be that as it may, it is clear that although Princess Ann's home country apparently speaks only English, she is definitely not from the United Kingdom, as the coat of arms on the side of the airplane clearly demonstrates:
Though the movie was shot in black and white, I can make some guesses as to the tinctures used here. My best guess at a blazon would be: Quarterly: 1, Quarterly gules and argent a griffin segreant sable; 2, Argent (or Or?) three fleurs-de-lis palewise in bend sable; 3, Azure an eagle displayed or; 4, Sable a cross of Lorraine argent; overall on a point pointed ployé [or embowed] argent an estoile [or perhaps sun] or.
Anyway, it was a fun little movie to watch, and I can now say that I have seen it.
And, too, it is proof once again, that you can find heraldry everywhere! Even if it's only a fictional coat of arms appearing for all of four seconds in a late-night showing of an old movie.
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