It must have been about 1983 or early 1984 when this started. I was in the apartment of a friend and some movie was playing on HBO. From the dialogue track someone referred to a character named Mr. Devereux. Unrelated to the film playing on the television my memory pulled up a scarp of dialog from another film:

“My Name is Estan Devereux.“

In my memory I could hear the voice quite clearly but I could not visualize the scene. I could not call up the line right before or the one that followed only that fragment of a conversation.

My Name is Estan Devereux.“

For the rest of the day it haunted me. I know it was a minor character and I knew it came from some film I like but I simply could not remember the scene, the characters, or the movie.

It continued into the next day. It was definitely an old man, his voice weakened with age, a horse whisper, but I simply could not remember the movie. Not the genre, not the style, nothing but that annoying voice repeating the fragmentary line.

My Name is Estan Devereux.“

Eventually it faded from my mind and I went on with my life. But a few weeks later something triggered my memory and the line played again, still without identifying context. I struggled, trying to force the epiphany that would answer this mystery but it would not happen. This became a familiar and frustrating cycle. Something triggered the memory and I’d spend hours or even days with it echoing through my mind but unable to resolve the mystery of the movie’s title.

Some may be wondering why not go to the Internet, or Google to find the title and kill the torturous puzzle? Take a look at those date my friends, this is long before any Internet. A few years later I would have my first personal computer and my online interactions would be with early chat rooms on a local Bulletin Board System, but there was no global repository of geeky and obscure knowledge.

This played out over a decade. I did not keep a record but it feels like the line resurfaced perhaps as often as once a month, never bringing with it more information or any sort of context always leaving me frustrated and without an answer.

In the early 90s I acquired my first DVD player and slowly began building my home library of beloved movies. I never had a great collection on VHS, and had possessed a decent collection on Laserdisc, but it was the DVDs where my home collection really took off. Bit by bit I picked up discs, eagerly playing them when I got home. Then one night with a new disc, after so many years, the mystery was solved.

I wish I could say that I got there simply by looking at the title. That picking up the case in the store prompted the floor of memory unlocking the resolution but that did not happen. I got the movie home, peeled off the wrapper and stuck it into the player. As the hero is penetrating the villain’s castle, seeking to rescue a trapped, noble, and foolish hero, he releases a number of prisoners from the evil King’s dungeon. An old man begins to speak and before the words tumble out of his mouth the memory floods my thoughts and the answer is playing on my television.

My Name is Estan Devereux. I was the King’s architect.“

I give you The Sword and Sorcerer the fun, silly, cheesy fantasy film that tormented me for over a decade.