JACK THE GIANT KILLER

Austrian-born Nathan Juran directed this entertaining fantasy film about Jack, a simple farm boy (Kerwin Matthews) who, like George (Gary Lockwood) in THE MAGIC SWORD, becomes a hero tasked with saving a princess from the machinations of an evil wizard (Pendragon, played by Torin Thatcher). Adapted from an 18th Cornish fairy tale, JACK THE GIANT KILLER  was released in 1962 by United Artists, the same company that distributed THE MAGIC SWORD. Nathan Juran (director), Kerwin Matthews (Sinbad) and Torin Thatcher (Sokurah) were all previously involved in the Charles H. Schneer and Ray Harryhausen-produced THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1958). Juran's idea was to capitalize on its success, as it made over $3,000,000 at the box office. That it was made at the same time and was quite similar to THE MAGIC SWORD is likely no coincidence.

Cormoran, the giant.

Told during the time of King Arthur, Orville H. Hampton wrote the script, and is also credited with earlier screenplays for THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE, THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE and THE ATOMIC SUBMARINE. Paul Sawtell provided the music and wrote and/or conducted scores for a number of other low-to-mid budget genre films such as RODAN, THE BLACK SCORPION, GIGANTIS THE FIRE MONSTER, KING KONG VS. GODZILLA and THE SLIME PEOPLE. Known as "The Man in the Monkey Suit" for his many roles as a gorilla, Charles Gemora was the makeup artist.

Pendragon, the villain. Makeup by Charles Gemora.

Besides being a fun picture to watch, the film is notable for the stop-motion animation work of Jim Danforth, Wah Chang, Tom Holland and George Pal's son, David. Danforth went on to ply his talents on THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM, 7 FACES OF DR. LAO, and WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, among others. Even with their combined efforts they still could not match the quality of Ray Harryhausen's animation on THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD. After all, who could at the time?

Pendragon's witches. Makeup by Charles Gemora.

Makeup man Charles Gemora.

This article, "How I Would Sell Jack the Giant Killer" is from MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR (July 4, 1962):

The lobby card set:

Not related to the movie in any way, but still a tale of Jack, this is from Bimfort's one-shot, JACK THE GIANT KILLER (August-September 1953). Scripted by an unknown writer, the art is by H.C. Kiefer. Kiefer is best known for his work at Classic Comics (aka Classics Illustrated) where he illustrated over twenty different issues. Kiefer also worked for Prize, Fiction House, Marvel and many others.