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.

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.

FREE MONSTER CALENDAR DAY!

This month's free calendars feature scenes from the south of the border vampire flick, EL VAMPIRO and a menacing shot of Carole Lombard in SUPERNATURAL.

THE MAGIC SWORD LOBBY CARDS + PRESSBOOK

For a supposed fantasy film for youngsters, Bert I. Gordon's THE MAGIC SWORD (United Artists, 1962) contains enough horrific images to even give adults a few creeps. Loosely based on the medieval tale of St. George and the Dragon, the film is book-ended by a gallant knight's (Gary Lockwood as Sir George) quest to save the Princess Helene (Anne Helm) from the evil clutches of Lodac (Basil Rathbone). Lodac has kidnapped Helene and informs her father that he will feed her to his dragon in seven days in revenge for his sister's death.

George assembles a group of brave souls and they petition the king to rescue the princess. The king in turn, will give his daughter's hand in marriage to the one who brings her back home safely (no mention is made who gets her if more than one survive!). There's one problem: they must defeat the dreaded Seven Curses on their journey.

The men set out, and sure enough, they soon come up against said curses and begin to get killed off one-by-one, and sometimes even two at a time. Up until this point the story seems like any typical juvenile fantasy or fairy tale, but that changes with the first curse in the form as a giant ogre who dispatches two of the men before George can kill it. They face the rest of the curses in their ensuing travels, including a drowning in a fetid swamp, an encounter with a beautiful woman who turns into one ugly and murderous hag (played by a young and pretty Maila "Vampira" Nurmi), and the worst of all, two more men get fried in a magical spiral of heat.

Of course, George is the last hero standing and kills Lodac's two-headed dragon with -- you guessed it -- his magic sword.

The movie still plays well, and although the special effects by Milt Rice and visual effects by Bert and Flora Gordon are largely dated (with the exception of the two men who stagger toward the camera with their flesh burned off, courtesy of makeup artist Daniel C. Striepeke), it's still entertaining to watch. Besides the Seven Curses, there's a pinhead, sinister Siamese twins, menacing midgets and plenty more freaks running around in various scenes that would do Tod Browning proud. I might add that it scared the pants off this 7 year-old kid when he saw it at the theater. In fact, I was so memorably scared that it earned a "What Scared Me" post back in 2012!

Following this feature article from FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND #13 (August 1961 ) are lobby cards and the pressbook for the movie.

You can also read the comic book film adaptation HERE.

THE MAGIC SWORD Lobby Cards:

THE MAGIC SWORD pressbook: