He also practices tossing back his cape until he’s got it perfect. Set in never-never Cornwall, the film begins by establishing that an evil magician named Pendragon (Thatcher) bides his time in a black castle with hideous goblins and witches and whatnots while scheming to seize the throne. However, the fact that this knock-off is as good as it is, reveals how much the other men contributed to the Sinbad project, and also how Harryhausen’s influence became so positive and pervasive that others learned from his magic. If the resulting film remains a notch below its inspiration, that can be traced to Harryhausen’s absence. He hired Juran, Matthews, and Thatcher to do more or less what they’d done before. So the first delicious irony is that when Sinbad set the box office on fire, Small decided he wanted something just like that. Driven by the effects of Ray Harryhausen, that blockbuster is a landmark in fantasy cinema.Īccording to critic Tim Lucas’ historical commentary for Jack the Giant Killer, Harryhausen later recalled that when he was shopping his idea, the prolific independent producer Edward Small at United Artists never took his calls. If you were asked to name a fantasy film driven by wondrous stop-motion effects with Kerwin Mathews as the swashbuckling hero and Torin Thatcher as the magical villain, as directed by Nathan Juran–well, you’d name The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), and rightly so. Jack the Giant Killer (1962) Director: Nathan Juran These aren’t nostalgia trips for me, as I hadn’t seen them before. These thoughts are inspired by two revelatory Blu-rays from Kino Lorber that constitute rescues of mishandled, little-seen films aimed at Saturday matinee denizens of the Sixties: Nathan Juran‘s Jack the Giant Killer (1962) and Jules Bass‘ The Daydreamer (1966). I’m tempted to look back upon the 1960s and ’70s as a golden era of children’s films in all formats: live-action, traditional animation, stop-motion, effects-driven films, modest character studies, and heady mixtures of all. This is one of my favourite films and am proud to have my two sons enjoy it too.I confess to some ignorance of what films are made for kids these days beyond a vague notion that they’re all made in 3D animation. I have never seen the musical version, if anyone has it, let me know.
The sound effects and music that's well suited and good considering that the film was made in 1962. The color is awesome (Technicolor) and the sound is crystal clear. The only difference is that the laserdisc includes the theatrical trailer. The film is available on DVD from Goodtimes Home Video and taken from the same film transfer as MGM's laserdisc version. The team for 'Jack' were quite new to the craft but still managed to pull it off. Ray Harryhausen is a tough act to follow, he was indeed the founder and master of stop motion animation.
This effect can be seen recently in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Some of them were quite clever such as Pendragon's disappearing trick done with his cape. There were some impressive effects for the time. The budget for 'Jack' wasn't as big as 'Sinbad', it was about 6 to 1 in comparison. Outstanding supporting characters included the servant Garna, played by Walter Burke and the imp in the bottle, played by Don Beddoe. The other cast members performed well too as their characters stood out amongst the special effects. Torin Thatcher was once again evil to the core. Judi Meredith was far superior than Kathryn Grant, in terms of acting and beauty. Kerwin Mathews was great as Jack, the farmboy-turned-giant killer.
A well made film, that some say copied a lot from 1959's The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad.