Jack the Giant Killer with Kerwin Mathews

Review by John Alexander

I just watched the 1962 film Jack the Giant Killer starring Kerwin Mathews and I remember this film from childhood. Not to be mixed up eith the "musical version" this is the version that I best remember.

It is fascinating to compare Jack the Giant Killer (1962) to the 7th Voyage of Sinbad made a few years earlier, also starring Kerwin Mathews as the lead and also starring Torin Thatcher as the villan. The special effects of 7th voyage were superior work by master animator Ray Harryhausen, but the animation and FX in Jack, seem to be surealistic and nearly cartoon like.

The comparrison between the two movies shows amazing similarity in so many ways from the same 2 characters in the lead to the same type of plot and similar animated creatures. Similar in design that is, but not in quality.

• The giant in this film really resembles the cyclops in 7th Voyage 
• Instead of a Genie in a bottle we have an Imp that speaks in rhymes 
• There was a dragon in both films 
• There was a battle between giant creatures 
• plus many other plot contrivences that lined up perfectly to 7th Voyage 

Nevertheless, as a youngster I remember enjoying this film very much. I remember the first 20 minute opening the best I suppose. On watching it again, it is entertaining especially if you are a fan of classical animation.

Directed by Nathan Juran (who also directed 7th Voyage of Sinbad) and Special Effects by Wah Chang, Gene Warren and Tim Barr, the storybook tale begins with a fairly rich looking title sequence and appropriate score.

The story starts itself begins fairly quick with Princess Elaine being given some gifts.

One of the gifts is like a little stand up doll house. From inside the house we have soft music box type music that begins to play and a little animated creature emerges and begins to dance. After a few seconds the princess Elaine is charmed and she dances with the animated creature. A delightful sequence if enjoy it for what it is and don't hold it against Harryhausen's quality of work in 7th Voyage.

By evening, we have a night sequence where the little creature is magically released from its doll house and as it emerges this time, it removes the cap from its head to reveal a single horn giving it a much less innocent look.  Suddenly the little creature begins to grow to gigantic proportions, the princess awakes screaming only to be carried off by the the giant. From there the story takes flight and the princess must be rescued from the giant.

Kerwin Mathews is looking fine performing fine as Jack and he battles the Giant in an interesting outdoor setting near a mill. The battle to save the princess goes on and we have some interesting action shots and this is only 20 minutes into the movie. There are some slow or tedious spots that seemed to drag. But there are many other creatures along the way through the plot, including a two headed giant, evil withches that attack by air, marching armour suits and of couse a huge dragon. The other thing to note, is that as the movie progresses, the creatures tend to look more and more cartoonish and less frightening. Nearly like the film was made for children only, as opposed to the whole family.

Costumes are all colorful enough and the cast performs fine for this type of picture. I have to admit that I did enjoy watching it, although my perspective has changed a lot from the time I was a kid.

Very nice cover art on the DVD. 
I rate this movie at 6/10

If you have not seen 7th Voyage of Sinbad then I also highly recommend it.

 The 7th Voyage of Sinbad is an extraordinary movie by comparrison. Made in 1958 and starring Kerwin Mathews as Sinbad and Torin Thatch as the evil magicians. Creature animation back before the days of CGI and most of the work done by Ray Harryhausen (a special effects man that has inspired may other artists in the industry.)

Harryhausen's amazing skills are mind boggling even by today's standards when watching this movie. The other worldly creatures literally seem to be alive with personality and Bernard Herrmanns scoring is awesome.

Some of the most interesting things I thought about the movie (over than fine performances by all and the amazing Dynamation sequences ) was the handling of the voice of the Genie who was played by Richard Eyer. Here is an interesting 1996 interview with Richard where he recalls some memories of making 7th voyage of Sinbad.