Film Snail

Jack the Giant Killer
Jack the Giant Killer

6.4

Jack the Giant Killer

G·1962·94m

Summary

The terrible and trecherous Pendragon plans to gain the throne of Cornwall by getting the king to abdicate and to marry his lovely daughter. To help him he has his dreadful witches in his castle and his almost unstoppable sorcery. A giant under his control abducts the princess, but on the way home with her the giant meets farming lad Jack who slays him. This is only the beginning.

Crew

Director, Screenplay

Nathan Juran

Screenplay, Story

Orville H. Hampton

Reviews

Wuchak

Wuchak

November 26, 2018

8

***Medieval fairy tale with a noble hero, a beautiful princess, an evil wizard & spooky cronies***

A wholesome farm-youth-turned-knight in medieval England (Kerwin Mathews) is enlisted to guard a princess (Judi Meredith) from the schemes of a wicked sorcerer (Torin Thatcher).

“Jack the Giant Killer” (1962) is similar to “The Magic Sword,” which was released a couple of months earlier. Some people like to compare it to “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad” (1958) because the hero and villain were also in that earlier movie, not to mention both films use stop-motion animation. But Jim Danforth’s work here is no serious rival to Ray Harryhausen, although it’s serviceable.

Kerwin makes for a great noble protagonist while Judi is winsome as the royal maiden and hot as the bewitched version of herself. Of course Thatcher just oozes ee-vil. One of the most impressive “effects” is the wizard’s gaggle of witch-ghouls. They’re very well done and effectively scary in a cartoonish way. I would’ve eaten this up as a kid. Yet there’s certainly enough here for adults to enjoy (or for the kid-in-adults to enjoy).

If you like this movie and would like to see a more realistic, adult-oriented version of similar fairy tale events, check out the classy “First Knight” (1995). See my review for details.

The film runs 1 hour, 34 minutes and was shot at Santa Catalina Island, California, as well as Samuel Goldwyn Studios in West Hollywood. While these locations are adequate for the purposes of the movie, they don’t look anything like Britain, although they could pass for the Mediterranean.

GRADE: A-

Media

Status:

Released

Original Language:

English

Budget:

$3,000,000.00

Revenue:

$0.00

Keywords

princess
castle
cornwall, england
stop motion
dragon
middle ages (476-1453)
giant