User Reviews

The Magic Sword is a strictly for children adventure story about a wizard capturing a princess and a prince who was raised by a witch coming to her rescue. Sad to say it needed a Ray Harryhausen touch in developing those special effects. It was also badly edited, there's clearly some footage missing as to how Prince Gary Lockwood came to be raised by Estelle Winwood the witch.

I suppose in that first sentence I did give the whole thing away, but the reason for grownups to watch this film is to see Basil Rathbone hamming it up as the evil wizard. Rathbone has a hungry dragon which apparently he feeds a very fine delicacy of princesses. No peasant girls for the palate of the beast. He's kidnapped Anne Helm who Gary has worshiped from afar and Gary now sees a great old opportunity to get into royal ranks by right of rescue.

In those Ray Harryhausen films Gary's part is played usually by Kerwin Matthews and the villain is Torin Thatcher. My guess is Ray and his usual cast and crew must have passed on the project.

Kids will want to see Lockwood take up The Magic Sword and defeat the dragon. Grownups will be loving what Basil Rathbone does with the wizard. Regular ham alamode.

Directed by Bert I. Gordon, specialist in low budget fantasy B-movies, this feature stands out as being atypical in his collection of work. This is due to its not being centred upon over-size beasts, but consisting instead of the director's take on the legend of St George. His co-author on the screenplay for this movie was Bernard C Schoenfeld, who had made his name as writer on many of the episodes of 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' in the mid-Fifties, and had previously been nominated for an Academy Award in 1951 for 'Caged'. Unbelievably, the British Board of Censors gave this feature an X certificate, leading it to having to be re-released on a very limited theatrical run with its original title, 'St George & the Seven Curses'. Accordingly the censor was perturbed at some of the special effects, which, given the film's cheap budget, appears to have been quite an impulsive and mistaken decision.

In Gordon's version, George is an orphaned prince brought up by a sorceress, Sybil, whose witchcraft has largely deserted her. This derring-do young Prince is played by former stuntman, and stand-in for Anthony Perkins, Gary Lockwood. On the evidence here, he should have stayed off-camera. In terms of the storyline, when the object of his affection, Princess Helene, is kidnapped by the evil wizard Lodac, the impetuous George tricks his foster mother Sybil, a sorceress in her own right who reared him as her own child when she found him alone, his parents having died of the plague. Locking her up in her magic basement, he not only helps himself to the magic sword in question and the fastest steed in all the world, but also resurrects six ossified knights to accompany him on his quest to rescue her. One can understand why anyone would become smitten with the alluring Anne Helm, former model and dancer at the Copacabana club in New York, who would briefly become the girlfriend of Elvis Presley the following year. It is quickly apparent that were it not for his travelling companion knights, it is doubtful this bumbling buffoon of a hero would have survived long on his arduous journey. If these knights' longevity were determined by acting ability, then their fates may have been radically different. It is unbelievable, given the fact that a voiceover specialist was called in to dub over the contributions of the the actor playing Sir Ulrich of Germany, as the latter's accent was so bad, that the risible Irish accent attempted by John Maudlin not only stood, but also that the latter enjoyed so much dialogue, and that his character was not killed off sooner.

Whilst tackling the seven deadly curses in his path, George must also face the treachery of his rival for the Princess' hand, Sir Branton, played gleefully by stage and TV performer, Liam Sullivan, secretly in league with Lodac. In terms of the special effects, these range from satisfactory, given both the epoch in which the film was made and budgetary constraints, to the quite farcical. The star of the how in terms of the special effects is Lodac's dragon, the model of which was only eight foot long and took four months to construct. It was activated by wires and mechanical controls. Equipped with gas ducts enabling it to spew flames of fire, tragedy was averted by the quick reactions of a standby fireman when its costly innards caught fire. The worst special effect has to be the 25 foot ogre, which in any other universe the knights aboard their steeds could easily have outrun. It seems preposterous to what children can see today, but what perturbed the censor of the day was the seemingly horrifying effect of the voluptuous maiden trying to entice our French knight revealing herself to be a hideous old hag in the employ of Lodac. As an interesting footnote, playing said old hag, as well as the abductor of Princess Helene, was TV's Vampira herself, Maila Nurmi.

With regard to other more notable and experienced members of the cast, they appear to be just going through the motions. As for George's foster-mother, Sybil, English character actress, Estelle Winwood, virtually plays her stereotypical role of that time of an eccentric old woman as if in a trance herself. The film is notable for the presence among the cast of Basil Rathbone, cast as the evil wizard Lodac, who hams it up in pure pantomime fashion. Rathbone claimed he was drawn to play the character as he considered him 'the most villainous, treacherous, wretchedest evildoer it has ever been my very good fortune to play.' Sullivan would later recall that the cast were all entertained during the shoot by Rathbone's colourful anecdotes.

All in all, the contrived plot developments and 'step-by-step' acting are all given lenient treatment by film critics, well aware of this film's true appeal as children's entertainment.

'The Magic Sword' was by Bert I. Gordon's standards a fairly lavish affair, shot in splashy colours by veteran cameraman Paul Vogel between prestigious assignments like 'The Time Machine' and 'The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm'; designed to get the most out of it's shoestring budget by Franz Bachelin and with a jaunty score by Richard Markowitz. (Ross Wheat has a credit as "dragon trainer"; I wonder what that involved?)

It's not always easy to tell how much of this is intended seriously or tongue in cheek, as when young Sir George describes the magic sword Ascalon as "It's just great". There are odd nasty moments of that remind us that Gordon usually made horror films, most shockingly when the two pretty young Princesses Laura & Grace are introduced only to be almost immediately fed by Lodac to his pet dragon. The casting of Estelle Winwood as a scatterbrained old sorceress is obviously intended to provide light relief, while Basil Rathbone keeps a straight face throughout as the satisfyingly evil Lodac. The anachronistic American accents of juvenile leads Gary Lockwood and Anne Helm are almost a convention of this particular genre; but I was puzzled that Maila ('Vampira') Nurmi only played 'the Hag' when she was made up to be ugly (Danielle De Metz substituted for her during her masquerade as the beauteous Mignonette), since Ms Nurmi was easily hot enough to have satisfactorily served as the Hag's seductive alter ego.

This film is aimed squarely at kids in the same manner as JACK THE GIANT KILLER and Harryhausen's SINBAD movies. While it successfully builds a kind of fairy tale ambiance about it, there's no denying that this film is tacky in the extreme. Schlock director Bert I. Gordon tries to disguise his ultra-low budget with some rather tatty-looking special effects but the result is, to be kind, hopeless. Thankfully this makes the film highly enjoyable in a so-bad-it's-good kind of way; and as pure kid's entertainment, it's hard to beat.

Gordon was a director renowned for his giant monster movies of the '50s; indeed this work earned him the nickname Mr B.I.G. So it comes as no surprise that THE MAGIC SWORD has its fair share of back-projected monstrosities including an ogre and a two-headed dragon. While these effects are cheap and don't bear close scrutiny, they also happen to be a lot of tacky fun in the same way that the mechanical monsters of the Italian peplum films were. Although the sets are small and closed, and the camera work dark and limited, scenes of flowing mist and dead forests certainly hit the mark when it comes to atmosphere-setting.

Most of this film consists of George's epic journey to Lodac's castle; this part is great fun and packed with bad actors getting killed. Unfortunately Gordon also saw fit to intersperse some lame comedy scenes involving George's foster-mother, a witch who tries to help her son. Although the veteran Estelle Winwood's acting is quite amusing, her lines are not, and these scenes are out of place and silly. But who would guess that the actress was eighty years of age when she made this film? Gary Lockwood takes the role of the square-jawed lead who is, it has to be said, far too young to have any presence; Lockwood is wooden in the extreme, his acting style painful. Thankfully the script doesn't require much more of him than to sit around on his horse or fight enemies, which he does manage to do. So it's left to "star" name Basil Rathbone to do his best with the material he was given, and he adopts an agreeably hammy method when delivering his lines, making the best of his flamboyant villain. Rathbone plays his sorcerer Lopac in just the same old-school manner as contemporary Vincent Price would have done, and is the best thing in this film. Although the rest of the cast are generally forgettable, it is worth noting the inclusion of three interesting actors in cameo roles; these are James Bond's Richard Kiel credited as a "pinhead", veteran dwarf actor Angelo Rossitto as a (you guessed it) dwarf, and, best of all, cult icon Vampira as a make-up covered hag.

Although cheap and disappointing as a whole, the various dangers and perils that our heroes face are varied and interesting. Things kick off with a back-projected ogre whose main weapon is to throw logs at the soldiers, thus killing them. In the end, George and his magic horse manage to run rings around the ogre and confuse him, at which point George runs him through with his sword! The second peril is a red pond which dissolves people, turning them into skeletons; I particularly liked this one. The third is an evil ugly old hag who can disguise herself as a beautiful young woman, thus fooling an idiot Frenchman in the group. The fourth peril is a hot, glowing yellow circle thing in the air which hypnotises two of the men and strips their flesh from their bodies, turning them into horribly mutilated victims (a nasty effect) who promptly disappear into thin air.

The fifth peril is inside a cave, and consists of a row of glowing ghost heads who possess and kill another man (this is the film's most unintentionally funniest scene). The sixth peril is by far the most impressive, a giant mechanical two-headed dragon which breathes fire; the effort and work that has gone into this effect is something to behold and it shows. It may not be the most convincing of screen dragons but it's certainly one of the nicest to look at. The seventh peril is...well, that would be saying. Although THE MAGIC SWORD never won any awards (and most likely never will) for its acting, effects, and direction, it is diverting enough to fantasy fans and fun in a tacky way. Recommended!

When I was a kid, WKBN-TV 27 in Youngstown aired a daily movie. I remember that quite often, the aspect ratio - I had no idea what that meant when I was young - made the cowboys seem way too tall at the beginning of their movies. And I vividly remember this movie all about St. George and the dragon, even if I couldn't recall the title for decades.

Well, it's The Magic Sword. Or perhaps I saw it under one its many other titles, such as St. George and the Dragon, St. George and the Seven Curses or The Seven Curses of Lodac.

Gary Lockwood - first husband of Stephanie Powers and Frank Poole in 2001: A Space Odyssey (and star of the Mad Max rip, Survival Zone) - plays George, raised by an adoptive sorceress mother (Estelle Winwood, who lived nearly a century and had a career that went from British stage to American television) and destined to battle not only the two-headed dragon, but the seven curses of the evil Lodac (Basil Rathbone).

He's also in love with Princess Helene (Anne Helm, Nightmare In Wax) and has six magical knights with which to prove his heroism, which is tested in battles against an ogre, an old hag and a sorceress. The latter two are played by Maila Nurmi, who is much better known Vampira. There's also the shady side of heroism, exemplified by Sir Branton, who keeps killing off his brother knights left and right.

Obviously made for the kiddie matinée audience, "The Magic Sword" focuses on an evil sorcerer (Basil Rathbone) who has his eyes set on princess Anne Helm as a snack for his dragon. His old enemy, good witch Estelle Winwood is upset when her adopted son Gary Lockwood, locks her in a cellar, steals the prize horse and magic sword, in an attempt to rescue Helm. Along with the nefarious knight Liam Sullivan, Lockwood and his series of knights from all over Europe, go on the quest to free the princess. Two unfortunate princesses locked up with Helm don't get freed, although it is obvious that the dragon could floss his teeth with them rather than eat them. (Perhaps the dragon had never heard the adage of potato chips that you can never eat just one, as Rathbone seems to have the creature on a strict diet of one or two princesses a week).

On the way, Lockwood, Sullivan and the knights encounter such creatures as an ogre who looks like one of the chorus boys from "Cats" and a French maiden who is really a hag, while Helm is terrorized by the evil cousins of "Snow White's" dwarfs (which includes Angelo Rossitto, a veteran of some of Bela Lugosi's Monogram horror films). Vampira ("Plan Nine From Outer Space") is the French maiden/hag, billed under her real name of Maila Nurmi. While the special effects are mediocre at best, they are fun, and Winwood is certainly amusing, especially trying to remember the spell to give Lockwood back his magic powers. Hopefully young audiences today accustomed to the computer generated special effects won't find this too silly as those of us who remember the good old days of films like this, "Jack and the Giant Killer" and all of the wonderful Ray Harryhausen spectacles that had an innocence that today's films couldn't imagine.

Lackluster as well as low-budget sword and sorcery shenanigans from producer & director Bert I. Gordon who ventures back to the medieval days of Sir George and the Dragon. Basil Rathbone takes top billing as the treacherous wizard Lodac who casts seven curses on anybody that would try to rescue Princess Helene. Lodac means to serve the comely princess to his two-headed, fire-breathing dragon in seven days. Twenty-year old George (Gary Lockwood of "2001: A Space Odyssey")dreams of marrying Helene (Anne Helm of "Follow That Dream") and launches a crusade with six other noble knight to free her from Lodac. George faces stiff competition from another knight, Sir Branton (Liam Sullivan of "That Darn Cat!"), who is in cahoots with Lodac. Sir Branton has somehow stolen a powerful ring from Lodac and he uses it as leverage to get who he wants, Helene, in return for giving Lodac his ring back. Meanwhile, a witch named Sybil (Estelle Winwood), who raised George after his royal parents died, promises to give him a magic sword and a horse on his birthday. George tricks his foster stepmom and rides off on his crusade. Halfway through these antics, George loses his magic sword and his absent-minded guardian can save him if she can only remember a word that sounds like rack for a spell that she wants desperately to cast to save George. Sybil serves as comic relief and Winwood is funny.

Basically, "The Magic Sword" rehashes the legend of Saint George and the Dragon. Obviously, "Amazing Colossal Man" director Bert I. Gordon aimed this lightweight opus at juveniles and all the special effects are bottom of the barrel, especially a dragon that looks like it was stolen from a Chinatown parade. There is also a girl who turns into a hag and the hag make-up is hilariously terrible. Nevertheless, Rathbone of Sherlock Holmes fame is perfect as the evil villain and Lockwood is convincing enough as the heroic Sir George. Had Gordon played everything in a straightforward fashion, "The Magic Sword" might have been a cutting edge fantasy. As it remains, this modestly budgeted United Artists release looks pathetic compared with the mega-budget epics that Hollywood turns out. Gordon couldn't resist throwing in a gigantic ogre (really awful looking) and some shrunken people who help our hero out during a crucial moment. The ending qualifies as a minor surprise. Of course, George and Helene realize happiness when the king pronounced them man and wife. This is the kind of hokum that illuminated drive-in movie screens back in the 1960s. A little more gusto and less contrivance might have elevated this predictable pabulum. "The Magic Sword" is not bad enough to be truly campy and it is not as good as some of the other movies that Gordon helmed. Indeed, it is difficult to see why this harmless yarn encountered so much trouble with British censors as one commentator has written in his review.

Nevertheless, despite its shoddy special effects, "The Magic Sword" recouped its money and went on to become a hit film.