The Magic Sword is STAGGERINGLY awful. The acting, the papier-mache monsters, the glowing sword, the "Irish" accent that comes and goes - it's jaw-droppingly awful. The movie has conehead people but they don't bother tucking the actors' real hair in so they have these pink cones on their head with a straight line where the plastic cone ends - like they're wearing conehead hats with hair coming out. The heroine actually says "Oh! I'm so happy I can't even think!" If you get a kick out of really terrible movies, you'll love this.
WATCHING PAINT DRY!
The Magic Sword is one of those cheapie Saturday matinee quickies so popular in the 50's & 60's. It's loosely based on the legend of St. George and the Dragon. A very old and sickly Basil Rathbone collected a small paycheck for this one & this was half the budget. The print has faded terribly, to the point where it could almost be considered black and white. Any consideration for this movie at all would be for camp value alone. I gave it one star because there wasn't anything lower. Buyer beware!
DVD of a Dreadfull Print
The print used for this release has faded colors and in some places is so washed out scenes appear to have been shot in harsh front light or are practically monocromatic.
I don't mean to berate the great Jim Danforth, but this is an extremely low budget rip-off of The 7TH Voyage of Sinbad. The legend is that producer Edward Small turned down Harryhausen's pitch for 7th Voyage. Ray went to Columbia, and the finished product was a huge hit, making 12 mill in America alone in 1958!! Small probably kicked himself a few times, and decided to make an exact duplicate of the film at MGM. He hired the same director (Nathan Juran) and same stars (Kerwin Mathews and Torin Thatcher).Unfortunately, the animation models were not of the quality of Sinbad, and the stop motion is rushed (Small had a very tight budget. The result is a fun film for kids, but fantasy film fanatics do not regard this as a classic. Jack (Mathews) must rescue a possessed Princess from an evil... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Nathan Juran DVD Release Date: Released the 04 September 2001 Usually ships within 24 hours
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Cartoonist Hal Foster's medieval hero, the Scandinavian Prince Valiant, comes to the screen in all his Dutch-bob-haircut glory in this 1954 film directed by Henry Hathaway (Kiss of Death). Robert Wagner plays the title role and does a bang-up job of it, convincingly portraying the heroic prince as he enters the court of King Arthur (Brian Aherne) in England and becomes (with some tutelage from Sir Gawain, played by Sterling Hayden) a Knight of the Round Table. Determined to restore his dethroned family to their proper seat back home, Valiant takes on the Black Knight (James Mason), who plans to do away with Arthur and then finish his misdeeds back in Scandia. Under such pressure, the prince, quite understandably, falls in love with Princess Aleta (Janet Leigh). Hathaway proves to... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Henry Hathaway DVD Release Date: Released the 11 May 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Arguably the most intelligently written film to feature the masterful stop-motion animation of Ray Harryhausen, Jason and the Argonauts is a colorful adventure that takes full advantage of Harryhausen's "Dynarama" process. Inspired by the Greek myth, the story begins when the fearless explorer Jason (Todd Armstrong) returns to the kingdom of Thessaly to make his rightful claim to the throne, but the gods proclaim that he must first find the magical Golden Fleece. Consulting Hera, the queen of gods, Jason recruits the brave Argonauts to crew his ship, and they embark on their eventful journey. Along the way they encounter a variety of mythic creatures, including the 100-foot bronze god Talos, the batlike Harpies, the seven-headed reptilian Hydra, and an army of skeletons wielding... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Todd Armstrong - Nancy Kovack Director(s): Don Chaffey DVD Release Date: Released the 07 November 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Fans of Sean Connery who are curious to see him explore roles outside of his usual heroic characters may enjoy his robust turn as the mythic Green Knight in this 1982 British-made fantasy. Based loosely on the classic epic poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," Connery is quite a sight as the glittering green figure, who challenges young Gawain (Miles O'Keefe of Tarzan the Ape Man infamy), a squire in King Arthur's court, to solve his riddle or lose his head. O'Keefe is a stiff Gawain, and the film suffers under its low budget and awkward comic moments, but Connery and the rest of the cast (which includes Trevor Howard as Arthur, John Rhys-Davies, Lila Kedrova, and Peter Cushing) are game and provide sufficient star power to keep fantasy-adventure fans distracted from the film's... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Stephen Weeks DVD Release Date: Released the 06 April 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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