JACK THE GIANT KILLER [1962 / 2019] [Blu-ray] [UK Release] The Fable Of The Ages Is Here For All To See! The Most Awesome Spectacle That Ever Stunned The Imagination!
Featuring the stars Kerwin Mathews and Torin Thatcher and director Nathan Juran of ‘The 7th Voyage of Sinbad,’ this vivid, swashbuckling re-telling of the classic fairy tale is an adventure for the ages.
Farm boy Jack [Kerwin Mathews] heroically rescues Princess Elaine [Judi Meredith] from sorcerer Pendragon [Torin Thatcher] by slaying his bloodthirsty giant. But when Pendragon uses his evil powers to bewitch and imprison Princess Elaine in his enchanted fortress, Jack must cross the ocean to brave dragons, two-headed ogres and an army of ghouls to save his lady love.
Released on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK, this special edition includes both the original cut and the re-envisioned musical version of the film.
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 2019 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA: Nominated: Saturn Award for Best DVD/Blu-ray Classic Film Release.
FILM FACT No.2: The fairy tale had been previously filmed by Hollywood in 1917 and 1924 short, 1931 cartoon and a 1952 film. Edward Small announced the film in 1959, saying he had developed the special effects over two years. Filming was originally meant to be started in September 1959, in 70-mm and widescreen, but was delayed several more years. Small hired star Kerwin Mathews, director Nathan Juran and villain Torin Thatcher, all of whom had worked on ‘The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.’ Nathan Juran said, “Eddie Small was smart and he wanted to make some money, so he tried to get as close to The 7th Voyage of Sinbad’ as he could and thought he could cash in by doing another picture like it. Unfortunately, he couldn't get the same special effects.” The film was shot on Catalina Island and at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, and shooting ended in August 1960. Nathan Juran divided the special effects duties between two companies: The Howard A. Anderson Company handled the photographic effects, while Project Unlimited, which had just won an Oscar for ‘The Time Machine,’ supervised the stop-motion animation. Their team included animator Jim Danforth in one of his earliest jobs. Post-production took ten months, meaning the film was not released until 1962. Film rights would be litigated years later, and a musical version of the story was later released.
Cast: Kerwin Mathews, Judi Meredith, Torin Thatcher, Walter Burke, Don Beddoe, Barry Kelley, Dayton Lummis, Anna Lee, Roger Mobley, Robert Gist, Tudor Owen, Ken Mayer, Herman Belmonte (uncredited), Sam Harris (uncredited), Stuart Holmes (uncredited), Richard LaMarr (uncredited), Jack Mower (uncredited), Monty O'Grady (uncredited), Bert Stevens (uncredited) and Helen Wallace (uncredited)
Director: Nathan Juran
Producers: Edward Small (uncredited) and Robert E. Kent
Screenplay: Nathan Juran (screenplay) and Orville H. Hampton (screenplay/story)
Composers: Bert Shefter and Paul Sawtell
Costume and Wardrobe Department: Bucky Rous (wardrobe: men) and Sabine Manela (wardrobe: women) and David Berman (costumes)
Stop Effects Animation: Lloyd L. Vaughan
Stop Motion Animation: Gene Warren, Tim Baar and Wah Chang
Special Photographic Effects: FANTASCOPE by Howard A. Anderson
Special Visual Effects: Augie J. Lohman, Bill Brace (uncredited), David Pal (uncredited), Phil Kellison (uncredited), Jim Danforth (uncredited) and Tom Holland (uncredited)
Cinematography: David S. Horsley, A.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Audio: English: 2.0 LPCM Digital Audio
Subtitles: English
Running Time: 94 minutes
Region: Region B/2
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / United Artists / 101 Films
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘JACK THE GIANT KILLER’ [1962] begins with an opening that should be familiar to Disney fans – a big bejewelled storybook setting up the tale we are about to experience – from which we learn that: “There was a time when the Kingdom of Cornwall lived in fear and trembling of an evil sorcerer the Black Prince Pendragon – master of all Witches, Giants and Hobgoblins – who ravished the land – but at long last Herla, the Wizard drove pendragon and all the witches from the Kingdom of Cornwall and exiled them beyond the reaches of the known world. Here, on a misty isle – uncharted and unknown, Pendragon schemed and waited, for the day when he would return to power in the Kingdom of Cornwall – then, after many years, the day came.
Myth Note: The Cornish folklore of “Jack the Giant Killer” regales us with tales of a young farmer named Jack whose exploits under the rule of King Arthur pitted him against a variety of giants, and after killing many of them – to the point that the species must have been on the brink of extinction – Jack was given a seat at the famous Round Table.
After the spectacular opening we find beautiful Princess Elaine [Judi Meredith] is celebrating her birthday, and receives a large music box from a mysterious visiting dignitary, who is actually the evil wizard Pendragon [Torin Thatcher]. When Princess Elaine opens the music box, a 12 inch jester emerges and dances until the music stops. Princess Elaine is totally delighted. That night, though, the little jester, who looks downright creepy, grows into a two-horned Cormoran (a Cornish giant) and abducts Princess Elaine.
En route to a waiting ship, the Cormoran, still clutching the screaming Princess Elaine rumbles though a small farm owned by a young man called Jack [Kerwin Matthews]. Determined to rescue Princess Elaine, the resourceful Jack uses a rope, a mill, and a scythe to kill the Cormoran. Once Princess Elaine is safely returned to the castle, Jack is hailed as a hero and knighted by the king.
However, still concerned about his daughter's safety, the King Mark [Dayton Lummis] asks Jack to escort Princess Elaine to a convent in another kingdom. Love blossoms between Jack and Princess Elaine during their shipboard voyage. However, their happiness is short-lived when Pendragon sends a bunch of ugly, fire-producing witches to kidnap Princess Elaine. It's up to Jack to rescue his love again.
Loosely inspired by a Cornish fairy tale, and the film ‘JACK THE GIANT KILLER’ borrows liberally from films such as ‘The 7th Voyage of Sinbad’ and ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ Like the ‘The 7th Voyage of Sinbad,’ it features: a quest to rescue a princess; battles with stop-motion animated creatures; an evil wizard; warriors that sprout from teeth; and a helpful magical companion, an imp in a bottle instead of the genie-boy from Sinbad. ‘JACK THE GIANT KILLER’ also recycles the director Nathan Juran and two stars Kerwin Mathews and Judi Meredith from ‘The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.’ As for ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ and its fans will notice that the evil wizard monitors our heroes with a crystal ball, employs witches that like to burn things and uses an hourglass.
Despite its derivative nature, the film ‘JACK THE GIANT KILLER’ is an appealing picture targeted at young adults. It lacks the classy production values of the Sinbad film franchises and the special effects can't compare to the masterful work of Ray Harryhausen. The Cormorans (a second two-headed one appears near the climax) are impressive, but the other creature models look pretty juvenile, especially the Kraken that emerges from the sea. The actual stop-motion animation is pretty good, which is no surprise since some of it was done by Jim Danforth. Over his career as a special effects wizard, Jim Danforth earned two Oscar nominations; his best work is probably the film ‘When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth’ [1971].
If imitation is the highest form of flattery, then special effects master Ray Harryhausen should have felt very flattered when producer Edward Small released his fantasy film ‘JACK THE GIANT KILLER’ back in 1962 – a film that not only borrowed elements from Harryhausen’s 1958 film ‘The 7th Voyage of Sinbad’ but also its director and two of its primary cast members – and what makes the whole thing even funnier, is that Ray Harryhausen had approached Edward Small back in 1957 to help produce The 7th Voyage of Sinbad but Harryhausen couldn’t even get past Small’s secretary. It was the success of Ray Harryhausen’s Sinbad film franchise that spurred Edward Small to make his own fantasy adventure tale – using the same stop-motion techniques found in Ray Harryhausen’s film – and that it had a less than successful impact on the box office should be a surprise to no one.
‘JACK THE GIANT KILLER’ was produced by Edward Small, who had turned down ‘The 7th Voyage of Sinbad’ three years earlier. That fact, plus the obvious similarities between the films, led to Columbia Pictures (which distributed the Sinbad film franchise) to file a copyright infringement suit to prevent the release of ‘JACK THE GIANT KILLER.’ It was released anyway (some sources claim the suit was filed too late). However, legal concerns popped up again when the film was being considered for a video release in 1976. To avoid a lawsuit, Small retitled the film ‘JACK THE GIANT KILLER – The Musical’ and redubbed it with songs.
Though ‘JACK THE GIANT KILLER film is very derivative – even at one point lifting the disembodied torch-carrying arms from director Jean Cocteau’s ‘La Belle et La Bête’ – it is still quite an entertaining film, especially if you haven’t seen all the original source material that producer Edward Small stole from. It has a dashing hero, a beautiful princess, colourful monsters and a truly villainous sorcerer, all adding up to a great fun fantasy adventure film. If you first saw this film as a child, sitting in a crowded children matinee on a hot Saturday afternoon, then there will always be a soft spot for the film ‘JACK THE GIANT KILLER.’
Fortunately, the original version of ‘JACK THE GIANT KILLER’ eventually found its way to be released on VHS, LaserDisc, and DVD. Still, it's interesting to ponder other classic films that could be converted into musicals and how about ‘Casablanca – The Musical’ anyone?
JACK THE GIANT KILLER MUSIC TRACK LIST
THE IRISH WASHERWOMAN (uncredited) (Traditional)
* * * * *
Blu-ray Image Quality – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, United Artists and 101 Films presents us the film ‘JACK THE GIANT KILLER’ with an outstanding 1080p image transfer that makes full use of the eye-popping Technicolor and is a visual feast that goes well with the outstanding 1.66:1 aspect ratio. Details in costuming and facial features are strong, almost maybe a tad too strong as makeup lines in creature effects and the silly applications Thatcher wears are pretty obvious. Details are a little softer and rougher around the edges during the optical effects and especially during the stop-motion creature effects shots and the witch attack midway through the film, but that's indicative of the process and the elements and not a fault in the transfer. Colours are bright and bold with some great primary Lavender and Purple colours that really stand out in this Technicolor film Flesh tones also appear healthy and accurate. Black levels are nice and inky giving he image a respectable amount of depth. The transfer source is in pretty great shape with only some slight speckling here and there and some small scratches. Grain is present as stable; things only thicken around effects shots. Considering all things, this is a pretty great looking transfer. Please Note: Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, United Artists and 101 Films brings us the film ‘JACK THE GIANT KILLER’ with a wonderful 2.0 LPCM Digital Audio experience and the sound mix delivers a clear, inviting listening experience, doing a fine job emphasizing dialogue exchanges, keeping exaggerated performances defined. Scoring achievements are also appealing, emerging with adequate instrumentation and volume, supporting fantasy events and monster encounters. Sound effects are expectedly aggressive, with dulled roars and clanging weapons to support violent interactions.
* * * * *
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Special Feature: ‘JACK THE GIANT KILLER – The Musical’ [Re-envisioned musical version] [1962] [1080p] [1.66:1] [90:47] So just what is ‘JACK THE GIANT KILLER – The Musical.’ Well, it's the same film as the 1962 feature film ‘JACK THE GIANT KILLER,’ except with one great difference, in a minimum of six key places, the dialogue and whatever original music there was, has been mixed in or replaced with real Broadway musical style songs by the producer Edward Small.
In the original film, it is the Princess's birthday, and THIS is how the local residents react! BUT, in the musical version, The People Are Quite A Bit More Festive, much more on the scale of a Disney cartoon! It's a great scene when Walter Burke as Garna comes flying into the room to tell Torin Thatcher as Pendragon that the monster has been defeated by the young farmer named Jack, but how does it all goes down in the musical version with “We Have Failed, Master, We have Failed!”
As to when we see the actors singing, it is a bit like Rex Harrison as Professor Higgins, who of course is not a singer, but was coached to sound like he is actually singing the particular song, but with ‘JACK THE GIANT KILLER – The Musical,’ what they have done is to just have the actors saying their actual lines you hear in ‘JACK THE GIANT KILLER’ and what the composers have actually been able to do was match the music to what words they are saying, and it is very well executed.
There's so much more, but I can't do it all in one setting by any means, so I'll leave you with this little ditty that it sounds like the regular super melodramatic way, especially with the number “The Spectacular Spectacle!” All in all, it's pretty much just the way Brian Horrorwitz has described to people, the original film is a great fantasy film, and I could think of a lot more films that could use a treatment like this, so really enjoy this camp spectacular musical film that is well worth waiting for. This is an M.C. Productions Ltd. Musical. Highly Recommended!
Special Feature: Audio Commentary by Editor and Publisher David Flint and Actor, Author and Editor Allan Bryce [Original Film Cut]: Here we are first introduced to David Flint who is the Editor and Publisher of the Reprobate Press magazine and sitting next to him is Actor and Author Allan Bryce who is also the Editor of the Infinity magazine and they are both here to talk about the film ‘JACK THE GIANT KILLER’ and they give a slight warning, that if you suffer from a nervous dispossession with the fear of Giants, then be very careful, but then they say, “now the slight frivolity is over, we can now talk about film.” They first want to mention the composed film score, but will talk about this later on, but now instead they want to talk about the film being shot in FANTASCOPE and a sort of homage to Ray Harryhausen the American stop motion animator filmmaker and they say the film is sort of Ray Harryhausen ‘The 7th Voyage of Sinbad’ film version. Edward Small was approached to do a the 1962 ‘JACK THE GIANT KILLER’ film, but turned it down at the time, but when the film ‘The 7th Voyage of Sinbad’ was a massive box office success, Edward Small suddenly changed his mind and was now even keener to get involved with filming ‘JACK THE GIANT KILLER’ and to make his own version compared to ‘The 7th Voyage of Sinbad’ film. David Flint and Allan Bryce say that the top motion animation of ‘JACK THE GIANT KILLER’ is not quite as good as the Ray Harryhausen film, but David Flint and Allan Bryce also say it still looks good and the animated monsters are much more impressive than any Ray Harryhausen animated monsters. David Flint and Allan Bryce say that when ‘JACK THE GIANT KILLER’ was released in the UK, it go an ‘A’ certificate classification, because the classification censors felt the film was quite dark and sinister at the time, whereas if the film had been released to a modern audience today it probably would of got a ‘U’ certificate. David Flint and Allan Bryce now talk about the beautiful Princess Elaine played by the American actress Judi Meredith (1936 to 2014) who they think is very good as her character, and especially when she is turned into the evil Princess Elaine by Pendragon, they also inform us that Judi Meredith was a figure skater who became a professional star performer with the Ice Follies. But sadly broke her back in an accident, but returned to skating until she broke her knee cap and was advised by doctors to stop. Judi Meredith married director Gary Nelson with whom she had two sons and was survived by her husband and two sons and they also inform us that before Judi Meredith got married, even once dated Frank Sinatra and Bobby Darin. They also praise the actor Torin Thatcher (1905 – 1981) who plays the evil Pendragon who was born in Mumbai, India who became a British actor who was noted for his flashy portrayals of screen villains and David Flint and Allan Bryce both feel Torin Thatcher was totally perfect to play the evil Pendragon. When we see the actress Judi Meredith as the evil Princess Elaine, they both think the actress looks totally amazing and plays here evil character really well and especially with the amazing colourful make-up and costume. But from then on David Flint and Allan Bryce both just rambling on about nothing of interest and should of concentrated more on about the film in general and seem to think what they are rambling on about is of total interest to us, in fact their rambling comments is more of interest to themselves. When we get to 1:20:40 we get the appearance of the Two Headed Monster on the beach scene, and David Flint and Allan Bryce feel they have left the best monster to last, and then with the Irish Imp Leprechaun [Don Beddoe] who magically produces the Giant Sea Monster to battle against the Giant Two Headed Monster and have an all-out battle, which they feel the stop motion animation is really well done. When we get to 1:26:17 we see Pendragon turn into the marvellous flying dragon and both feel it looks spectacular, as I do, but warn against children seeing this scene, as they will probably have scary nightmares after seeing this part of the film, but despite this, that battle scene with the evil flying dragon and Jack is well worth viewing and again the stop motion animation is spectacular, but of course good over comes evil and Jack defeats the evil flying dragon, which is the battle of all battles, which is very entertaining scene in the film, and especially Jack kills the Pendragon/Flying Dragon and falls into the sea and causes the amazing destruction of the evil Castle of Pendragon in the most spectacular way and a great end to the film. At precisely 1:31:08 David Flint and Allan Bryce just suddenly stop doing their audio commentary without any warning, which I find very rude, still despite this, the majority of the audio commentary was quite interesting and hearing all of their comments on the film ‘JACK THE GIANT KILLER.’
Finally, ‘JACK THE GIANT KILLER’ is a visual treat on this Blu-ray release from 101 Films. The vivid colours of the sumptuous clothing worn by the aristocracy at the castle, is a kaleidoscope of beautiful primary colours, which make it look as though it was made yesterday. The visual effects of course highlight that this was indeed not made yesterday, but the stop-motion animation has a timeless charm that adds to the adventure. You get double for your money with this release too, as it also has the re-envisioned musical version of the film too, of which the fascinating and informative tale of its genesis is just a part of the audio commentary track by David Flint and Allan Bryce on the original film cut. Treat yourselves to this timeless adventure for all the family . . . just be prepared to hide behind the couch when the evil witches appear. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
