L'Épée enchantée

I'm a Basil Rathbone fan, and a friend of mine picked this up for me somewhere--who knows where! The transfer isn't great, but the movie itself is wonderfully campy and has some cool moments if you're willing to stick with it and dig a little under the surface. Besides, I appreciated Mr. R.'s performance, and he managed to have some really good 'bad guy' moments in this (the scene where he had Helene watch her fellow prisoners being eaten by his dragon made an impression on me as being one of the best 'bad guy' moments I've seen, made even better by his distinctive baritone voice).

That said, the villains were better than the 'good' guys! Sir Branton's lines were atrocious, but would have been even mildly redeemable if they'd been delivered in more than an off-hand manner. George and Helene acted like spoiled brats, though they played their parts as the gallant knight (I chuckled when the orphan George introduced himself as 'Sir George' to the king who had never seen him, much less knighted him) and damsel in distress well.

The makeup in this movie was really creepy, and I'm sure the special effects were quite cutting edge for their time. I don't think I'd recommend this for kids younger than ten, as the monsters, the dark tone of the plot, and a 'little-too-sexy-for-the-movies' moment when Helene comes up out of the bath (my copy put a mosaic over a briefly topless Helene).

A friend of mine lent me their copy of The Magic Sword, a 1962 film directed by Bert I. Gordon. While it's still fresh on my mind, I thought I would crank out a review.

The film is based loosely on the medieval legend of St. George and the Dragon, or so I read on Wikipedia. I don't know much about the legend myself, but I probably would after a bit of searching.

Anyway, the plot of The Magic Sword is your typical "brave knight goes on a quest to save a princess from an evil wizard" deal. The sword in the title has to do with the fact that the main character wields a sword that apparently has some kind of magical powers.

Despite the use of the tired old "save the princess" plot, the film itself is surprisingly good and was a lot of fun to watch. The acting is just a bit on the hammy side, but I think it's one of the things that made watching the film fun. The film moves along nicely from scene to scene and didn't seem to drag anywhere. The special effects, though a bit cheesy compared to what we're used to seeing these days, were still pretty good considering the time the film was done. The dragon effects near the end were really cool.

There might be a scene or three that might be deemed inappropriate for very young children. There's some boobage, though very brief, near the beginning (although the version I saw blotted it out with a mosaic... the bastards). A couple of other scenes were just due to some really disturbing makeup effects. Other than that, the film is pretty family friendly.

Overall I recommend this film. It was fun to watch and there was never a dull moment. But mostly because Basil Rathbone is such a badass as the evil wizard.

The Magic Sword (AKA: The Seven Curses of Lodac/St. George and the Seven Curses) is directed by Bert I. Gordon who also co-writes with Bernard Schoenfeld. It stars Basil Rathbone, Estelle Winwood, Gary Lockwood, Anne Helm, Liam Sullivan and Danielle De Metz. Music is by Richard Markowitz and cinematography by Paul Vogel.

A young knight faces a hoard of mythical beasts in his quest to rescue a beautiful princess from the clutches of the evil sorcerer Lodac.

Cheap and bonkers but seen through a child's eyes actually quite fun. We are in a world of ogre's, dwarfs, Siamese twins, harpy hags, ghostly faces, two headed dragons and of course heroic knights and buxom wenches. The effects work ranges from the laughable (rubber mask wearing humans) to the passable because of the budget (model work and super imposed placements), while the sets pre-date Star Trek standard by some four years.

In the cast it's only Rathbone and Winwood who are good value because they firmly know how to play it in this sort of production. Major plus point is the colour photography, where even though it sometimes veers towards the garish, it's mostly very appealing and vividly brings to life the good standard of costuming (Esther Krebs and Oscar Rodriguez). So! If you can judge it on its own modest terms and accept it as the kiddie friendly fantasy it is? Then it's passable fluffy entertainment. 5/10

Why a re people so unkind to this very funny fantasy. Any adult can tell it is not meant to be taken as some sort of 'magnificent spectacle'. Yes it is low budget but it knows it, and Basil and Estelle seemed to be having a very sly old time brewing potent hammy acting to fling at each other and the hopeful cast. Kids love this film even today; it has the sort of 'crummy but fascinating' manginess cheap color fantasies have. Does anyone remember those equally hilarious and ghastly 'storybook productions' like Mother Goose or Jack and the Beanstalk? Terrible but lovably hopeless and thoroughly entertaining. THE MAGIC SWORD even has a pre 2001 Gary Lockwood; boy I bet he's glad Kubrick saw something in him after this. Kubrick would have seen this, you know, I am sure he saw everything Gary Lockwood made before casting him in 2001. And he still hired him. Besides, MAGIC SWORD has the unforgettable Estelle Winwood. She is like Edward Everett Horton in a dress. Pantomime? Sure. Hilarious? Yes. Enjoyable? Thoroughly in its mangy matinée way. Can you believe I saw this on a double feature with SINK THE BISMARK! Such were kids matinées in Australia in 1962. The next week we saw CAPTAIN SINBAD which almost looks like the out takes of THE MAGIC SWORD.

I saw this film at a matinée in 1962 when I was seven. I remembered it over the years as 70 minutes of pure excitement. I watched it again on DVD with my kids. Yes, it is low budget. Yes, it has cheesy special effects by today's standards. Yes, it has a corny plot and weak acting from some of the characters. Yet, I found it to have charm and my kids were just as enthralled as I was 43 years ago when I suspended my disbelief in the dark of the Saturday matinée. This film is, in its genre, a minor classic. Further, Basil Rathbone as the heavy is very good in the waning years of his life and career--much better than Torin Thatcher who played similar "heavy" roles in similar adventure movies.