![]() ![]() ![]() The youth in question is Gary Lockwood (later seen in 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Ghost of Flight 401), and he plays an orphaned princeling by the name of George. In accordance with the standard procedure for these movies, Gordon has entrusted the bulk of the derring-do to some good-looking young schnook with too little experience to ask for much of a paycheck, apparently on the theory that if the lad’s teeth are sufficiently straight, white, and shiny, then we won’t notice that he can neither act his way out of a wet paper bag nor figure out which end of the swash is supposed to have the buckle on it. Gordon, however, managed something that his better-funded competitors either could not or simply didn’t bother to try- he secured the services of an actor who at least used to be a star.ĭon’t look for that former star in the hero’s part, though. Like the latter movie, The Magic Sword is set (at least by implication) in a fairy-tale version of England, and concerns a quest to rescue a captive princess from a wizard who commands witches and giants, and a shabby but still pretty cool-looking dragon figures prominently in the climax. Interestingly, Gordon’s bid to cash in on the success of The 7th Voyage of Sinbad actually owes more to a parallel cash-in attempt, Edward Small’s Jack the Giant Killer. Ray Harryhausen was among those blazing the trail, just as he had in the preceding decade, and where Harryhausen went, Gordon was sure to follow. Nuclear mishaps, alien invasions, and geological catastrophes were out as monster motivators Greek gods, Arabian sorcerers, and Medieval warlocks were in. He, after all, was in the big-damn-monster business, and by the 1960’s, Hollywood had grown weary of big damn monsters on the city-smashing model that had predominated since 1953. Gordon would try his hand at a fantasy adventure movie sooner or later. George and Seven Curses/The Seven Curses of Lodac (1962) -**½ ![]()
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