Jack The Giant Killer (1962)

An evil sorcerer (Torin Thatcher) kidnaps a beautiful princess (Judi Meredith) and holds her ransom until the King (Dayton Lummis) abdicates the throne which will allow the wicked wizard to rule the kingdom at the Princess's side. Directed by Nathan Juran, who directed the fantasy classic 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD. In fact, the film uses 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD as a template. In addition to Juran, Kerwin Mathews who played Sinbad plays Jack and Thatcher repeats his SINBAD duties as an evil wizard. Meredith steps in for Kathryn Grant's princess and instead of Richard Eyer's genie, we get Don Beddoe's leprechaun. Instead of Ray Harryhausen doing the stop motion animation, it's done by Jim Danforth (7 FACES OF DR. LAO). It's a charming fantasy fairy tale and while perhaps the special effects aren't up to 7TH VOYAGE or JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (mostly likely due to the budget), they're good enough with the witch attack on the ship a highlight. It's bright, colorful and fun. In a bizarre twist, many years after its original release, JACK was reconfigured as a musical by dubbing the actors dialog with singers. To call this version dreadful is an understatement although the musical version's main title credits does have a lovely song playing over the titles. With Anna Lee, Robert Gist, Barry Kelley and Walter Burke.