Jack the Giant Killer

Another movie that I came across on one or another of the streaming services was Edward Small's early 1960s production of Jack the Giant Killer.

The movie informs us that ages ago, Cornwall was ruled by an evil prince named Pendragon (Torin Thatcher), who had a command of magic and was able to control all the witches and other associated legendary creatures. But he was defeated and banished to a castle on an island well off shore, and Cornwall is now ruled by benevolent King Mark. Mark has a daughter Elaine (Judi Meredith), who is also the Crown Princess, and as the movie opens it's her birthday.

Who should show up to celebrate but Pendragon in disguise? He brings a fairly remarkable gift, a music box that opens to reveal a dancing jester. This is, as you can probably guess, a ruse, as Pendragon has magic that will allow the mechanical jester to grow in size and become a giant who can kidnap Elaine and take her back to Pendragon's castle, something that would pose serious problems for the King.

The good news is that the kidnapping is foiled by Jack (Kerwin Mathews), which is how he gets the title of giant killer. It also gets him a knighthood, as well as the love of Elaine. But since all of this happens in the first 20 minutes or so, you know that the movie isn't over by a long shot, and that Pendragon has a few tricks up his sleeve, or a lot of tricks. Jack is given the job of sailing Elaine across the English Channel to a convent where she'll be safe from Pendragon and can stay until the King's death at which point Elaine would become queen. But Pendragon uses his magic to figure out what's going to happen, and is able to kidnap Elaine.

The game is on to find Elaine, made more important by the fact that Pendragon has used his magic to cast a spell on Elaine that turns her into a witch who can do Pendragon's bidding while looking benign to people on the outside as long as she isn't looking into Pendragon's mirror. Pendragon informs Mark that if he doesn't abdicate in a week, Pendragon will kill him, finalizing Pendragon's plan to rule alongside Elaine, since the throne would rightly be Elaine's in any case.

The fairy-tale nature of the story, combined with the use of stop-motion photography to handle the magical creatures, make Jack the Giant Killer the sort of movie that should naturally appeal to kids. It's also nicely photographed in Technicolor. Sure, it's not a great movie for adults, but the kids won't notice the relatively thin plotline. Any plot holes can be explained away by magic anyhow.

So Jack the Giant Killer is a good movie for some people, but maybe not everybody.