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Magic Sword (1962)

St. George and the Dragon
St. George and the Seven Curses
The Seven Curses of Lordac


Cast:

Basil "Sir Guy of Gisbourne from the Adventures of Robin Hood" Rathbone is Lodac
Estelle "The love of Crow T. Robot" Winwood is Sybil
Gary "Open the pod pay doors, HAL..." Lockwood is Sir George
Anne Helm is Princess Helene
Liam Sullivan is Sir Branton


What the box says:

The evil sorcerer Lodac has captured Princess Helene and whisks her off to his castle. Young George has been enamored of Helen from afar, and aided by a magic sword given to him by his sorceress stepmother he sets off with his six knights to save her. However, he must travel with Sir Franton, who also has romantic spirations for the Princess. Together the knights must face Lodac's seven curses and liberate the Princess.


Plot:

the typical decorations for a magic workshop assault us: skull and bubbling cauldrons. Sybil is complaining about how she is unable to help her boy to her monkey apprentice.


Dr. ZAUIS!!!! You'll never make a monkey out of me...
George is at the magic pool. Sybil�s assistant, the 2 headed man, is sure that George is in love. Apparently, Sybil can�t do anything about curing him of love.

At the magic pool, George watches the Princess Helene taking a nude swim. This scene really needs the Police�s �Every Breath You Take, I�ll be Watching You� playing in the background. One hasty jump cut keeps us from seeing anything.

The Princess Helene is kept away from men, the disadvantages of being a princess. A ghost appears to Helene.

Suddenly, George loses the signal from the magic mirror. He rushes to Sybil. They are able to learn that the Princess Helene has vanished without a trace.

The palace guards bring in the sorcerer, Lodac, to the king. The evil Lodac has Helene at his castle. He wants revenge for the king�s father executing his sister for witchcraft. This may be one of the few times in history that an actual witch was burned outside of the Brainiac. Being an evil sorcerer with a sense of timing, he waited until Helene turned 18.

An evil sorcerer also has a flair for the dramatic and a sense of timing. The journey to the castle won�t be easy. All who travel must face his 7 curses. In 7 days, she will be fed to his dragon. Lodac transforms into a bird and flies away.

The king offers his daughter�s hand in marriage and half his kingdom to whoever can save her.

Sybil has a good reason for fearing Lodac by revealing her family was killed by Lodac. George has been raised by Sybil since his royal parents died when he was a baby. The witchly stepmother offers to show George his birthday presents for when he turns 21. A magic horse is also the fastest steed on Earth. Magic armor that is invulnerable to any blow. A sword that is capable of opening and closing any door besides being incredibly sharp. Sybil will let him go when he�s 21. By the way, she also shows him 6 statues of the bravest knights in the world.

George tricks Sybil into going into her brother�s lab and trapping her in it. George will release her after saving the Princess. He releases the knights from their granite prisons.

Sir Branton swears to free the Princess Helene. He�ll go alone. George and his crew arrive. George vows to save the Princess and introduces his crew that are pledged to his cause.
NameNationality
Dennis France
HeinrichGermany
AnthonyItaly
PedroSpain
JamesScotland
PatrickIreland
Sir Branton takes a swing and discovers his knife will break against George�s armor. The king wants all of them to go save his daughter.

At Lodac�s castle, Princess Helene is locked in the dungeon with some more princesses: Laura and Grace. Apparently, those 2 are on their last day and will be Purina Dragon Chow shortly. Lodac has them taken to his pet. He forces Helene to watch those 2 get devoured by the large scaly lizard. Sir Branton is coming to save her. Lodac uses his magic mirror to show that Branton, George, and the crew are coming.

The knights ride onto the first curse. A giant ogre that quickly becomes a pincushion for a number of spears. George rides around the ogre fast enough to make it dizzy and for it to fall over from its wounds.

Elsewhere, Lodac and Helene watch the battle.

George kills the ogre.


Rahhhhhhhhhrrrrrrrr, I'm a monsterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!

Helene is ecstatic and positive that George will save her.

George and the crew bury 2 of the knights: Heinrich and some other guy.

Sir Branton and everyone else rides on through a foggy and murky swamp. Anthony falls into the bog. George tries to pull him out. Branton kicks George into the bog and rides away. Anthony melts from being in the bog 2 minutes longer than George. Our valiant knight is able to retrieve his sword and escape.

Branton isn�t happy with George�s escape.

The monkey is playing chess with the conjoined Siamese twin guy when Sybil escapes the lab. She is able to watch him from her magic mirror.

Branton wants the knights to turn back. They will stay with George and already distrust the uppity Branton, too.

Later, Branton rides alone to nearby mill. Lodac teleports there. The courageous knight has Lodac�s ring and will return it after rescuing Helene. Lodac senses that Dennis approaches.

Dennis is the stereotypical Frenchman who will run after any saucy French chick. He practices the skills his countrymen are known for besides surrendering. The chick turns into a vampire succubus.


Guys, just think she's on the other end of that private messenge on ICQ.
George arrives to drive the creature away. Dennis isn�t worse for the wear.

They head to the mill and find Branton there with a smug answer for going alone.

After they rejoin the rest. Lodac and the succubus appear in the mill. He realizes that George has magic, and Sybil must be behind it. For the failure of the succubus, she gets transformed into a tarantula.

Lodac talks with Sybil that George will die. He scrambles her mirror.

Sybil flies into a fury and works on another potion. The incantation fails and ends with big badda-boom. She has accidentally removed all of George�s magic.

George, Patrick, and Branton head on. For some reason, Branton is unaffected by the heat. The other 2 knights are quickly par-broiled. George and Patrick chase Branton into a cave.

Our smug knight reveals he is working with Lodac and traps them in the cave. George tries using his sword to no avail. They search deeper into the cavern and find pseudo-Zardoz floating superimposed heads. Patrick stabs himself and turns into a ghost. Suddenly, a door appears that George uses to escape.

Lodac and Branton spy on George.

George reaches the castle.

Our evil duo watches as George enters the dungeon to rescue the Princess Helene. The lovely couple embrace. Aw, true love ensues.

They start to sneak out of the castle and find them surrounded by swarms of the normally challenged AKA freaks including several Coneheads. Lodac and Branton teleport in.

Suddenly, Princess Helene dumps George for Branton. As they leave, Branton returns Lodac�s ring. Suddenly, Helene morphs into the succubus. Lodac was always planning on betraying Branton.

Lodac casts a spell which mounts Branton�s head on his wall like a deer head trophy.


A pompous knight's head always imroves the decor of any room.

Lodac has Helene taken to the dragon and George taken to the dungeon.

Sybil can�t remember the spell to return George�s magic. She flies to Lodac�s castle.

George is being tortured. Lodac brings Helene by for them to say goodbye. Lodac takes her to the dragon.

A number of little people, opposite of superimposed giants, escape from a cage.

Helene is tied to a pair of columns like Princess Andromeda was in Clash of the Titans.

George is placed so he can watch Helene get eaten. The little people sneak in bringing his sword to cut him free.

Lodac is on the parapet to get a better view of the show.

The dragon approaches the Princess.

George grabs a spear and rides to Helene�s side.

Sybil arrives still unable to remember the spell.

The dragon and George fight.


Marvel at Bert I. Gordon's amazing finale...

Lodac inadvertently reveals the word Sybil forgotten.

George is suddenly able to go old school on the dragon.

Sybil steals Lodac�s ring.

The dragon finally dies.

George frees Helene.

Lodac will destroy George himself and claims the 7th curse is LODAC!!!

Sybil turns into a panther that would impress Manimal and mauls Lodac to death.

Back at the castle, the King greets Helene and his new son-in-law.

The knights have been brought back from the dead. Sybil and the 2 headed guy are there, too.

By the way, they all lived happily ever after.


What I say:

This is a Bert I. Gordon movie. The king of forced perspective...Yes, MR BIG, his own self...He gave us many of the giant animal movies of previous decades like Beginning of the End. Many of his movies wound up on MST3K. Well, this is his triumphant return to SideOrderOfNinjas. A fact that many people could celebrate.

This movie isn't really that bad. I was expecting it to be worse than I had thought. Sure, this is a kids movie. A lot of B-movie sites love to trounce kid movies for being childish. Some of the most reviled movies in that field I didn't think were that bad as a kid. Though, I don't really want to see if Mac & Me has stood the test of time. The last kids movie I watched was the horrendous Pocket Ninjas. That movie is sure to try the patience of anyone. I'm sure kids would despise it as much as any adult or vaguely-adult would.

The basic plot is from St. George and the Dragon. Well, Gordon added in more fantasy elements. Today, too many people have been raised on Tolkien mythology and expect most fantasy movies to be more epic rather than the questing type like "Illiad." The Magic Sword doesn't quite have the Sinbad vibe it was aiming for though. I think as a Saturday matinee for kids, it succeeds fairly well.

I could try to rage for or against the archetypes in this movie. Either way, it would be too much like someone wielding an English degree like a blunt object. You don't need to worry about me doing that. Far too many people enjoy ripping movies apart in that manner. Besides, my degrees had little to do with English and pointless papers. Frankly, I'd rather write about a movie I enjoy though movies I hate have plenty more ammunition.

Basil Rathbone was in his 70s when this movie was made. With as many times as I've watched Adventures of Robin Hood, I can see how Basil was definitely one of the great film villains. Unfortunately, the years kept him from demonstrating his sword-fighting ability. Basil could definitely buckle some swashes as the heavy. Give him an earring, he can act like a villain from any of the Sinbad movies. Though, he had quite a career between sword wielding villain or Sherlock Holmes, Rathbone was definitely far more talented and never had the career slump of following into Poverty Row movies like Bela Lugosi.

George wasn't a very bright knight. He didn't seem angry after Branton tried to kill him. Nobility and chivalry have their places. However, attempted murder should trump either of them. Well, look how Roscoe was after Festus tried whacking him in Killer Shrews. He was ready to make sure his life processes were of interest only to historians.

I will toss out this small nit. The movie was supposed to be set in the time of knights and castles. I thought Germany was a number of providences at this time and hadn't become what we would consider Germany until the late 1800s. For that matter, wasn't Italy about in the same boat? I could bring up the fact that everyone speaks perfect English save for the accents that could even annoy the fingernails across a chalkboard.

The succubus, ghost, or hag is a more familiar face without all the makeup to B-movie fans. Vampira probably more recognizable in Plan 9 From Outer Space. She unsuccessfully had a lawsuit against Elvira for stealing her act.

It is good to see the truly mad villain who cares for his pet. Rathbone kidnaps at least one princess a week to feed his dragon. This may be the only movie where the villain's pet dragon or monster doesn't kill its master. That dragon has to be the best fed dragon of all. Name another dragon that gets Purina Princess Chow at least once a week.



3 NINJAS

Quotable Dialogue

"Doesn't my witchcraft cure snakebites?"
"Who in the netherworld are you talking about?"
"What does the Frenchmen mean?"
"Someone has to do the thinking for you."
"I'm so happy to even think."


Morals of the Story

Conjoined twins are an agreeable and vocal minority.
Dragons need grade A prime choice Princesses for their meals.
Riding in circles around someone enough will kill them.
Anthony is a popular name in Italy.
Magic mirrors go on the fritz like televisions.
Coneheads lived in the Middle Ages on Earth.




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