Jack the Giant Killer

Back in second grade, I hung out in this little pack of nerds. Me, Tercio, Mike Long (who I haven't seen since High School) and Douglas Leonardi (who was sort of the alpha of the group, and who moved away the next year, I think). We were all pretty much bound by our interest in science fiction, fantasy, mythology, monsters and World War II. I remember someoneni that group, probably Douglas but maybe it was Mike, mentioning a movie once called Jack the Giant Killer, which had a two-headed dragon and a griffin in it. This stayed in the back of my mind throughout my childhood as a movie I wanted to see, but I never saw or heard any more about it, and eventually I guess I just decided that it didn't exist. Then, a couple years ago, I caught it on Turner Classic Movies.

It's basically a total rip off of The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, with stop-motion monsters that all looked very, very close to Harryhausen's designs. But it was much more obviously a kids' movie, and the monsters looked a little less scary and more cute than Harryhausen's.

A few weeks back, Tom Sutpen posted an image from Jack the Giant Killer on his blog, which prompted Tim Lucas to post about a musical version of the film that was created in the editing room over a decade after the original release, and followed it up with a post containing a few more details on the film.

Personally, having finally seen the film, I think it's pretty lousy, and I certainly don't agree with Tim's statement that "in terms of its plot, imagination, and extravagant Technicolor palette, JACK THE GIANT KILLER outperforms most of Harryhausen's films in terms of uncompromised entertainment value," but check it out for yourself. It's airing on TCM this Friday, at 7:00 pm PST, following one of Harryhausen's own lesser-known works, The Three Worlds of Gulliver.