I was more than a bit surprised at how much I enjoyed The Magic Sword. Now I'm not saying it's a good movie, but it's far from a bad one. The highlights are Basil Rathbone in his last days, as the sorcerer villain, playing it to the hilt and Estelle Winwood as a more friendly and somewhat dithering sorceress. Gary Lockwood is adequate as the smitten heroic lead, and Anne Helm is quite fetching as our obligatory damsel in distress.
The real star of this show is the direction of Bert I. Gordon who breaks out all those size-manipulating gimmicks which made most of his other movies tick. We get little people and a giant ogre, all thanks to forced perspective, giant props, and other movie magic. There are also other bizarre types in this one such as blue-faced henchmen and cone-headed creeps. It's a veritable cavalcade of oddities, including an above-average dragon who reminds me more than a bit of the famous Gorgo. And for no particular reason there's a chimp.
You can guess the plot. An evil magician kidnaps a princess to feed to his dragon if the doting parents don't cough up the treasure. They invariably send a knight or knights who fall victim to seven deadly curses. Our princess gets nabbed via magic and despite our hero having magic weapons, including the titular blade, and the help of sex other loyal knights it's a squeaker.
Don't run out to see this one, but if it crosses your path give it a gander.
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