Monday, May 18, 2020

The Magic Sword (1962)

A vibrant but rather odd fantasy tale of knights on horseback, dragons and magic. Evil sorcerer Lodak (Basil Rathbone) has captured princess Helene (Anne Helm) and wants to feed her to his dragon. Sir Branton (Liam Sullivan) promises his liege he will rescue Helene in return for her hand in magic... but Sir George (Gary Lockwood) also vows to rescue her... even though he has only ever seen her secretly via a magic pool. Obviously in ye olde age peeping toms were not considered so bad...

To reach the princess the knights have to face seven deadly curses from Lodak including swamps and an orge, The main danger to George though is from Sir Branton who is secretly in league with Lodak. Luckily George is equipped with some magic of his own thanks to his foster mum witch Sybil (Estelle Winwood)...

A fantastical adventure. It is high camp as well, Rathbone and Winwood give great pantomime like performances, which is just what the film needs. Lockwood always looks like he is finding whats going on around him somewhat confusing.