Jack the Giant Killer (1962)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Excellent but underrated film

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Fantasy and film noir sometimes mix successfully, although Jack, the Giant Killer (1962) is not the most entertaining of the genre despite the presence of lovely, talented Judi Meredith (who, alas, made only nine or ten movies, spending 80% of her career in TV episodes). Children will enjoy this movie much more than adults! For grown-ups, the chief drawback presented by "Jack, the Giant Killer" lies in the obvious limits of the Fantascope clay figures, somewhat clumsily animated here by outdated stop-motion effects. Fortunately, Don Beddoe (with an Irish accent yet!) makes an effective imp. Walter Burke is also most welcome as the wizard's henchman.

Jack the Giant Killer is an adventure fantasy that I feel stands the test of time better than a lot of animation monster movies out there. The assortment of witches, giants and magical beings is a great mix that had terrific special effects for the early 60's. The music assigned to the witches is enchanting as well as creepy. The main characters of Jack and Elissa are a good duo but the cheesy love lines shows its date. The supporting characters are exceptional and it hooks the viewer from the start. Most of the junk on TV is not worth anyone's time, so check out Jack the Giant Killer! It can be watched with the entire family!

Although a Cornwall legend,the screenplay makes me think of Perrault's "Sleeping Beauty" revisited by Disney a couple of years before .Like Maleficent,the evil sorcerer is not invited in the king's castle . Like Princess Aurora ,the king's daughter must hide ,disguised as a peasant. In the sorcerer's den ,the gnome in the bottle plays the part of the three good fairies . A raven carries the villains' news . The sorcerer's den ,with his devils, resembles that of Maleficent. And ,last but no least ,when he goes for broke,the evil character turns into a flying monster,just as Maleficent changed into a dragon.This is good entertainment for the whole family ,although some pictures might have seemed a bit scary for yesterday's kiddies (the same can be said of Disney's "Sleeping beauty")much of which (the reflections in the mirror)has been blunted by the passage of time.The special effects are still good (except for the cardboard giants and monsters )and Kerwin Matthews had plenty of go .Even adults can dig it.

This is an okay film, but the vast numbers of glowing reviews leaves me puzzled to say the least. You'd think it was E.T. or Lawrence Of Arabia or something from the way so many fawn over it. I can understand having fond memories of watching this movie as a child, but otherwise... Even for the time it was made, JTGK boasts mediocre special effects. The stop motion is smoothly done, but the models used looked like they came out of Toys R Us, and I'm being kind in that description. The sets are equally cheap and cartoonish, and the lighting and cinematography would have been considered basic even for a television show of the time period. It certainly doesn't "hold up today" as some have claimed. The acting is wooden at best, even though some excellent character actors were used. I can only assume they were having to deal the best they could with a so-so script. I'll admit that the action scenes were suspenseful even with the distractingly cheesy effects, which probably can be owed to the director. Overall, it looks like someone took an old fantasy tale and ran it through a mid-century Hollywood "Quick Buck Maker 6000" machine. With all that said, it's not horrible and there are worse ways to kill an afternoon.