Bert I. Gordon was an inept exploitation-movie maker who trafficked in second-rate sci-fi and Saturday morning adventure, e.g., "King Dinosaur." This latter-day Gordon work is, by his standards, pretty ambitious, and surprisingly competent. A St.-George-and-the-Dragon knockoff, it benefits from a clear, well-structured fairy-tale screenplay that sets up the situation economically and travels neatly from climax to climax; enjoyable hamming by Basil Rathbone and Estelle Winwood, who look like they're having fun; some pretty ambitious special effects and color for such a cheapjack production; and some engagingly whimsical touches, like the sort-of-Siamese-twins and the chess-playing chimp. Anne Helm, as the princess in distress, is disconcertingly modern-American-teeny-bopper, and her leading man, Gary Lockwood, is terminally uninteresting. But from moment to moment, it tells a rather good yarn. Acceptable Saturday-matinée entertainment, and given Gordon's usual incompetence, quite well made. (That didn't stop Mystery Science Theater 3000 from mocking it, and they do a bang-up job.)
Review of The Magic Sword
