... and that was for nostalgia's sake. Although I'm setting the bar so low it's somewhere down in the Earth's mantle, this one is actually pretty good -- for a Bert I. Gordon film. (Though I freely admit, the only way I can stand to watch this movie nowadays is with Joel and the 'Bots.)
I don't think it's possible for a contemporary viewer to appreciate what it was like, seeing this on the big screen back during its theatrical release in 1962. But at just barely 7, I was the perfect age to be enthralled by the cheesy effects and general silliness. For a kid flick, especially in the early Sixties, there are some surprisingly grim and gruesome goings-on. It was colorful, and even imaginative in parts. Sure, the comic relief the script tried to mine from Estelle Winwood's scatter-brained sorceress and her helpers often falls flat -- I mean, really, Bert: a chimp? Whose idea was that? -- but even so, she's still fun to watch.
Whether feeding princesses to his dragon puppet, or double-crossing a traitorous knight, Basil Rathbone was obviously having a blast as the coolly sadistic and sardonic sorcerer, Lodac. His performance deserved a much better-budgeted and directed film than this.
I don't think it's possible for a contemporary viewer to appreciate what it was like, seeing this on the big screen back during its theatrical release in 1962. But at just barely 7, I was the perfect age to be enthralled by the cheesy effects and general silliness. For a kid flick, especially in the early Sixties, there are some surprisingly grim and gruesome goings-on. It was colorful, and even imaginative in parts. Sure, the comic relief the script tried to mine from Estelle Winwood's scatter-brained sorceress and her helpers often falls flat -- I mean, really, Bert: a chimp? Whose idea was that? -- but even so, she's still fun to watch.
Whether feeding princesses to his dragon puppet, or double-crossing a traitorous knight, Basil Rathbone was obviously having a blast as the coolly sadistic and sardonic sorcerer, Lodac. His performance deserved a much better-budgeted and directed film than this.