Jack the Giant Killer (1962)
Bringing together actors Kerwin Mathews, Torin Thatcher, producer Edward Small and director Nathan H. Juran from 1958's The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Jack the Giant Killer was a troubled production with 7th Voyage's studio Columbia Pictures threatening to sue Small, who then changed the film into a musical to avoid any similarities to 7th Voyage. Thankfully the original print was released thirty years later.
The film is, despite it's troubles, a hell of a lot of fun. Mathews makes for a heroic Jack and Thatcher, a wonderfully treacherous Pendragon the sorcerer, looking rather like Anthony Ainley's Master from 80's Doctor Who.
The film uses a lot of stop motion animation courtesy of Project Unlimited who had just won an Oscar for their work on The Time Machine (1960) but sadly these effects never come close quality wise, when it comes to giants and other mythical creatures, to the classic work of Ray Harryhausen.
Having said that the film boasts one excellent attack on a ship by a coven of witches and even as an adult in the 21st century i admit that the witches are scarily creepy and frightening to the eye even now. If i'd seen the film as a child i'm thinking they would be proper Wicked Witch of the West scary. If not worse, with their gruesome skeletal features.
Beginning with a delightful fairy tale story book like opening and ending with a final battle between good and evil, i heartily recommend this.
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