411 - THE MAGIC SWORD (original; 1962; NR; 80m)

a.k.a. ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON
a.k.a. ST. GEORGE AND THE SEVEN CURSES
a.k.a. L'EPEE ENCHANTEE (France)
a.k.a. LA ESPADA MAGICA (Mexico)

Ad: "The Most Incredible Weapon Ever Wielded!"
"Feats Beyond Description! Spectacle Beyond Imagination!"

Ad: "SEE the Green Fire Demons! SEE the 25-Foot Tall Ogre!
SEE the Beautiful Vampire Woman! SEE the Boiling Crater of Death!"

Video Ad: "Battling the 7 Deadly Curses!"

Plot: Knight tries to save damsel from sorcerer with the help of his magical adoptive mother.

Prod/Dir: Bert I. Gordon
(*210-King Dinosaur;
309-The Amazing Colossal Man;
313-Earth Vs. The Spider;
319-War of the Colossal Beast;
414-Tormented;
517-Beginning of the End;
523-Village of the Giants)
Scr: Bernard Schoenfeld
(906-The Space Children; Oscar nom/Caged)
Scr: Bert I. Gordon (309/319/523)
Cin: Paul Vogel
(523; Time Machine; won Oscar/Battleground)
Ed: Harry Gerstad
(201-Rocketship X-M; won Oscars/High Noon; Champion)
SFX: Milton Rice
(L01-World Without End; Invasion of the Body Snatchers)
Cos: Oscar Rodriguez
(809-I Was A Teenage Werewolf; 902-The Phantom Planet)
Cos: Esther Krebs (Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla)
M/U: Daniel Striepeke
(Oscar noms/Saving Private Ryan; Forrest Gump)
Asst Dir/PMgr: Herbert E. Mendelson (319; She Devil)
ADir: Franz Bachelin
(523; Oscar nom/Journey to the Center of the Earth)
Set: George R. Nelson (608-Code Name: Diamond Head)
Dragon Trainer (?!): Ron Wheat
Sound: James Brock (The Merry Widow)
Sound FX Ed: Martin Greco (The Atomic Submarine)
Sound Rec: Roger Heman Sr. (won Oscar/fx/Crash Dive)
Score: Richard Markowitz (305-Stranded in Space; Wild Seed)

Sir George / Gary Lockwood
(615-Kitten With A Whip; 2001: A Space Odyssey)
Lodac / Basil Rathbone*
Sybil / Estelle Winwood*
Princess Helene / Anne Helm (Unkissed Bride; Nightmare in Wax)
Sir Ulrich / Leroy Johnson (Shenandoah; Monte Walsh)
Sir Branton / Liam Sullivan (That Darn Cat; One Man's Way)
Sir Patrick / John Mauldin*
Sir Dennis / Jacques Gallo (Little Boy Lost)
King / Merritt Stone (*313/319/414; Port Sinister; Problem Girls)
dwarf / Angelo Rossitto (105-Corpse Vanishes; Freaks; Pufnstuf)
ogre / Jack Kosslyn (309/*313/319; Attack of the Puppet People)
Anne / Lorrie Richards (Trauma)
dwarf / Ted Finn
French girl / Danielle de Metz (Return of the Fly)
hag / Maila Nurmi a.k.a. Vampira*
pinhead / Richard Kiel (902; *420-Human Duplicators; 506-Eegah)
Princess Grace / Marlene Callahan
Princess Laura / Ann Graves
Siamese twin / Nick Bon Tempi (guest/TV's Wanted: Dead or Alive)
Siamese twin / Paul Bon Tempi (guest/TV's Wanted: Dead or Alive)
Sir Anthony / Taldo Kenyon (Frame Up)
Sir James / Angus Duncan (The Young Runaways; Marlowe)
Sir Pedro / David Cross (Creation of the Humanoids; Decks Ran Red)

Trivia: Here's info on Crow's other favorite (besides Kim Cattrall)...Though her British parents named her Estelle Goodwin, ESTELLE WINWOOD (1883-1984), affectionally known as "Cow Eyes" to some of her friends, achieved fame very late in her career. She's in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest actor to have a major role in a motion picture for her portrayal of Nurse Withers in the hilarious Murder By Death at the age of 93. Some of her other films are: 1937-Quality Street (with Katharine Hepburn); 1956-The Swan; 1958-Darby O'Gill and the Little People; 1962-The Notorious Landlady; 1964-Dead Ringer; 1967-Camelot; and perhaps her best, 1968-The Producers (directed by Mel Brooks with Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel). Besides playing Aunt Hilda on the campy TV series Batman, she was even on Bewitched!

After leaving his birthplace South Africa for England, Sir Philip St. John BASIL RATHBONE (1892-1967) had great success in American movies starting in 1921. Here are some of note: 1933-David Copperfield (as Murdstone); 1935-Anna Karenina; Captain Blood (with Errol Flynn); 1936-Romeo and Juliet (Oscar nominee); 1938-The Adventures of Marco Polo (with Gary Cooper); 1938-The Adventures of Robin Hood (again with Flynn); If I Were King (Oscar nominee); 1939-Son of Frankenstein; The Hound of the Baskervilles (as Sherlock Holmes, a role which he repeated to perfection in many sequels); 1941-The Black Cat; 1956-The Court Jester (with Danny Kaye); 1966-The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini; and 1967-Hillbillies in a Haunted House.

Actor JOHN MAULDIN bears a striking resemblance (with a similar voice) to actor David Love, who portrayed sensitive alien Derek in 404-TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE. However, it's very doubtful that Mauldin and Love were the same person.

Born in 1921 in Finland, MAILA NURMI was a model and struggling actress who attended a Hollywood costume party as a Charles Addams character that would later be named Morticia Addams. A party-goer immediately hired Maila as a hostess for a Saturday night horror movie show on television. She created the onscreen persona of VAMPIRA, but she had trouble parlaying this success into a larger career. It was her first movie, the infamous Plan 9 from Outer Space by Ed Wood, that would gain her fame, although much later than its 1959 release (filmed in 1956). Nurmi made few films, but by an odd coincidence, she made three with Mamie Van Doren: The Beat Generation (1959), The Big Operator (1959), and Sex Kittens Go to College (1960). Maila is under so much makeup as the hag in THE MAGIC SWORD (1962) that she's unrecognizable. Even though she wasn't in 423-BRIDE OF THE MONSTER, she did publicity stunts by appearing in public with the Bride's cast. Since the 1960's, Maila Nurmi a.k.a. Vampira has made a living selling her paintings and tombstone rubbings from celebrity graves. She had an unsuccessful lawsuit against a similar looking hostess of scary flicks...Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.

Last Updated: 6/23/1999