The horrendous "musical" JACK THE GIANT KILLER gets its reputation rehabilitated with Kino Lorber's presentation of the original version on Blu-ray.

Banished from the kingdom of Cornwall along with his dragons and witches, Prince Pendragon (Torin Thatcher, HELEN OF TROY) spends years plotting his revenge and decides to strike on the day that Princess Elaine (Judi Meredith, SUMMER LOVE) comes of age and is crowned as the future queen by her father King Mark (Dayton Lummis, THE TIME TUNNEL). Under an assumed identity, Pendragon gifts Elaine with a miniature tower holding a tiny living humanoid creature that grows overnight into a giant who carries her off screaming from the kingdom. Jack (Kerwin Matthews, MANIAC) who has been minding the family farm since his father fell in the Battle of Land's End sees that giant carry the princess to a boat to be transported to Pendragon's castle by his servant Garna (Walter Burke, SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF) and rescues her, slaying the giant in the process and being knighted "Sir Jack the Giant Killer" by her father. Upon discovering the identity of Pendragon, King Mark decides that Elaine must be exiled from the kingdom until Pendragon and his supernatural armies can be defeated. He entrusts Jack with transporting Elaine secretly to Normandy, but a betrayer in the court sends word to Pendragon. When the ship to Normandy is attacked by the witch Tubo, Elaine is spirited away and the crew revolts when Jack wants to follow, tossing him overboard along with Peter (Roger Mobley, THE SILENT CALL), the young son of the slain captain (Robert Gist, OPERATION PETTICOAT). Jack and Peter are rescued by Viking Sigurd (Barry Kelley, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE) who sails to Pendragon's island castle and arms Jack with a sword and an imp in a bottle who is actually a leprechaun (Don Beddoe, THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER) who offers to help him with three magic coins in return for smashing the bottle and freeing him. After Pendragon gets a taste of Jack's "magic," he uses the possessed Elaine to catch the hero off-guard.

Prolific producer Edward Small had films like WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION, THE FULLR BRUSH MAN, and LORNA DOONE under his belt but went uncredited on this film and some other lower-tier genre work like the DIARY OF A MADMAN, CURSE OF THE FACELESS MAN, and IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE along with JACK THE GIANT KILLER which headlines THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD's star Mathews – a few years before his career slowed down and he headed to Europe like many a slumming Hollywood actor – and director Nathan Juran (THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS) but feels more akin to Bert I. Gordon's THE MAGIC SWORD than Harryhausen. In its original form, it is an attractive and ambitious Technicolor fantasy film with earnest performances and some accomplished if not entirely polished effects work by Howard Anderson (THE BAT PEOPLE) – later of the prolific optical house Howard Anderson Co. – Looney Toons animator Lloyd Vaugh and stop motion by Wah Chang (THE TIME MACHIEN), Tim Baar (MASTER OF THE WORLD), and future Fantasy II Film Effects head Gene Warren (KRONOS) along with an uncredited Jim Danforth (7 FACES OF DR. LAO). Although initially released by United Artists in this form in 1962, the film was later reworked the film as a musical with songs by Edwin Picker and Moose Charlap (ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS) – who is credited on the new version with scoring while original composing Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter (THE LAST MAN ON EARTH) are now credited with "underscore" – and his singer wife Sandy Stewart with Picker also taking editing credit from the original's Grant Whytock (TWICE TOLD TALES). The "musical process" of Picker and Charlap is a simultaneously ghastly viewing and listening experience with footage relooped and to extend sequences to fit songs and optically zoomed in to vary "coverage" with a romantic exchange of dialogue and a kiss between Jack and Elaine dragged out with post-production slow motion so that "she" can serenade him. Once suspenseful sequences of Jack in mortal combat with various monsters are undercut severely by new songs which make sport of the onscreen action, including the climactic battle with Pendragon's dog-faced flying dragon. With this version was more readily available on television and videotape and the original long out of circulation, it was easy to write this one off as unwatchable; however, the availability of the original non-musical version is a pleasant discovery indeed.

Released through United Artists in its theatrical version before going to television courtesy of Disney in the eighties in its musical version, JACK THE GIANT KILLER's musical abortion persisted when the film hit videocassette in the nineties from MGM with the theatrical version finally making its bow on MGM laserdisc the following year. The theatrical version would turn up on DVD first from Goodtimes Home Video in a fullscreen transfer and them from MGM in a non-anamorphic letterboxed version, with the musical version now being the less accessible. Kino Lorber's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 Blu-ray – the original aspect ratio was 1.37:1 but it works at 1.66:1 and is certainly not a "scope" film despite the Fantascope credit – now includes both versions of the film for easy comparison. The theatrical version (94:32) looks gorgeous with rich Technicolor of the costumes and sets as well as some effects animation with a psychedelic neon intensity one would expect from some of the campier eighties effects pictures. The process shots are always dimmer with some flicker, outlines, and odd color casts, but this appears to be the fault of Howard Anderson's "Fantascope" process rather than an issue with the elements. The musical version (90:12), on the other hand, is as painful to watch as to listen. Besides the post slow motion and the optical enlargements that render the image fuzzy, there seems to be a blue push to the colors that make the reds less vibrant, purples garish, shadows diluted, and the color scheme simply tacky while flicker is apparent even in some non-process shots. The different title sequences on both versions waver from side to side, but this is not a registration issue as the titles move with it. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 tracks are faultless, with the musical version's only flaw being the music itself. Optional English SDH subtitles are available for the theatrical version only and contain some transcription errors.