Sir George (Gary Lockwoodnote ) is the foster son of Sybil (Estelle Winwood), an elderly witch. Not much is said about his background, other than that his parents are dead and he is of Royal Blood. He is secretly in love with Princess Helene (Anne Helmnote ), who is kidnapped early in the film by the evil wizard Lodac (Basil Rathbone).
George wants to go on a quest to liberate his lady love, but Sybil believes he is too young. She comforts the youth by showing him a magic sword, a steed, a suit of armour, and a group of magically frozen knights — all his to command when he turns 21. But the impatient George tricks Sybil into a locked underground cellar and immediately takes off with his magical implements and the revived company of knights.
Sir George and his party then appear before the king, who looks like Grady from Sanford and Son, and insist on journeying to Lodac's castle to rescue his daughter, even though this angers the knight who had previously been given the task. To save the princess Helene, George and his companions must go through Lodac's seven curses.
This 1962 fantasy adventure film, directed by Bert I. Gordon and very loosely based on the legend of Saint George and the Dragon, later had some of its footage reused in The Man Who Saves the World.
Not to be confused with the Warner Bros. animated film Quest for Camelot, which was released as The Magic Sword in some territories.
For the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode see here. RiffTrax released their own version on August 14, 2015.
The film contains examples of:
- Alternate DVD Commentary: Done by Rifftrax in 2015.
- Animal Reaction Shot: For absolutely no reason, Sybil and George have a pet monkey whose only job is to briefly make funny reaction shots.
- Back from the Dead: Sir George's band of knights somehow come back to life.
- Maybe Lodac's curses had No Ontological Inertia.
- It's implied that Sybil did it somehow with Lodac's ring.
- Big Bad: Lodac. He is an all-powerful sorcerer who lost his ring to Sir Branton, so the two have teamed up to help Sir Branton fake rescue Helene so he can marry her. If they pull off the scheme, Branton promised to give Lodac back the ring he stole to bring him back to his full powers.
- B-Movie: It's a rather cheap looking production, the acting is hammy (especially the villain), and the protagonist George is a whiny little jerk.
- Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: Subverted; the French knight is probably the bravest out of the crew (except perhaps for Patrick). He almost gets done in by way of a different French stereotype, however: the horny Frenchman.
- Cool Horse: George's horse. Sybil mentions it's the fastest horse in all the land.
- Cool Sword: George's sword. Tapping it against surfaces can cause magical openings to appear or it can close something that's already open. Which George does to trap Sybil in the basement so he can go rescue Helene.
- Credits Gag: The person who worked the dragon puppet is listed in the credits as a "dragon trainer".
- Crystal Ball: The magic pool George uses in his first appearance serves as this purpose in the story.
- Damsel in Distress: Princess Helene. She gets about five lines of dialogue before an unnamed, unexplained entity appears to her and kidnaps her. It turns out the whole thing is a scheme by Sir Branton and Lodac. Branton stole Lodac's ring, so to get it back, he forces him to kidnap Helene so he can appear heroic and rescue her to win her hand in marriage. After this is done, he promised to return Lodac's magic ring. .
- Death Is Cheap: The party of knights drop like flies throughout the film, then are resurrected at the end in a blatant Deus ex Machina.
- Disposable Woman: The two princesses before Princess Helena. They barely get any lines or screentime before their demises.
- Dwindling Party: George revives six knights from all parts of Europe to aid him on his quest, (Spain, France, Germany, Scotland, Ireland, Italy), two of them die when facing the first of the seven deadly challenges between them and the wizard's castle.
- Engineered Heroics: The entire kidnap plot is all a plan between Sir Branton and Lodac so Branton can "rescue" the Princess. Too bad for him that A) George and his knights join the party and B) Lodac has no intention of honoring the deal.
- Evil Is Hammy: There was not a speck of set left after Basil Rathbone ate the entire thing whole in his performance.
- Evil Plan: Lodac kidnaps Princess Helene and holds her for ransom as vengeance for the King killing his sister.
- Evil Sorcerer: Lodac. The silly headscarf and hammy acting makes it hard to take him seriously, but he is a relatively formidable enemy.
- Failure Hero: George after losing his magic, only surviving the fifth curse because of a Heroic Sacrifice, and only escaping his prison cell because the Little People rescue him. Ultimately, the only thing he accomplishes on his own merit rather than through Sybil's magic was to steal all the magical items that Sybil had made for him.
- Forced Transformation: Lodac turned the Hag into a spider.
- Good Witch Versus Bad Witch: Sybil v Lodac. Notably, there never is an actual "magic duel", as Sybil states early on that she would be no match for Lodac. She defeats him in the end only after pilfering his magic ring during a moment of distraction.
- Here There Were Dragons: Lodac's obsessed with finding princesses to feed to his pet dragon. But when we do see the dragon in the final battle, it...leaves a lot to be desired, frankly. It is completely inert and just sits in one spot swinging its tail and shooting fire that doesn't burn George somehow. In the end, he easily walks up to it and stabs it to death.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Patrick, already dying from the fifth Curse, sacrifices himself to help George escape.
- Hero Secret Service: The frozen knights are this for George. They accompany him on the journey to rescue Helene and are only barely effective at it, as they all get killed off by the time he makes it to Lodac's castle.
- Heroic Fantasy: The movie's genre is epic or high fantasy, featuring magic and dragons.
- Invincible Hero: George. His armor protects him from anything, his horse can run at super speed, and his enchanted sword can kill an ogre and a dragon in a single stab. In fact, it takes Sybil depowering him by accident to introduce anything resembling danger to the guy.
- Flat Character: George's companions, whose characterization ends at "loyal and brave". Most only have enough dialogue to introduce themselves to the King. Even Patrick and Dennis, the only knights with an appreciable role, get only rudimentary traits beyond their courage and loyalty (Dennis is a horny Frenchman who can't pass up a pretty girl to save his life, and Patrick is said to be the most devout).
- Jerkass: Sir Branton. After stealing Lodac's ring, he forces Lodac to kidnap Helene so he can rescue her and win her hand in marriage. He actively sabotages George the entire time they're on the journey together, getting every one of his knights killed. But fortunately, he does get his comeuppance in the end.
- Knight in Shining Armor: George and his Knights, literally. His armor is blessed with Sybil's magic, so it's also unbreakable.
- The Lancer: Sir Patrick is the closest of the Knights to George. He's always by his side, among the first (and most frequent) to voice his dislike and distrust of Branton, and is the last of the Knights to fall while aiding George on his quest.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: In a rather strange case, the king appears to be a black man, yet Helene looks 100% white. They never mention what happened to the queen, so we don't know what her race was, but it's confusing as hell that the king is fairly dark skinned, yet Helene shows no trace of having a black parent and there isn't any dialogue about her being adopted.
- Magic Mirror: Sybil's mirror. She looks into it to see where George has gone or what Lodac is up to.
- Master of Illusion: Lodac. We see him turn one of his minions into a spider as punishment.
- Mauve Shirt: George's team of knights all exist to be taken out by Lodac's curses. Sir Branton even lampshades it, commenting to himself how there's "seven swords" accompanying him to take on "seven curses".
- Multinational Team: George's band of knights. We have Spain, France, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, and Italy represented. It is probably not coincidence that the seven knights are named for the patron saints of said nations. George himself, and the general story, are loosely based upon Saint George of England.
- Multiple Head Case: Sybill and George have a two-headed Albino at home. It's unclear if they're just servants or if they're friends, as they have absolutely no plot relevance whatsoever and really just say inane things to support Sybil, so it's anyone's guess.
- Named Weapons: The titular sword is named Ascalon.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Sybil mentions most of the items' magical powers, but a few just come out of nowhere, such as the sword being able to move on its own to rescue George, or the Hag-banishing shield.
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent: George speaks in a normal American accent rather than an English one or any other accent that he should have considering he lives somewhere in Europe. Helene doesn't have one either.
- Obviously Evil: Lodac. Pitch black sorcerer robes? Check. Blood red turban? Check. Unbelievable sadism and zero empathy for others? Check!
- Our Dragons Are Different: Classic Western style, fire breathing and all.
- Parental Abandonment: George is an orphan of Royal Blood after his parents die of the plague.
- Poke in the Third Eye: Lodac doesn't appreciate Sybil scrying on him with her magic mirror, so he undoes its magic (which resumbles an untuned television in practice) after taunting her.
- Power Glows: George's sword glows when it does... whatever exactly it does. Also his shield when it's banishing Hags.
- Power Perversion Potential: The pond George has been using to watch Princess Helene. While she's bathing. Without her permission.
- The Quest: George steals the magic weapons and takes the knights to go rescue Helene from Lodac. Sir Branton comes along to sabotage him so he can save her instead.
- Redshirt Army: George's knightly companions are mainly there to be cannon fodder to show how dangerous the journey is.
- Religion is Magic: When he dies, Sir Patrick is able to save George from the current curse through the power of his faith.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: After returning Lodac's ring, Sir Branton gets turned into a hunting trophy by Lodac.
- Ring of Power: Lodac's, which he lost. Branton found it, and it's how he's getting Lodac to help in the princess kidnapping gambit. In the end, Sybil gets it.
- Rule of Seven: Lodac possesses seven curses to face all challengers to his power, including himself. Sir George and his entourage of knights make up a party of seven, as well. Sir Branton assumes that these numbers will cancel each other out and leave him the sole victor with Princess Helene, but his pride prevents this outcome.
- Shirtless Scene: George when he's locked up in Lodac's dungeon. It's weirder since there is no real reason for it other than being stripped of his armor—and even then he should've had a shirt on under it—and it becomes awful creepy when Lodac instructs Helene to passionately kiss George before he feeds her to the dragon and Lodac stands there an inch away watching them kiss.
- Skinny Dipping: Princess Helene is introduced swimming nude in a lake, while George watches using the magic pool.
- Stalking is Love: George to Helene. He has been outright spying on her in the magic pool for an unspecified amount of time without her knowledge or consent, yet constantly insists he loves her and wants to marry her. Yes, it is as creepy as it sounds.
- Standard Hero Reward: With George and Branton competing for it from Helene, who has no choice in the matter apparently.
- Suddenly Shouting: There is a bit where George loses track of the other knights in the fog, but then the Irish knight starts shouting at the top of his lungs and it's very jarring to anyone listening with headphones or with the volume up loud on their TV.
- Supervillain Lair: Lodac has a pimped out castle full of his evil minions as well as the wimpiest dragon you'll probably ever see in your life. (It's quite literally made of paper mache and barely moves at all during the "fight" sequence at the end.)
- Swamps Are Evil: They suck up your dudes and strip them to the bone.
- Take Our Word for It: Lodac notes that it's Patrick's faith in God that helped him free George from the fifth Curse. However at no other point in the film do we ever see Patrick demonstrating his faith.
- Too Dumb to Live: Sir Branton. He cannot be harmed by Lodac while wearing his Ring of Power. Instead of using this protection to finish off Lodac himself, he trades it for Princess Helene as per his agreement with Lodac, despite him questioning Lodac's own word and betraying his actual allies. This is especially bad since Branton had actually pointed out how stupid he would have to be to do this in an earlier scene.
- While the ring does protect Branton by wearing it, Lodac states that he has no way of using the ring's full potential. It is possible therefore that if Branton simply tried to run Lodac through, he may have ended up as a wall mount anyway.
- Upgrade Artifact: The titular "Magic Sword" and George's horse. As well as Lodac's ring, which turns him from one of the strongest wizards to THE strongest, and puts Sybil on his level when she gets it.
- The Vamp: The Hag, when she's putting on the Fanservice.
- Something of an Actor Allusion, the Hag's actress is better known as Vampira
- Virgin Sacrifice:Lodac: My little pet will be hungry again in six days' time.
(Dragon roars)
Crow: Er, five days time. - Voluntary Shapeshifting: Lodac and Sybil have the ability to change into birds, and Sybil can also change into a black panther. She uses the latter to kill Lodac at the end of the film.
- We Are "Team Cannon Fodder": George's knights exist to get wiped out by the curses.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Ulrich and Pedro are the first of the knights to die.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: Every single knight. Not one of them has an authentic accent and is instead doing a very stereotypical one from whatever country they hail from and it gets pretty cringe when you hear them.
- You Have No Chance to Survive: Lodac's final lines are spent monologing about how George and Helene are about to be destroyed by the seventh and final curse — Lodac, himself.
