In 1982, Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Cimmerian was brought to the big screen in a film featuring Arnold Schwartzenegger. The success of Conan the Barbarian spawned a plethora of bad Sword & Sorcery films (including Conan sequels). I will make no comment on those films here but state none was better than average and most were far below the worst of the Ray Harryhausen’s classics. Until 1999’s The Thirteenth Warrior I can’t think of a post-Conan film of a heroic fantasy of any real interest. Since the release of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Fantasy films have been experienceing another renaissance.
This piece contains a lot of Youtube links, which are notorious for going stale. Please be patient.
1920s
1924’s The Thief of Bagdad is important because it had an influence on Robert E. Howard as a young man. The silent film was directed by Raoul Walsh and featured Douglas Fairbanks and Charles Belcher. It is a hard watch for modern audience but stick with it, it’s worth the effort.
1930s
1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is an important film because it proved that animation could carry a feature. The fact that it is a Fantasy film is a nice coincidence. Directed by David Hand and produced by Walt Disney, it set the mold for Fantasy cartoons ever after. This film currently folds the ninth spot on the Top 100 Fantasy Films of all Time.
1940s
The 1940 remake The Thief of Bagdad was produced by Alexander Korda, and directed by Michael Powell, Ludwig Berger, and Tim Whelan. It featuring Conrad Veidt, Sabu and John Justin. Sabu is good in this one.
Fantasia is not a linear film, but sections of it are important for Fantasy film fans. The Greek mythology of “The Pastorial Symphony”, Kay Nielsen’s artwork for “A Night on Bald Mountain” and the favorite, Mickey in “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”.
Walt followed up the financial failure of Fantasia with the episodic The Reluctant Dragon (1941). Based on the Kenneth Graham story, it has a long segment about a nice dragon and a knight who fool a community to bring peace.
1945 gave us A Thousand and One Nights, directed by Alfred E. Green. The movie starred Evelyn Keyes, Phil Silvers and Cornel Wilde. The Hollywood Arabian film is now a genre.
1950s
1952 saw a Fantasy film parody with Jack and the Beanstalk, starring Abbott & Costello. It was directed by Jean Yarbrough. Twenty years later Monty Python would give us their version of medieval silliness…
The Epic Hero and the Beast (1956) was a Russian film. It received a Dell Four Color comic adaptation four years later as The Sword and the Dragon.
1956-1957 gave us The Adventures of Sir Lancelot, a British TV show. Lancelot and his squire, Brian, have adventures (occasionally magical when Merlin is involved).
The 1950s brought the Sword & Sandal films. Hercules was directed by Pietro Francisici and features Steve Reeves and Sylvia Koscina. (All the Rocky Horror fans are thinking: “We could take in an old Steve Reeves movie.”
That same year Ray Harryhausen began his Sinbad magic with The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. Directed by Nathan H. Juran and produced by Charles H. Schneer, it starred Kerwin Mathews, Torin Thatcher and Kathyrn Grant. This film has the skeleton fight that Harryhausen would amp-up for Jason and the Argonauts. Marvel did a comic adaptation years later.
Sleeping Beauty (1958) had begun as an adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Not much of the Tolkien material is evident in the final film but some of the goblins at the castle were based on designs for the original. Again Kay Nielsen’s wonderful art was used.
1001 Arabian Nights (1959) saw an animated cartoon feature not-by-Disney. Mr. Magoo is the unlikely hero. Starring the voice talent of Jim Backus, Daws Butler and Hans Conried.
1959 saw the sequel Hercules Unchained appear on the silver screen. Directed by Pietro Francisici, it again starred Steve Reeves and Sylvia Koscina. Lou Ferrigno would remake the Hercules franchise in the 1980s.
1960s
The Thief of Baghdad (1960) remakes the remakes. Directed by Arthur Lubin, it starred Steve Reeves of Hercules fame.
1961 gave us the Italian film Hercules in the Haunted World. Directed by Mario Bava and starring Reg Park as Herc. The real reason to watch this one is because Christopher Lee plays the bad guy, King Lico. Expect vampires.
1962 saw the fun The Magic Sword. Directed by Bert I. Gordon, it featured Gary Lockwood and Basil Rathbone. I remember seeing this in re-runs. It doesn’t hold up but at age 11 it was great.
We also got Jack the Giant Killer, directed by and acted by the same people who made The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. The film had legal trouble so it was made into a musical version of the film. Stop motion was not done by Harryhausen (boo!).
1962 also gave us another parody with The Three Stooges Meet Hercules. Herc is played by Samson Burke. Time travel! Dell Comics did a one-shot adaptation.
1963 gave us more Harryhausen with Jason and the Argonauts. Directed by Don Chaffey and produced by Charles H. Schneer, it had Todd Armstrong as Jason, Nancy Kovak and Honor Blackman. Jason faces off against a horde of skeletons this time. Marvel adapted the movie in two issues.
The Sword in the Stone (1963) adapted T. H. White’s classic. The art style and story were done by Bill Peet, who would go on to do children’s books. The best scene in this film (and the book) is when Merlin has a wizard’s duel with Madam Mim.
Television got into the mythology business that year with The Mighty Hercules. Directed by Joseph Oriolo, it had the voice talents of Jimmy Tapp, and Gerry Bascombe – and that great Johnny Nash theme song! The comic was turned into a comic for two issues by Gold Key.
Asterix the Gaul was made into a French cartoon in 1967. Here in English. It was followed by Asterix and Cleopatra in 1968.
1968 saw SatAm cartoons give us The Arabian Knights with voices by Paul Frees and Shari Lewis. The Arabian crew appeared in Hanna-Barbera’s Hi-Adventure Heroes comics.
1001 Arabian Nights (1968) was a Spanish-Italian film directed by Jose Maria Elorrieta.
1970s
Sinbad was back in 1974 with The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. Directed by Gordon Hessler and produced by Charles H. Schneer, it starred John Philip Law, Tom Baker, and Caroline Munro. Pre-Doctor Who, Tom Baker steals the show.
1975 delivered more parody with Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Directed by Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam, it stars all the comedy team in classic bits that any nerd can quote effortlessly. Despite the silliness, there are occasional scenes that work as fantasy.
1976 saw the return of Asterix in The Twelve Tasks of Asterix.
1977 released the first J. R. R. Tolkien adaptation since Disney’s failed attempt that ended up becoming Sleeping Beauty. The Hobbit , produced by Japanese company, Rankin-Bass featured John Huston and Orson Bean. Richard Boone does the voice of Smaug. Until Benedict Cumberbatch came along, this was the version of Smaug! Hans Conreid does the voice of Thorin. (This company would do a fair version of The Last Unicorn in 1982.)
The last Harryhausen Sinbad came out in 1977, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. Directed by Sam Wanamaker and produced by Charles H. Schneer, it featured Patrick Wayne, Beverly Cross and Patrick Troughton. An English comic adapted the film.
We also got a partial-sequel to Monty Python and the Holy Grail with Terry Gilliam’s Jabberwocky. The film starred Python alumnist, Michael Palin. Terry Jones, Neil Innes and Gilliam all have parts too.
Ralph Bakshi wanted to do a Lord of the Rings movie but first he thought he’d test the waters with Wizards. Produced and Directed by Ralph Bakshi, it featured artwork by Mike Ploog and Ian Miller. Susan Tyrell‘s narration of this film still haunts me. A young Mark Hamil made his debut in this film as Sean.
1978 saw The Lord of the Rings by Ralph Bakshi to mixed reviews. He would lose the rights to the Tolkien property and a lame Rankin-Bass conclusion The Return of the King (1980) finished the story. Rankin-Bass’s film combined characters and inflicted a mega-dose of the music of Glenn Yarborough on its viewers. Roddy McDowell provided the voice for Sam.
1980-1981
1980 also saw the first Fantasy live-action TV movie, Hawk the Slayer. Directed by Terry Marcel, it featured Jack Palance as the villain. Despite its cheese factor, the show is an often sought after cult classic. For many years, RPGers thought of this as “The Dungeons & Dragons” movie, until we got one of those. Sigh…
Thundarr the Barbarian (1980-1982) brought Sword & Sorcery to Saturday Morning. Produced by Ruby-Spears Productions it featured Adam Pockett. The concept was loosely based on the novel by John Bloodstone with character designs by Jack Kirby.
1981 saw another television Fantasy film, The Archer: Fugitive From the Empire Directed by Nick Corea it featured the unlikely George Kennedy.
Blackstar gave us one season of Filmations Blackstar does Sword & Planet with a title that reminds me of Gil Kane but doesn’t seem to be credited. He-Man-esque adventures on the planet Sagar with his dragon, Warlock. The show was replaced by Masters of the Universe.
Faeries was based on the bestselling book by Alan Lee and Brian Froud. Oisin goes to the land of Faerie, befriends Puck then has to face off against the Shadow. Throughout this we learn about the different faeries from the book. Featured voice veterans like Hans Conried, Frank Welker and June Foray.
On the silver screen, Ray Harryhausen’s final film, Clash of the Titans finished an amazing career in animated effects. Directed by Desmond Davis and produced by Charles H. Schneer, it starred Harry Hamlin, Burgess Meredith and Lawrence Olivier.
Probably my favorite film of 1981 was Dragonslayer. Directed by Matthews Robbins, it featured Peter MacNichol and Ralph Richardson. This movie got a two-part adaptation by Marvel Comics.
Another gorgeous film of 1981 was Excalibur, the last major Fantasy film before Conan would appear. Directed by John Boorman, it featuring Nigel Terry, Helen Mirren and Nicol Williamson.
The last film I should mention was 1981’s Heavy Metal. This is the beginning of the end, folks. Episodic film based on the soft core Sci-Fi/Fantasy magazine, it has some very S&S bits. The film was voiced in Canada so the talent includes John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy of SCTV fame. Also actors like John Vernon, Jackie Burroughs and Don Francks. The sex-and-violence of the movie did nothing to help S&S’s reputation but it did prepare audiences for the excesses of the post-1982 years.
Great shifts in Fantasy filmmaking take place when certain masterpieces or influential films are made. I have drawn the line at 1982 because Conan the Barbarian is going to change everything (mostly for the worse.) Several other films here were as important, Thief of Bagdad, Snow White, the Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and Wizards, all sparked renewed interest in the fantastic on celluloid.
NB. Let’s not forget how important Star Wars was in 1977. Though not a heroic fantasy film, it shares many of the same elements. Star Wars drew millions of dollars to Hollywood for all kinds of fantastic movies. It also created a special effects cohort able to produce the effects needed for these films. Not until CGI comes in 1993 will there be as big a technological jump as in 1977. Fantasy films always benefit from these renaissances.
Next time, the rest of the 1980s and Conan!
