Starring Gary (2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY) Lockwood, Basil (SON OF FRANKENSTEIN) Rathbone, Estelle (DARBY O’GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE) Winwood, Anne (NIGHTMARE IN WAX) Helm, Danielle (VALLEY OF THE DRAGONS) De Metz and Maila (PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE) Nurmi. Screenplay by Bernard (THE SPACE CHILDREN) Schoenfeld, from a story by Bert I. Gordon. Directed by Bert I. (THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN) Gordon.
‘The most incredible weapon ever wielded!’
Hag alert!
Princess Helene (Helm) is kidnapped by the evil wizard Lodac (Rathbone), who intends to feed her to his two-headed dragon in a week’s time. Young hero George (Lockwood) vows to save Helene, whom he loves, and he isn’t deterred by the fact that Lodac has announced there are seven deadly curses which need to be overcome to reach the dragon’s lair.
Princess Helene takes a dip
The hero George (hooray!)
The villain Lodac (boo!)
Luckily for George, who happens to be the adopted son of a good sorceress called Sybil (Winwood), he is able to equip himself with an anti-black magic sword, a special white steed that is the fastest horse in the world, and an invulnerable suit of armour. He is also accompanied by six magically frozen, valiant knights (all from different countries) that George can reawaken and command. But George is unaware that the arrogant knight Sir Branton, who has also pledged to rescue Princess Helene, is actually a treacherous villain in league with Lodac…
The baddies Lodac and Sir Branton (Liam Sullivan)
Sybil and her two-headed servant (played by twin brothers Nick & Paul Bon Tempi)
Oh, and Sybil can turn into a panther!
I have a soft spot for this cheesy fantasy movie, which is also known as ST. GEORGE AND THE 7 CURSES, THE SORCEROR’S CURSE, ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON and THE SEVEN CURSES OF LODAC. Director Bert I. Gordon, famous for giant creature features like BEGINNING OF THE END (1957), EARTH VS THE SPIDER (1958) and THE FOOD OF THE GODS (1976), tries to make this a family-oriented adventure, but he can’t help including elements of horror, such as when a beautiful woman (De Metz) transforms into a grotesque, wonky-eyed vampire hag (played by Maila Nurmi, aka ‘Vampira’).
The pretty maiden Mignonette (De Metz) seems very nice…
…but she turns into a hideous vampire hag (Nurmi)…
…and she sinks her fangs into the poor knight’s neck!
More horror-tinged moments include a frothing, bubbling swamp that turns one of the knights into a skeleton, and a swirling, hypnotic vortex that scorches its victims’ blistering skin (which reminds me a little of what happens to the Colonel Breen character in 1967’s QUATERMASS AND THE PIT, when he is hypnotised and fried by the glowing space vessel).
Two of the heroes have their flesh sizzled by a swirling magical vortex
THE MAGIC SWORD, though made on a low budget, is full of novel incidents, characters and creatures. There’s a huge, snaggle-toothed ogre, a group of little people , a chimp in a tunic, cone-heads & bird-faced minions that do Lodac’s bidding, a two-headed servant, and cave ghosts. Bert I. Gordon also treats us to a big dragon, which he brings to the screen via the use of a pretty nice-lookin’ puppet beast that has two fire-breathing heads! The dragon mainly moves its heads and is rather immobile, but it is a visually cool creation that helps ramp up the movie’s fantasy vibes.
Tiny folks!
George, on his trusty steed, fights the ogre!
Ghostly spectres in a cave
Helene is tied-up, ready to be the dragon’s latest victim
George takes-on the dragon!
This is a colourful romp, no doubt about it, but it’s definitely the pervading air of grimness running through the story that helps THE MAGIC SWORD stick in the memory. Though this was obviously intended to be a kid’s flick, I can’t think of any similar fantasy film from this era that would’ve included the scene where Lodac feeds two pretty princess sisters to his dragon: these princesses get eaten (off-screen) by the dragon as Lodac forces Helene to watch! Even the design of the ogre (played by Jack Kosslyn) has a grimmer-than-usual touch: this humanoid brute already has an injured/paralysed right arm before he even attacks the knights, which makes you wonder what sadistic tortures the ogre may have suffered previously at the hands of his master Lodac.
Close-up of the ogreThe ogre starts bleeding after being wounded by a spear
THE MAGIC SWORD is a twisted low rent children’s fantasy-action-adventure that, if you’ve not already seen it, should really be tracked down right away and watched!
The way Bert I. Gordon adds a real animal’s eye to this stone statue is creepy!
Some posters for the movie…
US half sheet poster
French grande poster
Italian poster
US three sheet poster
Italian poster
Here’s the cover for the Dell comic book adaptation of the film…
Dell comic book cover
…and here are some of the interior illustrations from the Dell comic book adaptation…
Above: three colourful pages from the Dell adaptation
Okay then, here’s a final look at the vampire hag…
PEOPLE OF THE SERPENT concept study, depicting Conan fighting the tentacle-faced monster Yug-Ommog
The first Conan movie to reach the screen, of course, was John (RED DAWN) Milius’ awesome R-rated CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982), which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, was written by Milius and Oliver Stone, and boasted a stunning soundtrack composed by Basil Poledouris.
CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982) poster
This movie was a big success and was followed by CONAN THE DESTROYER (1984), which was originally written by Marvel Comics scribes Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway, who had wanted the sequel’s finale to be really epic, featuring a stop-motion, winged demon. But it was decided to make DESTROYER a PG movie, it was rewritten by Stanley (FIRESTARTER) Mann, and, to save on money, the stop-motion flying demon became the man-in-suit monster Dagoth, played by Andre The Giant. A script for CONAN III, a sequel to CONAN THE DESTROYER, was written by Karl Wagner, but the flick never got any traction. Another Conan movie, however, did manage to successfully bypass development hell years later and reached cinemas everywhere. This was CONAN THE BARBARIAN (2011), starring Jason Momoa, a movie I’ve just never been very keen on. But, hey, everyone has their own views concerning the pros and cons of these three produced Conan films. What I find really interesting are the other Conan projects that DIDN’T get made.
So let’s delve into these unproduced Conan movies now. If any of the projects featured creatures in them we’ll definitely take a close look at these beasties (because this is the Monster Zone blog, right?)
MILTON SUBOTSKY’S CONAN
Milton Subotsky, famous for producing such horror films as TALES FROM THE CRYPT (1972) and FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE (1974), actually attempted to purchase film rights to Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian stories a long time before they were acquired by Hollywood, but Subotsky ended up buying the rights to Lin Carter’s Thongor stories in 1976 instead. Subotsky had never planned to make his Conan film too violent and bloody, so perhaps it was a good thing that he didn’t acquire the Conan stories and decided to do an adaptation of Carter’s novel The Wizard of Lemuria. The project, called THONGOR IN THE VALLEY OF DEMONS, was bankrolled by United Artists – and preproduction drawings were made and a stop-motion monster puppet was built – but UA then withdrew from the project… and THONGOR was no more.
Subotsky was considering casting David (STAR WARS) Prowse as Conan
CONAN THE CONQUEROR
This would have been a Raffaella De Laurentiis production, written by Charles (THE FLY) Pogue. It looked like there was every possibility this film would get made, but Arnold Schwarzenegger ultimately never committed to the project, which was subsequently reworked to become the cheesy-but-sorta-watchable KULL THE CONQUEROR (1997), starring Kevin Sorbo as Howard’s Atlantean hero. Pogue’s version of the script would have featured a shark attack sequence.
Shark-themed cover for issue 192 of Marvel’s The Savage Sword of Conan comic. The CONAN THE CONQUEROR movie would’ve featured a shark attack sequence.
KING CONAN: CROWN OF IRON
A script, detailing Conan having a son and becoming King of Zingara, was written by John (THE WIND AND THE LION) Milius.
A sample page from the Milius script
The film would have been produced by the Wachowskis, who were still hot from their success with THE MATRIX. But the Wachowskis lost interest in the project, then Robert Rodriguez became connected to the production, though John Milius also departed the film, and, eventually, chances of the movie getting made evaporated after Rodriguez found himself juggling too many projects and was unable to commit to it. The film would’ve featured… the Ice Worm!
Cover page of John Milius’ script
IRON SHADOWS
This low budget project actually went into production!
‘Coming soon’. Yeah, right
The film, based on the Robert E Howard 1934 story Iron Shadows in the Moon (aka Shadows in the Moonlight), started shooting in Thailand, a country where a small budget can definitely go further. The fact that the original story was not too epic in scale also ensured that the production had a chance of putting something interesting on screen. Starring Pasi Schalin in the role of Conan, IRON SHADOWS was produced by George (CINEMA OF VENGEANCE) Tan and directed by Kit Mallet… in 3D!
Pasi Schalin played Conan
Thinking that there would be no copyright issues because the original Conan story was in the public domain, the filmmakers got a nasty surprise when they received a cease and desist letter from the Conan rights-holders. The production ground to a halt, but some of the footage that had been shot can be found online.
Pasi Schalin wearing Southeast Asian-looking warrior garb
The original Howard story featured a fight between Conan and a grey man-ape, a gang of pirates and living statues. A fanged, Grinch-faced man-ape costume was created for the film, and shots were taken of it on location.
Publicity shot of Andrea Stefancikova, the grey man-ape, and Pasi Schalin
Be careful, Conan, there’s a grey man-ape lying down by that boulder…
Here are two behind the scenes shots of the grey man-ape…
Above: the two pics of the man-ape show that he kind of resembled a ‘bigfoot’
Some screenshots from the IRON SHADOWS footage…
Above: three shots from the unfinished film. The bottom image shows Toby Russell (son of Ken Russell) playing a robed, ivory-skinned god who comes down to Earth during a flashback scene.
Interestingly, even though the production stalled and was never completed, George Tan did toy with the idea of restarting the project. He commissioned David Fitzgerald (a sculptor and also the voice artist on the 2019 short THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON) to build a new, far better-looking man-ape costume.
Version 2 of the grey man-ape…
This second version of the man-ape costume had extended arms and more of a gorilla-like build. Fitzgerald also gave the ape creature long, grey hair hanging from its head.
The mark 2 man-ape had a long, slashing bony claw on each hand
Some behind the scenes shots of the ape costume under construction…
The under-skull of the man-ape costume takes shape
The detailed ape outer face with moveable jaw and lots of skin texture
The man-ape’s head with the long, grey hair added
Clay sculpt of one of the ape’s feet
This ape suit was completed and delivered to Tan, but IRON SHADOWS has remained in limbo.
PEOPLE OF THE SERPENT
George (TRINITY GOES EAST) Tan, producer of the unfinished IRON SHADOWS film, commissioned another Conan script, called PEOPLE OF THE SERPENT. Based a non-Conan tale by Robert E Howard, the story was retooled to include Conan and a swamp-god monster called Yug-Ommog.
The script involved the inhabitants of a treacherous swampland zone praying to the great stone idol of their local deity, known as Yug-Ommog. George Tan oversaw the construction of a full-scale model of the idol and also ordered the creation of a tentacle-faced Yug-Ommog monster costume. This creature suit was constructed by low budget effects expert Brett (MUTANT WAR) Piper, who created Yug-Ommog by repurposing a critter costume originally built for the 2009 film MUCKMAN.
Concept sketches showing how the arms of the original Muckman creature costume were going to be updated to become the arms for the Yug-Ommog monsterThe revamped arms, ready to be used for Yug-OmmogAbove: two shots of the Yug-Ommog monster suit’s deformed head
Below are some behind the scenes shots of the idol statue, which was constructed in Thailand…
Above: these three shots show how the idol statue would have been very phallic-looking
The ‘stone’ base, on which the Yug-Ommog idol statue would stand
George Tan then hired gifted artist Jose Luis to draw a comic book version of the script. These gorgeous-looking illustrations would have served as a complete storyboard to aid the shooting of the film – and the drawings would also have formed the contents of a tie-in comic book, to be published when the film was released.
Detail from a Jose Luis comic page, showing Conan making his way through swamplandDetail from a Jose Luis comic page, showing Conan facing-off against Yug-Ommog
PEOPLE OF THE SERPENT didn’t go into production, unfortunately, and Jose Luis’ fine artwork, reminiscent of the kind of b&w illustrations that filled the pages of the wonderful 1970s Savage Sword of Conan comic books, has yet to be published anywhere. Shame. But you never know, one day we might get to see the artwork.
This preproduction sketch (not drawn by Jose Luis) explores how Conan would look after he gets covered in slime, blood and mud!
CONAN: RED NAILS
An animated feature film, based on the superb Robert E Howard Conan story Red Nails, went into production around 2005, with actor Ron (HELLBOY) Perlman cast as the voice of Conan. The sceptre-wielding villain Tolkemec would have been voiced by Mark (STAR WARS) Hamill. However, as is so very often the way, the production, by Swordplay Entertainment, stalled and it seems very unlikely it will now see the light of day.
A screenshot from some early, rough test footage animation showing Conan running into action
Some rough animation test footage was shared online, showing a battle sequence involving a big demon and some zombie warriors (none of which featured in the original Howard story)…
Above: two screenshots from the animation test footage
PEOPLE OF THE DARK
This project would have featured the proto-Conan character known as Conan of the Reavers, in a plot based on Robert E Howard’s 1932 short story People of the Dark.
The script included deformed ‘Little People’ (the Children of the Night), who are the grotesque antagonists in the story’s extended flashback sequence. The monstrous descendant of the Little People, a reptilian ‘worm’ creature that appears at the end of the yarn, also featured in the script, which was commissioned by producer George (TOP FIGHTER) Tan.
Preproduction concept drawings of the Little People
Very early stage concept drawings were done of the creatures. A concept sketch was done of Conan the Reaver too, exploring what he’d look like if the script was changed to make him a 17th century character.
Size comparison preproduction concept artAn alternative concept design for the regressive worm creature
Concept designs for the ‘Children of the Night’ creatures
Preproduction sketch for a 17th century-style Conan the Reaver character
The whole project seemed to fizzle, though, as Tan focused his efforts on child-focused motion comics. And that was that. Oh well.
A location that would’ve been considered if the decision was made to set the film’s flashbacks in the iron age (as in the original story), rather than in the 17th century
IN CONCLUSION…
The George Tan projects, if they’d been made (and if Tan had been able to fend off any legal actions from rights owners), would certainly have been low budget B movies. But I actually have no problem with this: Hollywood movie versions of Conan always strived to be big scale, epic affairs, so these much smaller-scale Tan-produced films could’ve been the movies that were able to, potentially, use the kind of plots that were similar in scope to many of Robert E Howard’s more tightly-plotted, modestly-scaled Conan short stories. Maybe Tan will finally get one of these films made. I certainly hope so.
But, hey, most folks crave big-canvas Conan productions, and KING CONAN was certainly the Conan project that many, many fans wanted to see get made. Hell, 1982’s CONAN THE BARBARIAN even ends with the image of Arnie’s Conan sitting on the Aquilonian throne!
Arnie in old age makeup as King Conan at the end of CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982). The question is: would present-day Arnie be too old to play King Conan now?
One creative guy found a way to have KING CONAN on his shelf in some form: he printed out the Milius script and custom bound it…
Niiiiiiice
Perhaps, one day, there will be a KING CONAN movie. Let’s wait and see…
Devoted to every kind of movie and TV monster, from King Kong to Godzilla, from the Blob to Alien. Plus monsters from other media too, including books and comics.
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