The 3 Worlds of Gulliver

source: The 3 Worlds of Gulliver

Jack Sher directed this kid-friendly version of the famous novel by Jonathan Swift, which stars Kerwin Mathews as Dr. Gulliver, who hates being poor, so signs on a ship headed to India to make his fortune. Sadly, he is washed overboard in a storm, and finds himself in the land of Liliput, where he is a giant to the miniature human inhabitants. At first treated as a threat, he is later made a hero, though the paranoid and ungrateful emperor turns against him when Gulliver refuses to help him win a remarkably trivial war against his neighbors, who aren't much better either... Good F/X by Ray Harryhausen, but film is otherwise uninspired and forgettable, though some of the novel's satire does remain, just not enough.

Never viewed this 1960 film dealing with Gulliver's travels and found it very enjoyable to view along with excellent photography. The story starts out with Dr. Lemuel Gulliver, (Kerwin Williams) having a fight with his girlfriend, Elizabeth, (June Thorburn) about his wanting to go aboard a ship as a doctor and she does not want him to leave. The ship sails and becomes shipwrecked and Gulliver finds himself in a completely different land where there are miniature people and he appears to them as a huge giant who must be captured and tied up. The rest of the story will hold your interest from the very beginning to the end and I almost forgot, a war was almost started over cutting an egg on the top and other people who cut their eggs on the bottom of the shell. Enjoy.

The 3 Worlds Of Gulliver I first saw on the big screen, and in color, and later saw it a few times on television, but not for a quarter century or so. So, I had to rewatch the 100 minute film. Kerwin Matthews, from The Seven Voyages Of Sinbad, does a surprisingly good job as the semi-zomboid, but buff, Dr. Lemuel Gulliver. He plays Gulliver as a real guy his genuineness makes up for his sometimes wooden reactions. June Thorburn plays his fiancée (then wife) Elizabeth. She's sufficient eye candy, and that alone is reason enough to justify her sweet insertion into the tale (she is not in Swift's novel). Gotta love her silly 'Don't ever wanna lay eyes on you again moment' after Gulliver objects to her naïve-te regarding the purchase of an old shack. None of the other actors who play any of the other characters leaves that great an impression, although the girl who plays Glumdalclitch (Sherry Alberoni, a child star on the original The Mickey Mouse Club on television) does a solid job with the little she's given. Her petulance and warmth make her the only semi-realistic character in all of Lilliput (land of the tint people) or Brobdingnag (land of the giants). This film features less of the stop motion photography Harryhausen was noted for, and more visual tricks involving split screens and traveling mattes, to make use of forced perspective in portraying Gulliver against his smaller and larger costars. Cinematographer Wilkie Cooper is credited in the film, but, realistically, he was, in effect, just a cameraman for Harryhausen. The story is a simplified version of the Swift novel. Gulliver reluctantly aids the King of Lilliput in his war against the rival state of Blefescu. The war is over which is the proper end of an egg to be opened. After Gulliver steals the Blefescuan Navy ships, the King is still not satisfied, and orders Gulliver to commit genocide on Blefescu. As a doctor and man of honor, he refuses, and is accused of treason. He then flees, and washes up on the shores of Brobdingnag, where Glumdalclitch finds him. The King of Brobdingnag offers to barter for him, then accepts the girl as his protector. Fortuitously, Elizabeth ended up there when she stowed aboard Gulliver's ship. He had been washed overboard to Lilliput, and the ship later destroyed. She seems to have been the lone survivor. The King's doctor accuses Gulliver of witchcraft after he saves the Queen's life with modern medicine, and the two lovers (married by the King) are persecuted. While the Lilliputians and Blefescuans are small in mind regarding politics, the Brobdingnagians are backwards regarding science and medicine. Glumdalclitch therefore rescues the couple, tosses them into a basket, and throws them down a river which washes out to the sea, where the two end up back in England at film's fade. Yes, there's some petty philosophizing by Gulliver, but it works in a campy way. Even the ending which questions whether or not the adventures were all a dream- while trite, is not too big a deal because the film handles everything in a lighthearted way. Had the film been more sober in its claims and portrayal, such an ending would have bombed, especially since it veers so far from the original.

A poor Englishman doctor called Gulliver (Kerwin Matthews) has adventurer plans , so nothing keeps him in the little town he lives , not even his girlfriend Elisabeth (June Thornburn) who wishes to marry him . He signs on to a ship to India in spite of objections his beautiful fiancée . But in a storm he's washed ashore and discovers a fantasy land of small inhabitants called Lilliput in the East Indies where everyone is about two inches tall . Later on , he managed to convince them he's harmless and is accepted as one of their villagers , but their king wants to utilize him in war against his enemies . After that , Gulliver goes to land of Bobdingnag where inhabits giant people . This is an amusing adventure movie , a colorful family rendition of Jonathan Swift's classic as well as satiric novel written in 1726 . Many scenarios have been constructed in miniature , others have been made by special techniques and remaining are staged by natural outdoors from Spain such as Alcázar de Segovia, Segovia, Ávila, Palacio de La Granja De San Ildefonso palace, La Granja, San Ildefonso, Segovia, Castilla y León, and Paltja d'Aro, Girona, Catalonia . Flavorful performance from Kerwin Matthews , Jo Morrow , Lee Patterson , Gregoire Aslan , Basil Sydney , Martin Benson , among others . Adequate and spectacular art direction by Gil Parrondo who subsequently would achieve Academy Award for Patton . Rousing and evocative score of Bernard Herrmann , Hitchcock's regular . Glimmer and glamorous scenarios well photographed by Wilkie Cooper . Professional though uneven direction by filmmaker Jack Sher The highlights of the movie are the great visual effects by craftsman Ray Harryhausen , including his ordinary monsters using his customary system Dynamation . After three sci-fi monster films such as The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms , 20 Million Miles to Earth , It Came from Beneath the Sea and work with Willis O'Brien in Mighty Joe Young and on an Irwin Allen documentary titled : The animal world , Harryhausen did the effects work for The 7th Voyage of Sinbad or Sinbad and the princess (1958) also starred by Kerwin Matthews , his first split-screen film shot entirely in color, which was highlighted by Harryhausen's mythological monsters interacting with actors . Because Harryhausen worked alone on his stop-motion animation sequences, the filming of these could often take as long as two years, the most famous example of the kind of patience required being the exciting skeleton sword fight sequence in his most popular film Jason and the Argonauts (1963) in which Harryhausen often shot no more than 13 frames of film (one-half second of elapsed time) per day . The 1960s were Harryhausen's best years, among the spotlights being his reunions with dinosaurs and other creatures in Hammer Films' One Million Years B.C (1966) , The Valley of Gwangi (1969) , Mysterious Island (1961) and this The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960) . His pace slowed in the 1970s, but he produced three of his masterworks during that period : The fantastic voyage of Sinbad (1973); Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977) and Clash of Titans (1981). Other versions about this immortal novel are the followings : ¨Gulliver's travels¨(1939) by Max and Dave Fleischer , being an animated retelling ; ¨Gulliver's travels¨(1977) by Peter Hunt with Richard Harris , Catherine Schell , in which real life and cartoon mix in a three-dimensional tale ; TV adaptation (1995) by Charles Sturridge with Mary Steenburgen , Edward Fox , Peter O'Toole , Edward Woodward , Ned Beatty , in which Gulliver/Ted Danson is confined in Bedlam insane asylum after being lost at sea for eight years and he relates his odd adventures in the tiny land and among the giants and the silly and impractical intellectual of Laputa . And recent comical recounting (2010) by Rob Letterman with Jack Black , Jason Segel , Emily Blunt and Amanda Peet .

In 1699 England, handsome doctor Kerwin Mathews (as Lemuel Gulliver) is set to marry pretty June Thorburn (as Elizabeth), but worries about supporting her in poverty. Hoping to make his fortune, Mr. Mathews joins a treasure-seeking ship's crew. After a stormy shipwreck, Mathews washes up on the sands of Lilliput, a surreal land inhabited by tiny people. Due to his large size, the Lilliputians fear and distrust Mathews. However, he negotiates a release from bondage and finds allies with little Lee Patterson (as Reldresal) and beautiful blonde Jo Morrow (as Gwendolyn)... Mathews begins to build a large boat, hoping to return home and find his fiancée. But there is big trouble in Lilliput for their newest citizen. Mathews is caught up in local politics when the Lilliputians enlist his help in their war with another island of tiny people. The people of Blefuscu crack open their eggs at the larger end, in direct conflict with the Lilliputians method of opening eggs at the shorter end. The yolk's on war (as noted in writer Jonathan's Swift's original work). Later, Mathews' "Gulliver" finds his world turned upside down in a land of giants... This is watered-down Swift, but it's still a great adventure for children of all ages. ******* The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (11/30/60) Jack Sher ~ Kerwin Mathews, Sherry Alberoni, Lee Patterson, June Thorburn

The Three Worlds of Gulliver is produced out of Columbia Pictures and is directed by Jack Sher. It stars Kerwin Matthews as Lemuel Gulliver, June Thorburn as his fiancée Elizabeth, with support coming from Basil Sydney (The Emperor of Lilliput), Grégoire Aslan (King Brob), Mary Ellis (Queen), Charles Lloyd Pack (Prime Minister Makovan) & child actor Sherry Alberoni as Glumdalclitch. Filmed in England and Spain, it features stop-motion animation and special visual effects by Superdynamation genius Ray Harryhausen. Sher & Arthur Ross adapt for the screen with a loose reworking of the 18th-century English novel Gulliver's Travels written by Jonathan Swift. And music maestro Bernard Herrmann provides the score. Swift's biting satirical novel has been watered down and given a romantic edge for the family market. That said, as the kids are enjoying the froth and tickle, the adults will note that there's just enough caustic comment in the piece to get the message across. This adaptation has slimmed down the four parts of Swift's work to just the two; Lilliput land of the little people and Brobdingnag land of the giants. With our intrepid normal sized hero Gulliver and his stowaway fiancée Elizabeth under threat either way. While the script has its pleasing moments it is still only serving as a bridging work for Harryhausen's effects to be shown. Be it the giant and tiny people sequences or the perils that come to our undersized protagonists courtesy of a Gator and a Squirrel, it's these that the children will find beguiling. This, however, can not be said for Harryhausen aficionados or adults more accustomed to more modern advancements. For this is bottom rung for Harryhausen, not bad at all, yet although there's a charm here, and no one should ever dismiss the painstaking amount of time it took him to weave it together, the work is creaky and lacking the dynamism so befitting his best work. Major bonus' come with the swirling and pounding score from Herrmann and the vibrant performance of Matthews. The role of Gulliver was first offered to Danny Kaye, which naturally makes sense given Kaye's previous work on Hans Christian Andersen some years earlier. That it was also offered to Jack Lemmon, though, makes no sense at all. Anyway, Matthews got the gig, and following on from his fine work in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, he laid down a marker in the fantasy adventure genre that secured him fondness from legions of fans throughout the years. A safe, colourful and pleasant enough piece if ultimately not one for most fantasy adventure fans to revisit often. 6/10

I never read Gulliver's Travels or saw any other movies based on it but I can't imagine that the original story is this bad.It starts in England where very few people have British accents.Oddly, in the other two worlds he visits most of the people do have British accents.So his girlfriend gets mad at him,dumps him and runs away because he wants to go on a voyage with some ship captain.Then it just cuts to him on the ship and she has stowed away to be with him.What?A storm hits and they get tossed overboard and end up washing up in different lands.He lands in Lilliput where he is a giant and they want to kill him.He proves he's a good guy by blowing some storm clouds away.Why would the clouds be smaller or closer to Earth just because the people are smaller?Weak.He says that he will help them grow crops if they build him a boat.Why would he let all those tiny people take forever to build him a boat?That's extremely stupid.After telling them he wants his boat finished in the morning, the Lilliputians get mad at him and start chasing him.As soon as he steps out of the fortress it's daylight and his boat is done.Weak.Not only is it done but it's old and the paint is chipping off.WEAKER.He ends up where his girlfriend landed and in that world they are tiny.Plus in that world they make him dress like Sinbad and her dress like every girl in every Sinbad movie.At the end they try to explain it all in thirty seconds but it's too little, too late.Anyway, the only special effects(other than a green screen to make people look small and/or big) is two minutes of a stop motion alligator.A very disappointing film all around.Nothing to see here.

The reteaming of Kerwin Mathews, Bernard Herrman and Ray Harryhausen after the success of THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD may not be the classic we were hoping for, but instead is a kiddie-orientated version of the classic Jonathan Swift tale GULLIVER'S TRAVELS with enough ingredients to make it enjoyable for adults too. Sure, at times the film is sentimental and goes overboard in promoting a strong moral message, but this is never offensive as in recent productions. In retrospect, it all seems rather charming and a little dated, but that's what makes it unique. This is a colourful and lively romp which is fun for adults and children alike. I'm sure the classic tale is familiar to most readers so I won't bother readdressing it, other than that this film concerns solely on the two kingdoms of Lilliput and Brobdingnan, ignoring the other minor lands of Swift's tale and concentrating on the most well-remembered ones. The first half of the film concerns Lilliput, and is boosted by some fine effects from Harryhausen which involve lots and lots of back and forward projection which is never less than convincing. Indeed the classic scene of Gulliver being tied down by the little people is present and as realistic as you could ever want it. The characters are interesting, the story good and bolstered by the likable presence of Kerwin Mathews, one of the most naturally charming of fantasy actors from the period who always lifted any movie he appeared in (another good one is JACK THE GIANT KILLER). The second half of the film, concerning the land of the giants, isn't quite as good, but again the special effects of the miniature Mathews and Thorburn are better than average. Although it drags a little at times, the characters are interesting if not likable, and thankfully some stop-motion animation is interested by Harryhausen to enliven the proceedings. The creations include a briefly-seen but genuinely impressive giant squirrel which abducts Mathews, miniature animals kept in cages, and a miniature crocodile which then proceeds to battle Mathews in a fight to the death, a classic action moment which comes as a reward to those looking for Sinbad-style monster action. THE 3 WORLDS OF GULLIVER is a film worth watching for the talent involved alone. As well as Mathews, the quality cast includes the lovely June Thorburn as the love interest and a whole host of familiar British character actors - including Charles Lloyd Pack in a meaty role for a change as an evil wizard - playing the miniature people and the giants. Bernard Herrman's score is also lively and always entertaining, whilst Harryhausen seamlessly integrates the large and small people so that you never for a moment doubt the quality of his effects. Not a classic, but a fine, friendly, old-fashioned adventure, as heartwarming and cliffhanging in equal measure as you could want. A TV-movie adaptation (with lots of unnecessarily-added extraneous scenes) with Ted Danson followed in the mid 90's.

This would be a good one for the kids: I found it to be a tad slow and corny. It did have good special effects, but the acting wasn't all that good. A pretty good lesson in how narrow minded folks are and mistrustful of anything that is different than they. Not a bad film, just wasn't my cup of tea.