Cinema: Morte de Gruesome

Alakazam the Great! (Toei-American International) is a wild, nonsensical, hack-chop-you’re-dead fairy story, cartooned in Japan and dubbed in the U.S. It is not as well drawn as the cartoons Walt Disney used to do, but Disney has neglected the field for live films and amusement-park management, and six-year-olds should howl happily at the replacement. The hero is an emetic little monkey (U.S. adapters thoughtfully assigned Crooner Frankie Avalon to provide his voice) who sets “out to conquer the world. Along the way he collects some traveling companions, including a prince, an excellent pig (voice drolly done by Comic Jonathan Winters) and a truly estimable cannibal (voice by Arnold Stang). They meet a succession of blackhearted monsters, all agents of wicked King Gruesome. Naturally, goodness prevails, with satisfactory violence. Parents will cheer wistfully for old Gruesome, but that is because they are wicked.