Kids movie from the mid 70's or earlier.

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There's a movie from my childhood that I remember seeing one Sunday and I can't find any trace of it anywhere.

Don't remember the names of the characters, although the main character's name might be Jack. There's a giant, possibly an Ogre, and he's got something like 7 League Boots.

Story is, I believe it's Russian or at the very least Eastern European, it's got that feel about it. It was dubbed into English though. Woodcutter and his wife have seven children I believe. Two of them were twins and during their introduction the narrator says something like, "and if something happened it one, it usually happened to the other as well". It shows one get a black eye, possibly from a punch. And a moment later the other one gets a black eye as well. The youngest child is the hero of the story. But since the woodcutter is poor he and his wife leave their kids in the forest to die with the idea they will eat all the food and then kill themselves afterwards by hanging themselves on hooks. The kids come back, join in the feast and I believe once again are sent into the forest. The boys sing a song as they walk along which goes something like, "If you eat your soup boy you'll grow big and strong. I can't eat my soup sir because I have none". The song might have come earlier or they sing it more than once.

This is when the giant / ogre appears with a wild bushy beard. He's got 7 League Boots or some kind of boots that allow him to leap through the air. He's practically there doing the splits as he flies overhead. He captures the boys, or they wind up in his castle, of course he's going to eat them as all giants / ogres do in these kinds of stories.

The giant has a bunch of daughters. All of whom look as wild as he does. They too are cannibals and are excited to eat the boys.

Stuff happens which I don't remember, young Jack fools the giant into eating his daughters instead, swaps out his 7 League Boots and when the Giant tries to leap across the chasm to get him he falls to his death. I think Jack brings the treasure the giant had back home and everybody is happy.



There's this. Le Petit Poucet. But it's only like 11 minutes long and from 1909.

Unless it was animated. Because the story you describe was called Hop-o'-My-Thumb and the only film adaptation of that I could find was an animated version made in Russia in 1938.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...webm.360p.webm



Or it could be this one from 1972 (which is right around the time the OP says he first saw it). Tom Thumb.

EDIT: It's this one I think. The IMDb trivia specifically mentions the song about eating your soup if you want to grow.