I have long considered Ray Harryhausen to be the master of special effects. I grew up with his epic movies and think his clay monsters to be almost as real as any of the computer generated effects you see today. The only time my belief is suspended is when the clay monster "grabs" one of the characters. Then you see that they made the character out of clay too. The following review is about his Sinbad movies. The first movie, The
Seventh Voyage of Sinbad came out in 1958 with Kirwin Matthews in the title
role. Sinbad's lady love, Princess Parisa (Katharine Grant) is minturized by
the evil Sokurah when Sinbad refuses to return to Sokurah's home island so that
Sokurah can retrieve his genie from the Cyclops. The rest of the movie consists
of the voyage and consequent adventures once they reach the island.
The second movie, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, came out nearly twenty years later. In
this one Sinbad (John Phillip Law) has to retrieve a magical talisman to
prevent the evil Koura from gaining it and the world. One of the highlights of
the film is the drunken youth Haroun (Kurt Christian) whose father pays Sinbad
to take along on the journey. Haroun's father is hoping that it will make a man
out of him, and I guess it does in the end. He is certainly the comic relief of
this film.
The last Sinbad movie is Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. Although still loads of fun, this
one is the weakest of the Sinbad movies. Sinbad is played by Patrick Wayne, son of
the legendary John Wayne, and you get the feeling that he was just riding in on
his father's shirttails. He is certainly not the best actor in the world. The
film's villain, however, almost makes up for any shortcomings in its lead
actor. She is the evil Zenobia (Margaret Whitting) who is so desperate to have
her son inherit the throne, that she turns the rightful heir into a baboon.
Sinbad and his lady love, Farah, must then journey to a far off land at the top
of the world with Kassim the baboon to reverse the spell.
What I think is funny about these movies is how much
the girls' costumes changed in twenty years. I swear Grant is wearing a body
suit whereas Caroline Munroe, who plays the leading lady in The Golden Voyage, can barely fit her
breasts into her costume. Observe:
Then in the Eye of the Tiger, we have a partially
nude image of Jane Seymour who plays Farah.Yes, her hair is artfully covering all her private parts, but it is still implied that she's naked.
Amazing how things change, right?
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