Ray Harryhausen's Sinbad (1958, 1973, 1977)

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?

Movies

            So after consideration I did come up with categories for the movie section of my blog. These categories will be "vintage" which will be basically anything before 1990, contemporary (everything after 1990), Made for TV, Cartoon Movies, Cartoons, and Live Action TV shows. I will also have a sub category of "This movie is so incredibly stupid it's actually amusing". This will be indicated by a laughing emoji at the beginning of the review. Some of the movies I will be reviewing have had remakes done (and in very rare cases they are the remakes). Therefore, I will put the dates of the ones I am reviewing next to the title.

        

Princess Florecita and the Iron Shoes

            I was trying to think about how I wanted to structure this section of my blog. As I mentioned, my love of fantasy began with the fairy tales of my childhood. I read a lot of fairy tale adaptations that I will speak of, but I also decided that I would also speak of some of the fairy tales that I enjoyed, ones you may not have heard of before. The first one is Princess Florecita and the Iron Shoes.

            The story of Princess Florecita is a Spanish one. One day Florecita learns of a sleeping prince from a little bird. This prince is handsome, kind, and gentle (reminds me a little of Sleeping Beauty). She is told that only a maiden can break the spell by drifting a black feather over his forehead and that he is so far away that she would wear out a pair of iron shoes looking for him. Florecita decides to go seek out the prince and has a special pair of iron shoes made for the occasion. In her journey, she meets the mothers of the West, East, and North wind which tell her which way to go. In the end she rescues the prince and they live happily ever after.

            What I liked about this story is its strong female lead. She goes out to save the prince, not the other way around. All together an excellent story.

My Lord Vampire

             

I first read this book several years ago. When I was finding the pictures to put here on this site, I noticed another book popping up with the same title but with another author's name. At first I didn't think anything of it until I noticed some pictures lining them  up together. Looking further into the plot line of the second book, I realized that it was the same story! Debbie Raleigh had originally published it under her "regency" pseudonym. When she decided to start writing paranormal romances under the name Alexandra Ivy, she re-released them under her new pseudonym. I really do hate it when authors do this. You think you are getting a new book because the cover is different (and in this case the author as well), and it's all a lie.

            Anyway, now that my rant is done, let me tell you a bit about this book, which is one of the few vampire novels that I have read and enjoyed. It is the first in the "Immortal Rogue" series, My Lord Eternity and Lord Immortality follow. All of these books are excellent and I have read them several times.

            The basic premise of the series is that centuries before the great vampire Nefri created the magical Veil where vampires could live in peace away from the temptations of mortals, but now three evil vampires convinced of their superiority over the human race have returned to Earth to reclaim what they feel is theirs. To do this they need the magical Medallion that Nefri used to create the Veil in the first place. To prevent the evil vampires from getting this Medallion, Nefri bound it to the souls of three mortal women: Simone, Jocelyn, and Amelia. She then sends out three noble vampires: Gideon, Lucien, and Sebastian to protect these maidens, and since these are romances you know what will happen.

            Anyway this first story follows the romance of Simone and Gideon. Simone is a wealthy widow who is the life of any party and she doesn't like Gideon one bit. She thinks he's arrogant and way too mysterious. Plus Simone can't let anyone get to close to her because she bears a terrible secret as well. One that could ruin everything she holds dear. A good clean romance that any will enjoy. The book is available under Alexandra Ivy in paperback, nook, and kindle. You can also purchase used copies under the original Debbie Raleigh name.