The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973)

Introduction:

I’ve always been a sucker for fantasy adventure movies. When I was a kid, it really didn’t get any better than the movies featuring Ray Harryhausen’s Dynamation special effects. Some of the best Harryhausen work could be found in his Sinbad adventure films. This film fell in the middle of that trilogy, but was it a step down from The 7^th Voyage of Sinbad or was it an improvement on the crowd-pleasing adventurer and his journeys into the unknown?

Summary:

Sinbad (John Philip Law) and his crew are returning from a successful journey when they run into a strange flying gargoyle creature. After shooting at it with an arrow it drops a golden bauble. Sinbad keeps this strange token. Unfortunately that little gargoyle was taking that treasure back to his master Prince Koura (Tom Baker) a deadly sorcerer. Koura pursues Sinbad, but the brave captain escapes to the city of a friendly Vizier (Douglas Wilmer), who hates Koura after the wizard melted the Vizier’s face off.

The Vizier reveals that he too has a golden treasure that fits with Sinbad’s into a kind of map. It leads to untold power, and the Vizier warns that Koura must not be allowed to obtain it. The two join forces to race the lost island of Lemuria before Koura can get there. But the scheming wizard has many magical traps up his sleeve. Sinbad and his crew will face a living wooden figurehead, a centaur/Cyclopes hybrid, a griffon and more fearsome of all, a living six armed statue of Kali who wields swords like a demon. Will Sinbad, his crew and the lovely Margiana (Caroline Munro) survive The Golden Voyage of Sinbad or will evil triumph?

Good Points:

• Amazing Dynamation effects by Harryhausen
• A wonderful Golden Age style score by Miklos Rozsa
• Maintains the feel of a real Arabian Nights story

Bad Points:

• Some of the composite effects show their seams
• Some broad acting choices lead to unintentional laughs
• Takes a while to set up the adventure

Overall:

Easily my favorite of Harryhausen’s Sinbad trilogy. The cast, Tom Baker in particular, sells the story and adventure. I love that the film feels like an actual Arabian Night story. This one also contains some of Harryhausen’s most unique and amazing creations – especially the living statue of Kali. Between all the action, wonder, Caroline Munro's slave girl outfit and adventure you get one of the best Harryhausen fantasy films.

Scores (out of 5)

Visuals: 5

Sound: 4

Acting: 4

Script: 4

Music: 5

Direction: 5

Entertainment: 5

Total:  5

Curious about a full review, sent me an email and I’ll make additional thoughts to this review.

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)

Introduction:

Ray Harryhausen had specialized in visual effects since the 1940s.  While his works were prominently featured in films like It Came From Beneath the Sea and 20 Million Miles to Earth never had a single film been dedicated to his creations. When the time came for Harryhausen to step up to the plate, he selected an Arabian Nights style fantasy to really show his stuff. Fantasy films were changed forever.

Summary:

Adventurer and all around hero Sinbad (Kerwin Mathews) is returning to Baghdad with the lovely Princess Parisa (Kathryn Grant) when his ship takes an unexpected detour to the island of Colossa. There he meets Sokurah (Torin Thatcher) a scheming sorcerer who has just pissed off a huge Cyclopes! Sinbad and his men rescue Sokurah and discover that the man has a magic lamp complete with Genie (Richard Eyer). Unfortunately the Cyclopes have taken the lamp, and Sokurah demands it back. Sinbad knows a no win scenario when he sees one and he refuses. They sail from Colossa with a grumpy Sokurah in tow.

When they reach civilization Sinbad parties it up with the Parisa, but Sokurah uses his dark magic to shrink the princess to a handy pocket size. Of course the only way to restore the princess to her proper height is to return to Colossa and obtain the shell from the egg of a huge bird called the Rok. Sinbad grumbles, but he decides to go back, and face the dangers of the island. But it is more than just lumbering Cyclopes and huge birds. He will also face a fire breathing dragon and even an animated skeleton. Will The 7^th Voyage of Sinbad be his final journey?

Good Points:

• Impressive Dynamation effects by Harryhausen
• Creates an immersive world on the island of Colossa
• Wonderful golden age score by Bernard Herrmann

Bad Points:

• Everyone seems awfully white and American to be from the Middle East
• Some over the top acting (especially by Thatcher) leads to chuckles
• Some of the effects lack the polish that we’d see in later films

Overall:

Harryhausen knocks it out of the park with this one. His creatures are amazing and impressive, giving everything an overwhelming scale that hadn’t been seen since King Kong. Beyond that he builds his fantasy world using classic mythic tropes and fairy tale plot points. It makes for a fun ride, even if Mathews feels more like a cowboy than Sinbad. I also love Thatcher, in spite of the fact that he’s the exact opposite of subtle. While it is not my favorite of the Sinbad trilogy, it is a lot of fun.

Scores (out of 5)

Visuals: 4

Sound: 4

Acting: 3

Script: 3

Music: 5

Direction: 4

Entertainment: 4

Total:  4

Curious about a full review, sent me an email and I’ll make additional thoughts to this review.

Nostalgia Nugget: Mythic Movies of Ray Harryhausen

I tried to remember a time when I didn’t know about the movies of Ray Harryhausen. It was pretty tough. From a very young age, I enjoyed the stop motion creatures in his thrilling fantasy adventures. I honestly don’t know if I saw Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger on videocassette first or if it was a trip to the theater to see Clash of the Titans. All I know is that whatever the first film was, I was hooked forever after that.

It was a slow discovery of these films in my childhood. I remember seeing those two films very early on. Then followed by The 7thVoyage of Sinbad and The GoldenVoyage of Sinbad a few years later. It wasn’t until junior high that I actually saw Jason and the Argonauts. I know I saw Mysterious Island somewhere in there too. Probably around the time I discovered Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Most recently was the discovery of Harryhausen’s earlier work on films like Earth vs. Flying Saucers and 20 Million Miles to Earth. A few years ago TCM was showing some of his films and I caught those two movies. I was amazed how good the effects looked considering that I only knew of his work from the later fantasy flicks.

And you’re saying, that’s nice and all, but I’ve seen those flicks too.

I bet you have. The thing is, I have to credit Harryhausen’s work for getting me interested in writing. Yeah, you read that right.

He isn’t solely responsible. I have a lot of influences on my writing, and if you want to go back to the real impact, it was probably Star Wars that started my love for genre fiction. But Clash of the Titans in particular made such an impression on me, that I had to know more.

I’m not sure what lead me to find out that the story in Clash of the Titans was based on Greek mythology, but once I knew that – it was all over. I remember picking up books on the ancient heroes, monsters and gods from the library as often as I could. The adventures within blew my tiny mind away. And I continued my journey.

I started reading other mythology; Norse, African, Japanese and Native American stand out most vividly to me from that time. I found the stories endlessly creative and fascinating. As amazing as Clash of the Titans was, I ended up disappointed they didn’t follow the myth a bit closer.

The interest in mythology lead to an interest in storytelling. That lead right into an interest in writing fiction.

During my last revisit of some of these old movies, I began to wonder, what connected so strongly to me when I was a kid.  I really have to hand it to Harryhausen’s work. The creatures he created in those fantasy films really seemed to move, live and breathe on their own. Their strange movements added an additional feeling of the uncanny to them. That might be why I find Golden Voyage of Sinbad to be the most effective of the films. The creatures in that movie seem to exist in a dream world, where Sinbad and his crew must face these other worldly creatures. Many of them are creations by the sorcerer prince Koura (played with perfect menace by Tom Baker). Because they were created by magic, their unnatural movements aren’t distracting, but feel bizarrely realistic. As a child, watching these films, I felt as if I was immersed in a complete world (very similar to how I felt when watching Star Wars). That quality has always stood out in well made genre films.

And so I salute Ray Harryhausen, a pioneer in stop motion animation. I know his work will live on and I’m sure will inspire countless other children to make movies, animate characters or attempt to write a heroic adventure of their own.