☆ ☆ ☆ ½
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) –
N. Juran
I think it is a mark of this film’s success that Amon is still asking
questions about it the next morning (New Year’s Day 2020). Of course, it is the special effects (“dynamation”)
by Ray Harryhausen that are the reason to watch this film, now as it was in
1958. We get cyclopses, a roc chick and mother, a dragon (that later fights
with a cyclops), a swordfightin’ skeleton, and a snake woman. However, the interpersonal dynamics that drive
the plot were a little lost on him. An
evil magician tricks Sinbad into heading to his home island to kill the cyclops
that has grabbed the magic lamp (with genie inside) by shrinking Sinbad’s
princess fiancée and claiming to only be able to make a potion to change her
back with an eggshell from the roc found only on his island. Amon kept asking why they were helping the evil
magician and vice versa. But really that
magician could not be trusted (although his acting was probably the best of the
lot)! Now Amon wants to watch the
subsequent Sinbad films (1973 and 1977), which I fear will be a notch below. We shall see. But for its mix of wonder and
adventure, we give this one a thumbs up!
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