Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977)

☆ ☆ ☆

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977) – S. Wanamaker

Surprisingly, I found this penultimate Ray Harryhausen production a good watch – but perhaps I have simply adjusted my expectations after watching three of his earlier films first or perhaps it is because I am watching them with my 7-year-old son and seeing them through his eyes.  In this one, Sinbad (a different actor each time; this time Patrick Wayne) needs to help a prince who has been turned into a (dynamation) baboon by travelling with a Greek philosopher and his daughter to the arctic where a mysterious pyramid will help to transform the prince back to human form.  Sinbad’s love interest is the prince’s sister (Jane Seymour) and the main foe is evil witch Zenobia (Margaret Whiting).  A lot of the special effects here are camera tricks (characters grow big or small and change into seagulls and such) but Harryhausen animates a (friendly) troglodyte (early human), a sabre-toothed tiger, some alien-looking monsters, a big bee, a bronze minotaur, and an awesome giant walrus.  That walrus was something else.  Again, the plot is rather beside the point here, come instead for the Harryhausen creations which are pretty well integrated into the live action.   

  

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973)

☆ ☆ ☆

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973) – G. Hessler

Amon continues to ask for more Ray Harryhausen films and he reckons that this is his favourite so far – mostly because of Kali swinging six swords at a time and fighting off Sinbad and his men (until finally pushed off a ledge and broken “by a kid”).  I’m not so sure this beats out either 7^th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) or Jason and the Argonauts (1963).  Probably the acting by John Philip Law (as Sinbad), Caroline Munro (of Hammer Horror fame as a “slave girl”), and Tom Baker (yes, that Tom Baker, as another evil magician, Koura) is on par with the acting from the previous pictures.  The plot is similarly convoluted. Sinbad needs to find three pieces of a broken golden tablet in order to stop the evil magician from securing some more powers and instead give these to a good king whose face has been horribly burned.  The magician does everything he can to stop Sinbad and there are some fearsome (dynamation) creatures to behold, for example, a griffin fights a one-eyed centaur (both gigantic, of course). Most of the stopmotion seems devoted to Koura’s little homunculus goblin though.  Slightly more “adult” content (some very tame off-colour jokes and Munro’s barely dressed outfit) place the film squarely in the Seventies.  Start with the earlier films, if you are interested (but we will likely move onward to Eye of the Tiger, 1977).

  

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The 7^th 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!

45 Years (2015)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

45 Years (2015) – A. Haigh

The acting by Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay (both actors of distinction with impressively long careers) is fine-grained and subtle; they disappear into the characters of Kate and Geoff Mercer who are about to celebrate their 45^th anniversary with a big party.  We see lives that have worn grooves into their environment and people who know each other intimately; Kate in particular often talks about Geoff’s personality, attitudes, and ways of behaving as though they are obvious to her and set in stone.  So, she is particularly taken aback when the body of Geoff’s former fiancée is discovered in the Swiss Alps (frozen solid after 50 years) and she discovers that he still harbors a longing for her.  This casts a cloud over the upcoming anniversary party.  As they engage in various preparations, we see how their preoccupation with the news from Switzerland affects each of them separately, presented subtly through their behaviour.  Slowly too, we see how this new knowledge about events “before their time” has consequences for their relationship.  Although Geoff does his best to “make up” for his (understandable?) absorption into the past, it is Kate who seems the hardest hit, principally by the fact that Geoff has kept a secret from her for this long – that is, by a loss of trust.  But is it fair? That is for the viewer to decide.  Personally, I empathized with both – but if I interpreted the last shot of the film correctly, then I think one of them has to work harder to let things go.  Surely, after 45 years, they would have learned to overcome issues such as this. (For the record, although I feared this would be a film suitable only for oldies, it felt real and natural for me – meaning what?!?).

Poltergeist (1982)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Poltergeist (1982) – T. Hooper

Better than I expected (after all these years) but still an uneasy mix of Spielberg’s childlike wonder and fantasy and Hooper’s dread.  Fortunately, the dread comes through despite the attempts to smother it with schmaltz.  And surely this is streets ahead of other films in this horror sub-genre (The Amityville Horror, Paranormal Activity, etc.).  JoBeth Williams and Craig T. Nelson live in a new-ish suburban development with their three kids.  About 30 minutes into the film, one of them (5-year-old Carol Anne) is sucked into some sort of void (bi-location) inside the house and the rest of the film is about how to get her back.  They can communicate through the TV (but only when it is showing white noise).  A group of paranormal investigators is brought in and they begin to discover the nature of the problem (which is fairly ridiculous, almost a MacGuffin).  A highlight is a visit by psychic Tangina (Zelda Rubinstein), spooky enough in her own right.  Of course, the special effects are over-the-top and pretty good for 1982.  But I couldn’t help thinking that if you dialled back the “over-production” by a few notches, this could have been a really scary and downright creepy affair (rather than a blockbuster, I suppose).  Worth revisiting.    

The Rats of Tobruk (1944)

☆ ☆ ☆

The Rats of Tobruk (1944) – C. Chauvel

This version of the Australian WWII war picture is nearly 30 minutes longer than the version currently circulating in the US.  This might explain some of the bad reviews it has received on the internet, although it’s true that it doesn’t really distinguish itself in the field of combat.  Yet, it is (and was) something to see (stereotyped) Australian characters on the big screen.  Grant Taylor is Bluey, the rough womaniser (who secretly yearns for his one true love); Chips Rafferty is Milo, the lanky Ocker with the broad Strine accent; and Peter Finch is the Brit journalist who narrates the picture and delivers some stirring patriotic speeches (including from the Bard’s Henry V).  The plot is largely anecdotal, focused on Australian troops who held off Rommel in the North African city of Tobruk (Libya).  The battle sequences are intercut with comic relief and scenes reminding us that Bluey is pining for his love back home.   

  

Jason and the Argonauts (1963)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Jason and the Argonauts (1963) – D. Chaffey

Seeing this again through the eyes of a 7-year-old (Amon) refreshed it quite a bit.  Of course, it is the Ray Harryhausen stop-motion animation scenes that carry the film.  Jason and his crew battle the giant bronze statue Talos, the harpies that plague blind Phineas, the seven-headed hydra, and of course, the skeleton battalion that grow from the hydra’s teeth.  The craftsmanship is impressive (a lost art?). In between these set pieces, there is some passable acting that explicates the plot.  Jason (Todd Armstrong) is the rightful king of Thessaly but first must find the golden fleece at the end of the world before he can return to claim the throne from evil usurper Pelias.  The gods, particularly Hera (Honor Blackman) and Zeus (Niall MacGinnis) either help or hinder his quest.  Medea (Nancy Kovack), high priestess of Hecate, sells out her own kingdom to help Jason after falling in love with him. The Argonauts themselves are rather indistinguishable (save perhaps Hercules – Nigel Green) but character depth is not the point here.  When I asked Amon how many stars this adventure yarn deserved, he simply said “lots”!