The Cinematic Voyages Of Sinbad!

Ray Harryhausen was a dynamic film creator, but it was the work on Sinbad the Sailor in bright color and stunning "Dynarama" which made him something of a household name, at least in households which harbored at least one "Monster Kid" reared on Forry Ackerman's Famous Monsters of Filmland. 

I've seen The 7th Voyage of Sinbad many many times, but always in the context of the fact it's an important Ray Harryhausen movie. This time I was watching it as part of a long part of films drawn from the mythology of The Arabian Nights. So I have to say the story was more a focus than the techniques of filming for the very first time, which sadly should be the way one watches any movie.

I will assume everyone has seen this movie, so this is a spoiler rich overview. I've never been particularly warm to Kerwin Mathews as Sinbad, but this time his performance didn't annoy as much as it has in the past. I was more plugged into Sinbad as a character and frankly he's quite the piece of work. Head over heels in love with his Princess (Kathryn Grant) he puts everyone else around him at extreme risk and frankly their lives are less important to him than hers or his own.

Beyond the striking creations of the Cyclops and the Dragon, this movie offers up a fantastic villain in Torin Thatcher as Sokurah the Magician. His grasping for power is what motivates all the action in the movie and his schemes put all the characters into extreme danger, but it's readily evident he cares not a whit for anyone. Even his own personal safety is secondary to his getting and keeping power, particularly the magic lamp which will give him control of a very youthful-looking genie.

The scene pictured above of Kerwin Mathews at the wheel of his ship was mentioned in some of the extra material I watched and he said he was incredibly ill on the day this scene was shot and he stepped out of his sickbed for this one scene only. It has become a signature image for the movie thanks to the comic and the soundtrack album which both sport it as a cover.

Marvel adapted the story, combining in one vigorous image by Gil Kane and Joe Sinnott Sinbad, his Princess, the Cyclops and the deadly sword-swinging skeletons. 

(Kathryn Grant and an admirer.)

Years later the team of Schneer and Harryhausen struck again. 

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad from 1973 is a diamond in the rough when it comes to Sinbad lore. John Phillip Law is my favorite of the three Captains Sinbad who appeared in the Schneer-Harryhausen fantasy films. He feels like a rogue who could be a hero.

He comes across as more legitimate visually and tonally than does Kerwin Mathews and both of them are much better actors than the later Patrick Wayne. Teamed with the exotic and attractive Caroline Munro and you have a delightful pair of protagonists to watch as the adventures unfold.

The villain of this one is Prince Koura played wonderfully by Tom Baker. Reports say that his performance here convinced the Doctor Who folks to give him that gig which made him a superstar among fantasy fans. If he'd never been Who, he'd still have been one of the best villains in a Sinbad movie. The way his magical efforts keep draining him as the movie progresses is remarkable to watch. I was also struck by the loyalty his man has for him throughout the film, which never waivers. Koura must have some characteristic which instills such loyalty, making him a worthy opponent.

The battle with the goddess Kali is among my favorite Harryhausen moments in any of his films and works beautifully in this one. I think I might like it a little better than the famous skeleton fight from Jason and the Argonauts...a little. The Centuar and the Griffin are fine as they go, but lack the visual impact of earlier Harryhausen beasts like the Cyclops or the Hydra.

This movie got the full adaptation treatment from Mighty Marvel in two issues of the science fiction comic Worlds Unknown. Clearly the folks at Marvel saw potential in crossing over these stories with fans of Conan.

And for fans of the lovely dames here you go. First with other castmates and then by her lovely lonesome.

(Caroline Munro)

But Harryhausen and company were not finished. 

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger is a diverting adventure tale with lots of delightful fantasy elements blended into it. It's hurt from the get-go by its lead Patrick Wayne. Sadly, Wayne is simply not up to the role and while perfectly handsome enough lacks the acting chops to hang with pros like Patrick Troughton and Margaret Whiting. Fortunately for Wayne he has relative novices alongside him such as pretty Taryn Power and a lovely up and coming Jane Seymour. Both are absolutely lovely to look at, but their acting in this vehicle at least is pretty indifferent.

On the Harryhausen special effects front, this is a movie with strengths and weaknesses, but mostly lost opportunities. The Minoton which dominates a lot of screen time marches all the way to the top fo the world with the villains but then gets crushed moments before a potentially awesome battle with the Troglodyte who ends up fighting a Sabretooth tiger instead. Why not have both. Harryhausen has said this movie was a bit of a rush job, in response to good ticket sales on The Golden Voyage several years before and frankly it shows.

The show even fails to my mind to make full use of such awe-inspiring sights as Petra which is only glimpsed in the early parts of the movie. Apparently none of the main actors went to the location and that really damages the sense of wonder which could have been achieved there.

The story itself seems a patch job, too similar in many respects to the earlier Golden Voyage. This is the only one of the three Sinbad movies I got to see in the theater and I remember being diverted by it at the time. But having seen the others, the deficiencies in this entry are sadly all too apparent.

But the ladies were beauteous! Behold!

(Jane Seymour)

(Taryn Power)

Marvel neglected to offer up any adaptation of this movie. It was left to the generically named "General Publishing" outfit to fill the bill with a version drawn by Ian Gibson. For more on the Sinbad adaptations check out this highly informative article "The Seven Comics of Sinbad" at Darkworlds Quarterly. 

Rip Off

When Flying Saucers Attack!

What is one to do when flying saucers attack? The answer is given in some ways in Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers, a Ray Harryhausen movie. Harryhausen's involvement means the visuals will be spectacular and they are. The movie embraces the UFO furor of the era and uses that to propel us into a tale about a young couple who having just gotten married suddenly find themselves in the middle of an interplanetary war. 

 

The movie advertises itself as based in part on Flying Saucers from Outer Space by Major Donald Keyhoe, one of the more UFO investigators of the era. Having never read Keyhoe's book, I cannot speak to how much or little is extracted from its pages, but I imagine only the bare concept of saucers from space come to Earth for mysterious purposes. 

The movie starts quickly with our newlyweds on their way back to a secret missile project where they work. Their satellites have been falling to Earth and they don't know why. It seems the Saucer people want to restrict Earth's entry into space and move to talk to us about it. That message is garbled and the result is a fracas which ends in the destruction of the base and that triggers an all-out war. Eventually events move to Washington DC just in time for the flying saucers to destroy many a recognizable building and monument. Our young scientist hero does develop a solution (no surprise) and a counterattack is arranged.

This black and white movie is a lot of fun to watch. Harryhausen's meticulous effects make for some astonishing screen images, stuff that won't be topped for decades. And even then his work has a charm which cannot be matched in any era. This one is a must-see movie. 

It's never been remade. The closest thing to a remake I can think of is Mars Attacks which does a lot of the same things, but with a much more humorous tone. Or perhaps Independence Day which elevates the threat. 

Rip Off

The Renderings Of Gwangi!

The Valley of Gwangi is likely the best cowboys versus dinosaur movie of all time. I admit that a slim category. One of the things about Gwangi that I've mentioned before is the fantastic poster art by Frank McCarthy. To look at this captivating image you imagine Gwangi as large as Godzilla or any self-respecting Kaiju, and the melee of cowboys and horses running among ancient giant bones and flailing in the desert air as Gwangi swings his enormous tale suggests a truly epic movie.

Here's the artwork which made for a fantastic poster.

It made for a great cover for a comic book drawn with somewhat less magnificence by Jack Sparling. 

And I recently got to thinking about the image again when I stumbled across this coloring book tie-in for the movie. That painting was truly epic in scale!

So it's always been a mystery to me why my DVD copy of the film (which I'm deliriously happy to have) ignores the McCarthy masterpiece and instead uses artwork apparently done for a European poster presentation. There's no comparison despite the argument that the foreign poster is more accurate to the film itself.

Note: This post originally appeared at Rip Jagger's Other Dojo. 

Rip Off

A Sexy Odyssey!

Haven't seen this. But I have to admit I'm curious. There's a lot going on in that poster with echoes of Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers and Barbarella as well. But judging a movie by its poster can be a most dangerous thing. Actually it seems to be in the vein of  Flesh Gordon, but if you feel brave check out this NSFW link. 

Rip Off

The Cinematic Worlds Of Gulliver!

Gulliver's Travels is one of the great unread classics of literature. Most folks know the story in some basic way. They know that a man ends up shipwrecked on a distant land in which he is a giant and is surrounded by tiny people Lilliputians. Some folks even know that the man later ends up in a land of giants in which he is the tiny person. But few know that he also travels to a land of besotted intellectuals and aged immortals, and later to a land where horses rule and people are called "Yahoos". All that said, the story has often been seen as ripe for cinematic adaptation.

The Fleischer Brothers saw the story as a vehicle to elevate their cartoon studio and remain a viable competitor to Disney which had altered the animation landscape with Snow White. The Fleischers were given enough money from Paramount at last to make the kind of large-scale animation which might compete. The adventures of Gulliver seemed likely and we get the studio producing a handsome bit of animation, which despite its incredible charms fell somewhat flat. Here is a delightful link with much more about the classic film.

Some few decades later, the team of Charles Schneer and special effects guru Ray Harryhausen turn their Dynamation engine on and try to bring the tale of the classic to the big screen with live actors in The 3 Worlds of Gulliver. Well to begin with, one of the three worlds is the rather realistic world of England, so we're left with Lilliput and the land of the giants Brobdingnag. Kerwin Mathews is sufficiently appealing in the title role as a doctor seeking to make his fortune so that he and his love Elizabeth can live in some level of comfort. He ends up in Lilliput by himself and later Elizabeth turns up in Brobdingnag. It's all rather confusing really, as this is the least of the many movies made by Harryhausen. For one thing, there is only really one creature, a crocodile that Gulliver dispatches with relative ease. The use of forced prospective and other techniques is fine but nothing really different than what was seen in other movies.

All in all, the epic of Gulliver, despite its appeal hasn't really been brought to the screen with the vigor it needed to make it work fully.

Rip Off

Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger!

Sinbad and the The Eye of the Tiger is a diverting adventure tale with lots of delightful fantasy elements blended into it. It's hurt from the get-go by its lead Patrick Wayne. Sadly Wayne is simply not up to the role and while perfectly handsome enough lacks the acting chops to hang with pros like Patrick Troughton and Margaret Whiting. Fortunately for Wayne he has relative novices alongside him such as pretty Taryn Power and a lovely up and coming Jane Seymour. Both are absolutely lovely to look at, but their acting in this vehicle at least is pretty indifferent.

On the Harryhausen special effects front, this is a movie with strengths and weaknesses, but mostly lost opportunities. The Minoton which dominates a lot of screen time marches all the way to the top fo the world with the villains but then gets crushed moments before a potentially awesome battle with the Troglodyte who ends up fighting a Sabretooth tiger instead. Why not have both. Harryhausen has said this movie was a bit of a rush job, in response to good ticket sales on The Golden Voyage several years before and frankly it shows.

The show even fails to my mind to make full use of such awe-inspiring sights as Petra which is only glimpsed in the early parts of the movie. Apparently none of the main actors went to the location and that really damages the sense of wonder which could have been achieved there.

The story itself seems a patch job, too similar in many respects to the earlier Golden Voyage. This is the only one of the three Sinbad movies I got to see in the theater and I remember being diverted by it at the time. But having seen the others, the deficiencies in this entry are sadly all too apparent.

But the ladies were beauteous! Behold!

Rip Off

The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad!

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad from 1973 is a diamond in the rough when it comes to Sinbad lore. John Phillip Law is my favorite of the three Captains Sinbad who appeared in the Schneer-Harryhausen fantasy films. He feels like a rogue who could be a hero.

He comes across as more legitimate visually and tonally than does Kerwin Mathews and both of them are much better actors than the later Patrick Wayne. Teamed with the exotic and attractive Caroline Munro and you have a delightful pair of protagonists to watch as the adventures unfold.

The villain of this one is Prince Koura played wonderfully by Tom Baker. Reports say that his performance here convinced the Doctor Who folks to give him that gig which made him a superstar among fantasy fans. If he'd never been Who, he'd still have been one of the best villains in a Sinbad movie. The way his magical efforts keep draining him as the movie progresses is remarkable to watch. I was also struck by the loyalty his man has for him throughout the film, which never waivers. Koura must have some characteristic which instills such loyalty, making him a worthy opponent.

The battle with the goddess Kali is among my favorite Harryhausen moments in any of his films and works beautifully in this one. I think I might like it a little better than the famous skeleton fight from Jason and the Argonauts...a little. The Centuar and the Griffin are fine as they go, but lack the visual impact of earlier Harryhausen beasts like the Cyclops or the Hydra.

This movie got the full adaptation treatment from Mighty Marvel in two issues of the science fiction comic Worlds Unknown. Clearly the folks at Marvel saw potential in crossing over these stories with fans of Conan.

And for fans of the lovely Caroline Munro here you go. First with the rest of the cast and then by her lovely lonesome.

Yum. More Sinbad tomorrow.

Rip Off