Friday, March 19, 2010

Classic Film Friday: The 7th Voyage of Sinbad

Yes, I know, I just did Jason and the Argonauts, but this is a bit different. Sinbad (Kerwin Mathews) is sailing back to Baghdad to marry Princess Parisa (Kathryn Crosby), the daughter of a neighboring country's Sultan. They are supposed to marry and bring the two counties together.

They are together, and they love each other, so what's not to like about that? Well they've been knocked off course, and make a landing at the island of Colossa to restock on food and supplies. And everything is going fairly smoothly, that is until Sinbad sees a cave with a carving and wonders what the heck is in there. (Stupid white guy moment) Well he is stopped by the magician Sokurah (Torin Thatcher) running, and chasing after his is a huge Cyclops that is half goat, and has a rhino horn on his forehead.

Sinbad saves Sokurah, or Sokurah saves Sinbad... as he calls on the Genie of the Lamp (Which he stole, and is the reason the cyclops is chasing him) to save them all. But then the cyclops throws a rock, it sort of sinks the boat they are in, and Sokurah loses the lamp. He becomes obsessed with the lamp, and offers Sinbad jewels, and anything else to go back and get the lamp (that the cyclops has now recovered). But Sinbad is hearing none of that, because he is to be married to Parisa, and he wants to make that happen as soon as possible.

On to Baghdad the Caliphs (Alec Mango) (the leader of Baghdad) commands Sokurah to put on a show, to which he agrees, for the price of a boat and crew. Well Caliph declines, but he still makes the magician perform. And he does, and again he asks for a boat and crew, and again Caliph turns him down.

So later that night Sokurah sneaks into Parisa's room and casts a spell that shrinks her down to about the size of a hamster. Everybody is up in arms, (because nobody knows that this is Sokurah's doing) the Sultan and the Caliph are suddenly not friends anymore, the wedding is off, things just go down the drain quickly.

In comes Sokurah, savior to everything and everyone (not really) and it just so happens that he can fix the shrunken princess but he needs the egg shell of the Roc, a giant, two headed buzzard, which can only be found on the island of Colossa. Imagine that?

Sinbad takes his "little" woman and Sokurah, and prisoners (because nobody else was crazy enough to go... This is stupid white moment number 2) and they're off. Sorta' I mean there is a mutiny to deal with, and harpies to pass, but otherwise they make it to Colossa alright.

This is where Sokurah reveals his true nature, or at least so that Sinbad can see. So do they make it? Will the pint sized princess become a regular sized princess, will Sokurah get his lamp? What about the cyclops? or the Roc? or anything else? You can watch it in episodes here or just get it on Netflix like I did.



1 comment:

Bob G. said...

MH:
THERE 'YA GO...!
This was a great movie (as I was growing up) and still holds sway in my collection.
Yeah, the acting was kind cheesy, and the plot predictable, but as a young'un, it was fantastic on a Saturday afternoon!

Kerwin Matthews was almost as good as John Philip Law (as Sinbad), and Torin Thatcher played evil as good as Tom Baker did in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad.
Kathryn Grayson in younger years was a real treat to the eyes, also.
(and she married Bing Crosby to boot).
Harryhausen did some great work in the creature department.

Two (lamp-rubbing) thumbs UP!

Have a great weekend.