The 7th Voyage of Sinbad

Infobox Film


caption = Theatrical release poster
name = The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
director = Nathan H. Juran
producer = Charles H. Schneer
Ray Harryhausen
writer = Kenneth Kolb
starring = Kerwin Mathews
Torin Thatcher
Kathryn Grant
Richard Eyer
Alec Mango
music = Bernard Herrmann
cinematography = Wilkie Cooper
editing = Roy Watts
distributor = Columbia Pictures
runtime = 88 min.
released = December 23, 1958
country = United States
language = English
followed_by = "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad"
imdb_id = 0051337
amg_id = 1:43875
budget =

"The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" is a 1958 Technicolor fantasy film released by Columbia Pictures, directed by Nathan H. Juran, and was the first of Columbia's "Sinbad trilogy" conceptualized and animated by Ray Harryhausen (the others being "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad" and "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger").

While similarly named, the film does not follow the plot of the tale "The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor."

Plot

Legendary adventurer Sinbad the Sailor (Kerwin Matthews) and his crew land on a island for provisions. While exploring, Sinbad encounters Sokurah the magician (Torin Thatcher), fleeing from a giant cyclops. They are able to escape, but Sokurah drops his magic lamp when the cyclops throws a boulder into the sea, overturning their boat. The cyclops finds and keeps the lamp. Though Sokurah offers Sinbad much to get it back for him, Sinbad refuses. He and his fiancé, Princess Parisa (Kathryn Grant), are on their way to Bagdad to be married, to cement ties between their two nations.

When the Caliph of Bagdad (Alec Mango) refuses to provide Sokurah a ship and crew to retrieve his treasure, the magician secretly shrinks Parisa to the size of a hand. Sokurah claims that he knows of a potion that can restore her, but it requires a piece of the eggshell of a roc, a giant, two-headed bird that coincidentally nests on the island of the cyclops. The caliph has no choice but to provide a ship. Sinbad enlists his loyal men from the previous voyage, but they are not enough, so he also has to recruit thieves and murderers from the Caliph's prison.

When they reach the island, the cutthroats mutiny and capture Sokurah, Sinbad, and his men. However, screaming demons madden the crew, and the ship is in danger of being dashed upon the rocks. One of the mutineers releases Sinbad so he can save the ship. Afterwards, Sinbad regains control of the men.

On the island, Sokurah insists on splitting into two groups, so that if one is caught, the other can try to rescue them. Indeed, Sinbad's party is captured by the cyclops. Sokurah finds them, but refuses to release the prisoners from their wooden cage, instead going on to retrieve the magic lamp. The cyclops chases him, forcing him to drop the lamp. Meanwhile, Sinbad slips Parisa between the bars and she unlatches the cage. Sinbad manages to blind the cyclops and trick it into falling off a cliff to its death.

Sinbad still needs Sokurah to guide him, but keeps the lamp, though he does not know how to use it. Parisa suggests she enter the lamp. Inside, she talks to the boy genie (Richard Eyer). He tells her how to summon him in return for a promise to try to free him.

The party reaches the roc's nest, just as a giant hatchling emerges from its shell. They kill it for food, which results in an attack by the infuriated parent. In the confusion, Sokurah abducts the Princess and takes her to his underground fortress.

Sinbad follows, slipping past the chained guardian dragon. Sokurah restores Parisa to her normal size in return for the lamp. However, he reneges, animating a skeleton swordsman (an effect Ray Harryhausen would reuse in "Jason and the Argonauts"), but Sinbad defeats it. He and the Princess flee. As they cross over a river of molten lava, Parisa recalls part of the prophesy the genie told her about. She persuades Sinbad to throw the lamp into the lava, releasing the genie from his slavery.

Sokurah releases his dragon and pursues, but the monster is delayed when it has to fight another cyclops. Sinbad has time to organize his men to slay the fire-breathing creature with an enormous crossbow, a weapon ironically designed by Sokurah. The mortally-wounded beast falls on Sokurah, killing him. Sinbad, Parisa, and the other survivors depart, joined by the genie, Sinbad's new cabin boy.

Cast

*Kerwin Mathews as Sinbad
*Kathryn Grant as Princess Parisa
*Richard Eyer as Baronni, the genie
*Torin Thatcher as Sokurah
*Alec Mango as the Caliph of Bagdad
*Harold Kasket as the Sultan, Parisa's father
*Alfred Brown as Harufa, Sinbad's loyal right hand man

Production

It took Ray Harryhausen 11 months to complete the animation sequences for the film.

Harryhausen gave the cyclops furry goat legs and cloven hooves, an idea lifted from his first concept of the ymir (the monster from "20 Million Miles to Earth"). Interestingly, he used the same armature for both creatures.

He researched the cobra-woman sequence (when Sakourah entertains the Caliph and the Sultan) by watching a real belly dancer in Beirut, Lebanon. During the performance Harryhausen says "smoke was coming up [my] jacket. [I] thought [I] was on fire! It turned out the gentleman behind [me] was smoking a hookah!" The cyclops is the film's most popular character, but Harryhausen's personal favorite was the snakewoman, a combination of Princess Parisa's maid, Sadi, and a cobra.Fact|date=August 2007

The film's original script had a climax that involved two cyclopes fighting. However in the final version, the climactic battle featured a cyclops versus a dragon. The model of the dragon was over three feet long and very difficult to animate; the fight took two to three weeks of Harryhausen's time. Originally it was planned to have the dragon breathing fire out of its mouth during the sequence, but the cost would have been too high. For the scenes where the dragon does breathe fire, Harryhausen used a flamethrower against a night sky and shot it out about 30 to 40 feet, then superimposed the shot in the area close to the dragon's mouth.

The term "Dynamation" was first used for this film.

Critical reception

The film was, and continues to be, well-reviewed by critics and audiences alike. It has a rare 100% rating at the aggregate movie review website RottenTomatoes.com, [cite web |url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/seventh_voyage_of_sinbad/ |title=The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958) |publisher=rottentomatoes.com] with several reviewers citing its nostalgic value. Critic Ken Hanke calls it "Childhood memory stuff of the most compelling kind".

ee also

*List of stop-motion films

References

External links

*tcmdb title|id=89679
* [http://www.altfg.com/blog/classics/the-7th-voyage-of-sinbad-nathan-juran/ DVD review of film at Alternative Film Guide]
* [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/seventh_voyage_of_sinbad/ Reviews at RottenTomatoes.com]
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1268062456286009012 Google Video]