The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
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The 7th Voyage of Sinbad Movie Review
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad is a 1958 fantasy adventure film directed by Nathan H. Juran and starring Kerwin Mathews. It’s a very fun genre flick.
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“I cannot return to the real world until
I am called by my name… Barani“
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When a princess is shrunken by an evil wizard, Sinbad must undertake a quest to an island of monsters to cure her and prevent a war. This is one of those old-fashioned adventure flicks that aged badly in some respects, but wonderfully in others. It’s a live-action film, but one that features a significant usage of stop-motion animation. That animation was done by the great Ray Harryhausen, so of course it looks splendid.
The cyclops look like Pan, but still they were very interesting in design and movements. Other creatures that were quite cool include a two-headed bird and a skeleton warrior. The skeleton using a sword made for instantly iconic imagery that will prove to be so influential in the decades to come. The creatures were uniformly well designed and their movements were solid, though a bit rough around the edges. The miniaturization effects were superb and so were the scenes featuring magic of any kind – it’s such a colorful feature.
Kerwin Mathews is a very charismatic lead here. He’s excellent at action set pieces and quite a dashing hero for sure. I just wished that he got more characterization as the character development is quite weak in this film. The princess character was overly one-note in her infatuation with him. The Genie being a kid was an interesting angle. Sokurah the wizard is by far the most interesting personality here. Torin Thatcher over-acted the hell out of this role, but this is still a very memorable, fun villain with cool powers and schemes.
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The 7th Voyage of Sinbad has somewhat of a workmanlike pace and structure to it, but it still worked because most of the plot points were so darn entertaining. This is a spirited adventure story, but also a high fantasy one. It’s rare to find a film of any era, especially from this period, that is filled with a scene after scene of pure genre spectacle. The score is rousing, the production design is terrific and the movie is quite epic in scope. It’s thinly plotted, but involving. It lacks ambition in terms of storytelling, but it’s difficult not to be swept by its magic.
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad has a thin, standard plot and weak characterization, but it’s hard not to be swept by its magic. This is a rare movie that is filled with fantastical elements in almost its every sequence. It’s a spirited adventure and a high fantasy flick that is populated by excellent-looking creatures, courtesy of the great Ray Harryhausen. It’s an epic genre spectacle for sure.
My Rating – 4
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