The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)

Directed by: Nathan Juran | 88 minutes | action, adventure, fantasy | Actors: Kerwin Matthews, Torin Thatcher, Kathryn Grant, Richard Eyer, Alec Mango, Danny Green, Harold Kasket, Alfred Brown, Nana DeHerrera, Nino Falanga, Louis Guedes, Virgilio Teixeira

‘The 7th Voyage of Sinbad’ was Harryhausen’s first Sinbad film and was a huge success with critics and audiences alike. Harryhausen had previously made many films with just a single monster, usually to destroy a city, but wanted to break new ground with this film. He wanted to show that stop motion animation could be versatile, and that there was really room for his creatures in “worthy” films, which can be screened as a main feature. Also with ‘The 7th Voyage of Sinbad’ came his wish to put not one but a whole series of creatures in a movie.

Luckily the producers let him do his thing, because it allowed us to enjoy movies with a diverse collection of animated characters (as we can often call them that) over and over again. Whether ‘The 7th Voyage of Sinbad’ is ultimately Harryhausen’s best Sinbad film is debatable, although this is the general opinion. It will partly depend on the audience involvement with regard to the romance between Sinbad and his quickly thumb-sized fiancée. A large part of the film is taken up by the worries and expressions of love of this two. For people into this kind of cheesy goo (with romantic statements like “Your eyes are mightier than all your father’s kingdoms”), the film may feel like a nice revival of romances in old stories. For the rest, especially for those coming for Harryhausen and some old-fashioned adventure, these scenes will cause unnecessary delay. Fortunately, things get interesting when Sinbad and his buddies encounter a Cyclops who captures them. It is a beautifully animated beast, which visibly takes pleasure in plucking its “food” one by one from the cage. The dragon and the two-headed birds they encounter are also very amusing. The dragon comes across especially well in his breakout from the cave and battle with the cyclops.

The acting is often mediocre. Matthews is an unconvincing Sinbad, and his damsel in distress Kathryn Grant often laughs with her pulpy approach, which is sometimes forgivable given the genre. Torin Thatcher is fortunately successful as the sneaky magician who manages to trick Sinbad.

The biggest sin is the fact that the movie’s iconic scene was initially cut. This is about a beautiful sword fight between Sinbad and a skeleton on a spiral staircase (which would later be extensively redone with seven skeletons in ‘Jason and the Argonauts’). It’s the climax of the film, and was in fact the scene Harryhausen had built the entire film around. Even if you don’t know which scene is missing, it’s obvious that something is missing. Very abruptly, the scene is cut from an interior scene to a moment on a bridge that makes the viewer throw his hands in the air questioningly. It could very well be that this particular scene makes the difference between an (overall) satisfying and unsatisfactory film. So be sure to see the full version.