Sinbad (Kerwin Mathews) happens upon the island of Colossa, where the magician Sokurah (Torin Thatcher) is running from a giant cyclops. Sinbad rescues Sokurah, but the sorcerer drops a magic lamp containing a genie (Richard Eyer). When Sokurah can get no help in returning to the island, he secretly shrinks Sinbad’s fiancée, Princess Parisa (Kathryn Grant), and then claims that the only way to return her to normal is to sail to Colossa.
A special effects extravaganza, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad is fun in the same way most effects-filled films are, and has all the normal flaws, and then some. It features the stop-motion creations of Ray Harryhausen, and those, and the bombastic score by Bernard Herrmann are the only reason to watch. In his first color film, Harryhausen creates a giant horned cyclops, a dragon, a two-headed roc, and a sword-wielding skeleton. They are monsters that any child will remember for a lifetime. There is also a less successful snake-woman, but she’s not bad, and there’s another horned cyclops to make up for her. These creatures get a decent amount of screen time, and while they are there, this is top flight family entertainment.
But the movie can be confusing to anyone who’s been told that Arabia isn’t just north of Oklahoma. It makes one ask questions, such as: What is an Aryan dude doing in Baghdad and how does he get away with calling himself Sinbad? Shouldn’t Sinbad be an Arab? Or at least Middle Eastern? And why does he have absolutely no sense of humor? And cut his hair like he’s doing his best to fit in on an episode of Father Knows Best? Also, why does an Arabian princess look and act like a hot American college girl going to the big dance? Then there is the genie. Should a genie be a preadolescent white kid who is obviously reading everything he is saying?
I also wonder why Sokurah, who is an Arab via Germany, has massive powers to control dragons and skeletons, as well as shrink a girl without effort, but can’t come up with a a spell to generate some cash to pay for a ship back to his own island. Of course he does live on an island filled with monsters, so maybe he’s just not that bright. That would explain his plan to get the cyclopes to drink a drug, and his idea to build an unwieldy catapult (is that really an effective weapon against giants if they don’t decide to step in front of it?). His excess of personality and tendency to scowl evilly while others are looking is also a detriment to ever becoming head of the local evil sorcerers guild. But I suppose he must compensate since everyone around him has no discernible personality (someone needs to check Sinbad’s pulse from time-to-time to make sure he is still alive).
With a plot filled with holes, characters who are mentally incompetent, miscast stars, and no noticeable directing, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad is remembered as a vehicle for Harryhausen. His work is good enough to make me enjoy catching this on Saturday afternoon TV.
Ray Harryhausen’s other features are The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955), Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers (1956), 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957), The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960), Mysterious Island (1961), The Valley of Gwangi (1969), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973), Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977), and Clash of the Titans (1981).