1958’s The 7th Voyage of Sinbad counts as a classic for its era, and it delivered a fantasy epic driven by Ray Harryhausen’s excellent stop motion work.
What Is It?
This movie follows the legendary sailor Sinbad as he embarks on a perilous journey to the island of Colossa to restore Princess Parisa, who has been magically shrunk by the evil sorcerer Sokurah. To return her to her normal size, Sinbad must retrieve a piece of the Roc’s eggshell from the island and then rely on Sokurah to cast the proper spell. But Sinbad and his crew face numerous dangers along the way, including battling a Cyclops, a dragon, the undead, and other dangerous mythical creatures.
Cast: Kerwin Mathews, Kathryn Grant, Richard Eyer, Torin Thatcher
Crew: Nathan H. Juran (Director), Kenneth Kolb (Writer), Ray Harryhausen (Special Effects/Associate Producer), Charles H. Schneer (Executive Producer)
Original Release: 1958
Legacy:
This classic from a past age may have been overshadowed by the many big-budget features from the Blockbuster Era, but it should be recognized for providing a special effects extravaganza for its day and setting a high bar for genre films.
A Closer Look:
Audiences who have been jaded by CGI-overload from Hollywood over the past twenty-plus years may look at The 7th Voyage of Sinbad as a quaint film from a different era that does not hold up to modern standards for special effects. But the fact is that this Ray Harryhausen production was very much a blockbuster for its day and set a pretty high standard for sci-fi and fantasy movies. There had been some “big-budget” genre entries from earlier in the decade, such as When Worlds Collide (1951), The War of the Worlds (1953), and Forbidden Planet (1956), and sword and sandal epics such as Samson and Delilah (1949), The Ten Commandments (1956), and Ben-Hur (1959) were common at that time as well. But The 7th Voyage of Sinbad delivered a full-on fantasy epic with evil wizards, mythical creatures, and monsters along with plenty of swashbuckling adventure.
As far as the story of the movie, it is pretty straightforward, drawing some elements from the One Thousand and One Nights source material, while also taking plenty of liberties. It throws in the standard evil sorcerer (who tries to pose as an ally but works against the hero as he pursues his own agenda) as an antagonist. But unlike earlier movie versions of the character (such as 1947’s Sinbad the Sailor), it adds plenty of mythical creatures for the hero to do battle with because it has Ray Harryhausen onboard to bring them to life. The cast is fairly standard for its era, with the very Caucasian Kerwin Mathews, Kathryn Grant, and Torin Thatcher all portraying their Arabic lead roles with the help of a little bit of makeup. And most of the rest of the actors are just there as fodder, dying off quickly as they face the many perils encountered on the voyage.
What really makes this film stand out is the excellent stop-motion work by Ray Harryhausen, who was really starting to hit his stride as a producer of movie magic (which you can tell from the trailer above that emphasizes the use of Dynamation). With The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, he delivered several classic monsters such as the Cyclops, the giant Roc, and the skeleton warrior (the latter would prove so popular that he would resurrect it seven-fold in Jason and the Argonauts). And his creatures put an emphasis on the fantasy elements and helped the film really stand out as a big screen event when it first hit the theaters, setting itself apart notably from the many B-Movies that dominated the genre.
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad certainly counts as a fantasy classic, but because it was made in a different era and the special effects don’t match up to modern-day CGI, it has been relegated to the list of oldies but goodies. Still, Harryhausen’s stop-motion work was the height of movie magic for its day, and this film stands out as a great accomplishment. It may have become more of a cult favorite these days, but it is worth seeking out.
The Story Continues:
Ray Harryhausen and Charles H. Schneer would produce two sequels to The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, though those would not hit the theaters until the 1970s. The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973) follows the famous sailor as he sets off on a perilous journey to find a mythical island and restore a magical fountain that promises eternal youth and prosperity. He must deal with the treacherous sorcerer Koura and also face off against a centaur, a griffin, the six-armed statue of Kali, and more.
Then in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977), our hero sets out on a dangerous quest to break a curse that has turned Prince Kassim, the rightful heir to the throne, into a baboon. Alongside the prince’s sister, Princess Farah, and a mystical alchemist named Melanthius, Sinbad travels to the far-off land of Hyperborea to find a way to reverse the curse, all while being pursued by the evil sorceress Zenobia, who wants to prevent Kassim from claiming the throne. In that one, Sinbad faces such Harryhausen creations as a troglodyte, a saber-toothed tiger, and a giant bronze minotaur.
A fourth film in the series was planned, and work began on that in 1977. Titled Sinbad Goes to Mars, it would have followed the sailor as he makes a John Carter-style trip to the Red Planet (Harryhausen had previously wanted to adapt A Princess of Mars). Following is the synopsis from the book Harryhausen: The Lost Movies:
In Egypt, the Caliph of Alexandria’s daughter is kidnapped near a pyramid. Sinbad is sent to rescue her, and within the pyramid, he discovers that the princess has been spirited away to Mars. When Sinbad arrives there too, he sees a planet overrun by giant moths and ruled by an evil queen obsessed with her search for immortality.
The creatures that Sinbad would have encountered included the giant moths, a three-armed genie, a Martian sphinx, a giant eel, and a man-eating plant (the latter based on a sequence cut from The Mysterious Island). The film would have also included space battles and probably would have done well in theaters following the wake of popularity of 1977’s Star Wars. But Harryhausen would turn his attention instead to The Clash of the Titans, and Sinbad Goes to Mars never moved forward. A comic book adaptation did come out in 2010, and that has since been collected as a graphic novel.
Should It Be Rebooted?
As mentioned above, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad counts as a classic, and you could definitely argue that it should be left alone. However, seeing as its special effects will seem dated to many modern-day viewers, there is an argument for redoing it with CGI or (preferably) a combination of stop-motion and CGI. It could even turn into a franchise if it charts the same course of sequels as the original film. But my concern on a reboot is whether it will descend into CGI overload. Just take a look at the mostly forgettable 2010 reboot of Clash of the Titans to understand what I mean. Hollywood has become too focused on the blockbuster aspect of movies and not so much on telling a good story, so I worry where they would go with a reboot of the film. Still, if the right creative team was brought onboard, they could pay homage to the original while also making a movie that modern audiences would enjoy.
Interesting Facts:
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad proved popular at the box office, and producer Edward Small started work on his own fantasy epic for the big screen, Jack the Giant Killer. He tried to lure over Ray Harryhausen, but the stop-motion master was busy with other projects. So Small did the next best thing and hired two of the lead actors from Sinbad. Kerwin Mathews would take up the lead role and Torin Thatcher would play the evil sorcerer Pendragon.
This was the first feature-length film using stop-motion to be shot in color, and it is also the first time Harryhausen used the term “Dynamation” to refer to his special effects work. Starting with this movie, Harryhausen would shift away from the science fiction of his earlier films and would mostly focus on fantasy through the rest of his career.
Where Can You Watch It?
The film has been released on DVD and Blu-ray, and it is also available to purchase VOD. It is currently streaming for free (with ads) on Tubi TV.
Stream or Purchase VOD
