''Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger'' is a 1977
fantasy film
Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered a form of speculative fiction alongside science fiction f ...
directed by
Sam Wanamaker
Samuel Wanamaker, (born Wattenmacker; June 14, 1919 – December 18, 1993) was an American actor and director who moved to the United Kingdom after becoming fearful of being blacklisted in Hollywood due to his communist views. He is credited as ...
and featuring
stop-motion
Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...
effects by
Ray Harryhausen
Raymond Frederick Harryhausen (June 29, 1920 – May 7, 2013) was an American-British animator and special effects creator who created a form of stop motion model animation known as "Dynamation". His works include the animation for '' Might ...
. The film stars
Patrick Wayne
Patrick John Morrison (born July 15, 1939), better known by his stage name Patrick Wayne, is an American actor. He is the second son of movie star John Wayne and his first wife, Josephine Alicia Saenz. He made over 40 films, including eleven w ...
,
Taryn Power
Taryn Stephanie Power (September 13, 1953 – June 26, 2020) was an American actress.
Biography
Early life
Taryn was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1953, to actors Tyrone Power and Linda Christian.Deutsch, Linda (Associated Press)(2 Janua ...
,
Jane Seymour
Jane Seymour (c. 150824 October 1537) was List of English consorts, Queen of England as the third wife of King Henry VIII of England from their Wives of Henry VIII, marriage on 30 May 1536 until her death the next year. She became queen followi ...
and
Patrick Troughton
Patrick George Troughton (; 25 March 1920 – 28 March 1987) was an English actor who was classically trained for the stage but became known for his roles in television and film. His work included appearances in several fantasy, science fiction ...
. The third and final ''Sinbad'' film released by
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
, it follows ''
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
''The 7th Voyage of Sinbad'' is a 1958 Technicolor heroic fantasy adventure film directed by Nathan H. Juran and starring Kerwin Mathews, Torin Thatcher, Kathryn Grant, Richard Eyer, and Alec Mango. It was distributed by Columbia Pictures ...
'' (1958) and ''
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
''The Golden Voyage of Sinbad'' is a 1973 fantasy film, fantasy adventure film directed by Gordon Hessler and featuring stop motion effects by Ray Harryhausen. Based on the ''Arabian Nights'' tales of Sinbad the Sailor, it is the second of thre ...
'' (1973).
Plot
In the kingdom of Charak, a celebration is taking place for the coronation of Prince Kassim, but Kassim's evil stepmother, Zenobia, places a curse on him just as he is going to be crowned
Caliph
A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...
. Sinbad, a sailor and Prince of
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
, moors at Charak some time later, intent on seeking permission from Prince Kassim to marry Kassim's sister, Princess Farah, but finds the city under curfew. Sinbad and his men are offered hospitality by a man named Rafi, but during their meal one of Sinbad's crew is poisoned and the rest are attacked by Rafi, who is Zenobia's son. Sinbad defeats him, but Zenobia summons a trio of
ghoul
A ghoul ( ar, غول, ') is a demon-like being or monstrous humanoid. The concept originated in pre-Islamic Arabian religion, associated with graveyards and the consumption of human flesh. Modern fiction often uses the term to label a cert ...
s, which attack Sinbad and his men. Sinbad disposes of the ghouls by crushing them under a pile of huge logs.
Sinbad meets with Farah, who believes that Kassim's curse is one of Zenobia's spells, and unless Kassim is cured within seven moons, then Zenobia's son Rafi will become caliph instead. Sinbad, Farah and Sinbad's crew set off to find the old
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
alchemist
Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscience, protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in Chinese alchemy, C ...
Melanthius, a
hermit
A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions.
Description
In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Ch ...
on the island of Casgar, who is said to know how to break curses, and Farah brings with her a
huge prehistoric baboon, who is really Kassim, transformed by Zenobia's curse. Zenobia and Rafi follow in a boat propelled by the Minoton, a magical bronze automaton created by the sorceress with the appearance of a
minotaur
In Greek mythology, the Minotaur ( , ;. grc, ; in Latin as ''Minotaurus'' ) is a mythical creature portrayed during classical antiquity with the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, a being "pa ...
.
Sinbad and Farah land at Casgar and find Melanthius and his daughter Dione, who agree to help them. Melanthius says they must travel to the land of
Hyperborea
In Greek mythology, the Hyperboreans ( grc, Ὑπερβόρε(ι)οι, ; la, Hyperborei) were a mythical people who lived in the far northern part of the known world. Their name appears to derive from the Greek , "beyond Boreas" (the God of ...
where the ancient civilization of the Arimaspi once existed. On the way to Hyperborea, Kassim enjoys having Dione's company and develops a love interest towards her.
Zenobia uses a potion to transform herself into a seagull to spy on Sinbad. Once aboard his ship, she turns into a miniature human and listens as Melanthius tells Sinbad how to cure Kassim. Alerted by Kassim, Melanthius and Sinbad capture Zenobia. Unfortunately, her potion vial spills and a wasp ingests some of it. The wasp grows to enormous size and attacks the two men, but Sinbad kills it. Zenobia uses her remaining potion to become a seagull again and fly back to her own ship, but with not enough potion left, the lower part of her right leg remains a seagull's foot.
After a long voyage, Sinbad's ship reaches the north polar wastelands. Sinbad and his crew trek across the ice to the land of the
Arimaspi
The Arimaspi (also Arimaspians, Arimaspos, and Arimaspoi; grc, Ἀριμασπός, Ἀριμασποί) were a legendary tribe of one-eyed people of northern Scythia who lived in the foothills of the Riphean Mountains, variously identified with ...
, but are attacked by a giant
walrus
The walrus (''Odobenus rosmarus'') is a large pinniped, flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in ...
. It destroys most of their supplies and kills two men, but Sinbad and the others fend it off with spears. Zenobia uses an ice tunnel to reach the land of the Arimaspi, and she, Rafi and the Minoton climb subterranean stairs to emerge in the warm, Mediterranean-like valley above.
Sinbad and his crew also reach the valley. While resting, they encounter a
troglodyte
A troglodyte is a human cave dweller, from the Greek 'hole, mouse-hole' and 'go in, dive in'.
Troglodyte and derived forms may also refer to:
Historiography
* ''Troglodytae'' or ''Troglodyti'', an ancient group of people from the African Red ...
, an , fur-covered
caveman
The caveman is a stock character representative of primitive humans in the Paleolithic. The popularization of the type dates to the early 20th century, when Neanderthals were influentially described as " simian" or "ape-like" by Marcellin ...
-like being with a single horn on the top of its head. The troglodyte proves not dangerous, but rather friendly. The adventurers name him Trog for short, and he leads them to the giant pyramidal shrine of the Arimaspi. Zenobia and Rafi arrive at the shrine first, but as she has no key to enter, Zenobia orders the Minoton to remove a block of stone from the pyramid's wall. He succeeds, but the block crushes the Minoton and destabilizes the pyramids structure and thus the shrine's power.
Sinbad and his friends arrive minutes later and enter the shrine's main chamber, the interior of which is covered in ice and is guarded by "The Guardian of the Shrine", a
smilodon
''Smilodon'' is a genus of the extinct machairodont subfamily of the felids. It is one of the most famous prehistoric mammals and the best known saber-toothed cat. Although commonly known as the saber-toothed tiger, it was not closely related ...
frozen in a block of ice. Zenobia orders Rafi to attack Melanthius and is about to stab Dione with a knife, but Rafi is attacked by Kassim and is killed falling down the temple stairs. Momentarily overcome with grief, Zenobia cradles her son while Sinbad and Melanthius raise Kassim into the column of light at the top of the shrine, which breaks the spell on him. Seeing Kassim restored to human form, Zenobia transfers her spirit into the smilodon. Breaking free of its icy prison, the giant tiger attacks the group, but Trog engages the smilodon in combat wielding Minoton's spear. Initially gaining the upper hand, Trog is disarmed, overcome and killed. Sinbad and his men fight against the beast, but find themselves outmatched. The smilodon attacks Sinbad, who impales it on Minoton's spear, killing both it and Zenobia. The adventurers flee the temple as it collapses, becoming buried in snow and ice as the Mediterranean-like atmosphere disappears and is replaced by the freezing polar winds.
Sinbad, Kassim, Farah, Melanthius and Dione return home just in time for Kassim to be crowned Caliph. Amidst the celebration, the film fades to black and the eyes of Zenobia appear on the screen.
Cast
*
Patrick Wayne
Patrick John Morrison (born July 15, 1939), better known by his stage name Patrick Wayne, is an American actor. He is the second son of movie star John Wayne and his first wife, Josephine Alicia Saenz. He made over 40 films, including eleven w ...
as Sinbad
*
Taryn Power
Taryn Stephanie Power (September 13, 1953 – June 26, 2020) was an American actress.
Biography
Early life
Taryn was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1953, to actors Tyrone Power and Linda Christian.Deutsch, Linda (Associated Press)(2 Janua ...
as Dione
*
Margaret Whiting
Margaret Eleanor Whiting (July 22, 1924 – January 10, 2011) was an American popular music and country music singer who gained popularity in the 1940s and 1950s.Mapes, Jillian.Margaret Whiting, Iconic Standards Singer, Dies at 86. ''Billboard' ...
as Zenobia
*
Jane Seymour
Jane Seymour (c. 150824 October 1537) was List of English consorts, Queen of England as the third wife of King Henry VIII of England from their Wives of Henry VIII, marriage on 30 May 1536 until her death the next year. She became queen followi ...
as Farah
*
Patrick Troughton
Patrick George Troughton (; 25 March 1920 – 28 March 1987) was an English actor who was classically trained for the stage but became known for his roles in television and film. His work included appearances in several fantasy, science fiction ...
as Melanthius
*
Kurt Christian as Rafi
*
Nadim Sawalha
Nadim Joakim Sawalha ( ar, نديم صوالحة) (born 9 September 1935) is a Jordanian-British actor, the father of actresses Nadia and Julia Sawalha. He appeared in two Bond films, '' The Spy Who Loved Me'' (1977) and '' The Living Daylights' ...
as Hassan
*
Damien Thomas
Damien Thomas (born 1942 or 1943) is a British actor noted for his roles in British films and television, such as his role as Father Martin Alvito in the 1980 hit miniseries ''Shōgun'' and as Richard Mason in the 1983 BBC production of ''Jane ...
as Kassim
*
Bruno Barnabe
Bruno Bianco Alberto G. G. Barnabe (3 April 1905 – 20 June 1998) was an English film and stage actor. He performed in the West End, on Broadway, and in Egypt, Australia and New Zealand.
Biography
Barnabe was born in St Giles, London o ...
as Balsora
*
Bernard Kay
Bernard Frederic Bemrose Kay (23 February 1928 – 25 December 2014) was an English actor with an extensive theatre, television, and film repertoire.
Career
Kay began his working life as a reporter for the ''Bolton Evening News'', and a str ...
as Zabid
* Salami Coker as Maroof
*
David Sterne
David Sterne (born 1946) is an English actor. He has appeared in more than 90 films since 1973.
After leaving the British Army, Sterne trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. A former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company
...
as Aboo-Seer
*
Peter Mayhew
Peter William Mayhew (19 May 1944 – 30 April 2019) was a British-American actor. He was best known for portraying Chewbacca in the ''Star Wars'' film series. He played the character in all of his live-action appearances from the 1977 origin ...
as Minoton
Production
The strong box office success of ''
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
''The Golden Voyage of Sinbad'' is a 1973 fantasy film, fantasy adventure film directed by Gordon Hessler and featuring stop motion effects by Ray Harryhausen. Based on the ''Arabian Nights'' tales of Sinbad the Sailor, it is the second of thre ...
'' led Columbia Pictures executives to begin work on a third Sinbad motion picture with the second still in theatrical release. The plan was to move away from some of the
legendary creature
A legendary creature (also mythical or mythological creature) is a type of fictional entity, typically a hybrid, that has not been proven and that is described in folklore
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses ...
s which had been features of previous films and use more recognizable
prehistoric
Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...
animals.
[Webber, Roy P. ''The Dinosaur Films of Ray Harryhausen: Features, Early 16mm Experiments and Unrealized Projects.'' Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 2004, p. 193.]
Schneer had worked with Sam Wanamaker on ''The Executioner'' and hired him for this because "I wanted an actor's director for Eye of the Tiger, to see if we could get more dimension out of other-wise cardboard characters. Sam didn't have to handle any of the technical aspects of the picture. He merely had to pay attention to them. Within the parameters of the technical work, he directed the dramatic sections. The technical work was carried out by Ray and me."
Legendarily tall () performer
Peter Mayhew
Peter William Mayhew (19 May 1944 – 30 April 2019) was a British-American actor. He was best known for portraying Chewbacca in the ''Star Wars'' film series. He played the character in all of his live-action appearances from the 1977 origin ...
made an unbilled acting debut in the film in some live-action sequences as the Minoton, while Patrick Troughton (who had played the
harpy
In Greek mythology and Roman mythology, a harpy (plural harpies, , ; lat, harpȳia) is a half-human and half-bird personification of storm winds. They feature in Homeric poems.
Descriptions
They were generally depicted as birds with the hea ...
-plagued blind
Phineus
In Greek mythology, Phineus (; Ancient Greek: Φινεύς, ) or Phineas, was a king of Salmydessus in Thrace and seer, who appears in accounts of the Argonauts' voyage. Some accounts make him a king in PaphlagoniaScholia on Apollonius of Rhode ...
in Harryhausen's 1963 film, ''
Jason and the Argonauts'') played Melanthius.
Kurt Christian, who played one of Sinbad's men in ''The Golden Voyage of Sinbad'', switched sides and played Zenobia's evil son Rafi.
Patrick Wayne's casting was announced in May 1975, when Columbia said the director would be
Sam Wanamaker
Samuel Wanamaker, (born Wattenmacker; June 14, 1919 – December 18, 1993) was an American actor and director who moved to the United Kingdom after becoming fearful of being blacklisted in Hollywood due to his communist views. He is credited as ...
.
Schneer said "I thought we would have some chemistry with John Wayne's son and Tyrone Power's daughter, so I put them together. Pat did the best he could, but, frankly, he was only adequate. We had him grow a beard, and he looked fine, but as soon as he opened his mouth, we were in trouble."
The film went into production under the working title ''Sinbad at the World's End''. The live action was filmed in
Almería
Almería (, , ) is a city and municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of the same name. It lies on southeastern Iberia on the Mediterranean Sea. Caliph Abd al-Rahman III founded the city in 955. The city gr ...
, Spain;
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
; and
Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
.
[Van Gelder, Lawrence. "Kids Will Like Third 'Sinbad'." ''The New York Times.'' 13 August 1977.] The treasury house of
Al Khazneh
Al-Khazneh ( ar, الخزنة; "The Treasury") is one of the most elaborate temples in Petra, a city of the Nabatean Kingdom inhabited by the Arabs in ancient times. As with most of the other buildings in this ancient town, including the Monast ...
at
Petra
Petra ( ar, ٱلْبَتْرَاء, Al-Batrāʾ; grc, Πέτρα, "Rock", Nabataean Aramaic, Nabataean: ), originally known to its inhabitants as Raqmu or Raqēmō, is an historic and archaeological city in southern Jordan. It is adjacent to t ...
makes an appearance in one scene. Several castles near
Mdina
Mdina ( mt, L-Imdina ; phn, 𐤌𐤋𐤈, Maleṭ; grc, Μελίττη, Melite (ancient city), Melíttē; ar, مدينة, Madīnah; ), also known by its Italian-language titles ("Old City") and ("Notable City"), is a fortifications of Mdin ...
, Malta, were used as backdrops for the film and inserted using triple-exposure, and scenes of ships at sea were filmed in a huge water tank there. Most interior sequences were shot on a soundstage of Verona Studios near
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
(Spain). Principal filming took place between June and October 1975. Some sets were based on previous films in a wide variety of genres. The massive doors and deadbolt to the ancient shrine of the
Arimaspi
The Arimaspi (also Arimaspians, Arimaspos, and Arimaspoi; grc, Ἀριμασπός, Ἀριμασποί) were a legendary tribe of one-eyed people of northern Scythia who lived in the foothills of the Riphean Mountains, variously identified with ...
in the
arctic
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...
were based on a similar set of doors in 1933's ''
King Kong
King Kong is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. He has been dubbed The Eighth Wonder of the World, a phrase commonly used within the franchise. His first appearance was in the novelizat ...
''. The interior of the shrine was very similar to the shrine set in the 1935 motion picture ''
She
She most commonly refers to:
*She (pronoun), the third person singular, feminine, nominative case pronoun in modern English.
She or S.H.E. may also refer to:
Literature and films
*'' She: A History of Adventure'', an 1887 novel by H. Rider Hagga ...
'', complete with steep pyramidal steps, a vortex of light coming from above, and a
smilodon
''Smilodon'' is a genus of the extinct machairodont subfamily of the felids. It is one of the most famous prehistoric mammals and the best known saber-toothed cat. Although commonly known as the saber-toothed tiger, it was not closely related ...
encased in ice.
[Webber, p. 196.] The power source of the shrine of Arimaspi was actually made of dental floss. Harryhausen and the crew mounted dozens of floss fiber strands around a cylinder-like construction made of gauze, and this was mounted on a revolving mechanism and put in front of black velvet. It was then pulled out of focus to create shimmering and an inky light was run up and down the system to give it reflections.
Harryhausen originally planned for an
Arsinoitherium
''Arsinoitherium'' is an extinct genus of paenungulate mammals belonging to the extinct Order (biology), order Embrithopoda. It is related to elephants, sirenians, hyraxes and the extinct desmostylians. Arsinoitheres were superficially rhinoceros ...
to make an appearance in the film. The massive, two-horned prehistoric rhinoceros-like creature was intended to fight the
troglodyte
A troglodyte is a human cave dweller, from the Greek 'hole, mouse-hole' and 'go in, dive in'.
Troglodyte and derived forms may also refer to:
Historiography
* ''Troglodytae'' or ''Troglodyti'', an ancient group of people from the African Red ...
in Hyperborea's land before the latter meeting with the protagonists. Harryhausen did preproduction designs showing the beast defeating the troglodyte, then getting caught and dying in a pool of hot tar.
Harryhausen also said he planned to have Sinbad and his crew fight a
yeti
The Yeti ()["Yeti"](_blank)
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. is an ape-like creature purported t ...
in the arctic, but that idea was ultimately rejected in favor of a giant walrus. Other Harryhausen's ideas were a
woolly mammoth
The woolly mammoth (''Mammuthus primigenius'') is an extinct species of mammoth that lived during the Pleistocene until its extinction in the Holocene epoch. It was one of the last in a line of mammoth species, beginning with '' Mammuthus subp ...
as the creature which Sinbad's crew meet in the arctic. Harryhausen's
stop-motion
Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...
animation work lasted from October 1975 up to March 1977.
The stop-motion troglodyte figurine used in the film was later cannibalized to make the Calibos character in Harryhausen's 1981 film, ''
Clash of the Titans''.
The film featured a nude sunbathing scene by Jane Seymour. "The nudity came about in the development of the picture", said Schneer. "I wanted to keep up with those elements that had become plausible."
Home media
Blu-ray
''ALL America – Twilight Time – The Limited Edition Series''
* Picture Format: 1.85:1 (1080p 24fps)
VC MPEG-4* Soundtrack(s): English (DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1)
* Subtitles: English
* Extras:
* Isolated Score (DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1)
* This is Dynamation (Featurette) (3:25, 480p)
* Theatrical Trailer (2:15, 1080p)
* Case type: Keep Case
* Notes: Limited to 3,000 copies (none are numbered)
DVD
''R1 America – Columbia/Tri-star Home Entertainment''
* Picture Format: 1.85:1 (Anamorphic)
TSC TSC may refer to:
Organizations
* Technology Service Corporation, a US engineering company
* Terrorist Screening Center, a division of the National Security Branch of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation
* The Shopping Channel, a Canadian televi ...
* Soundtrack(s): English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono
* Subtitles: Chinese, English, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and Thai
* Extras:
* Theatrical trailer
* ''
Ray Harryhausen
Raymond Frederick Harryhausen (June 29, 1920 – May 7, 2013) was an American-British animator and special effects creator who created a form of stop motion model animation known as "Dynamation". His works include the animation for '' Might ...
Chronicles'' – Documentary (57:53 min.)
* ''This is Dynamation'' (vintage extended trailer, originally used as a teaser for ''The 7th Voyage of Sinbad'', 3:27 min.)
* Bonus trailers: ''
20 Million Miles to Earth
''20 Million Miles to Earth'' (also known as ''The Beast from Space'') is a 1957 American horror science fiction monster film directed by Nathan Juran and starring William Hopper, Joan Taylor, and Frank Puglia. It was produced by Charles H. Schn ...
'', ''
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
''The 7th Voyage of Sinbad'' is a 1958 Technicolor heroic fantasy adventure film directed by Nathan H. Juran and starring Kerwin Mathews, Torin Thatcher, Kathryn Grant, Richard Eyer, and Alec Mango. It was distributed by Columbia Pictures ...
'', ''
Jason and the Argonauts'', ''
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
''Earth vs. the Flying Saucers'' (a.k.a. ''Invasion of the Flying Saucers'' and ''Flying Saucers from Outer Space'') is a 1956 American science fiction film from Columbia Pictures. It was produced by Charles H. Schneer, directed by Fred F. Sears, ...
'' and ''
The 3 Worlds of Gulliver
''The 3 Worlds of Gulliver'' is a 1960 Eastmancolor Columbia Pictures fantasy film loosely based upon the 1726 novel ''Gulliver's Travels'' by Jonathan Swift. The film stars Kerwin Mathews as the title character, June Thorburn as his fiancée Eli ...
''
* Cast & crew filmographies and biographies
* Booklet, with production notes
* Case type: Keep Case
* Notes: Also in a 3-disc ''The Sinbad Collection'' box set, with ''
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
''The Golden Voyage of Sinbad'' is a 1973 fantasy film, fantasy adventure film directed by Gordon Hessler and featuring stop motion effects by Ray Harryhausen. Based on the ''Arabian Nights'' tales of Sinbad the Sailor, it is the second of thre ...
'' and ''The 7th Voyage of Sinbad''.
Critical reception
The film was released in the same summer as the original ''
Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
'' film, and suffered in comparison to that science fiction epic.
Reviewer
Lawrence Van Gelder
Lawrence Ralph Van Gelder (February 17, 1933 – March 11, 2016) was an American journalist and instructor in journalism who worked at several different New York City-based newspapers in his long career. Until 2010, he was senior editor of the Ar ...
, writing for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', called the acting "rudimentary", but found the film enjoyable: "...this latest Sinbad adventure maintains the innocent and atavistic juvenile charm of the others in the series."
Reviewer Lorna Sutton said the film was "pure escapist entertainment which doesn't require serious analysis or criticism." She found the film enjoyable, despite its flaws. "The plot is familiar, the characters are predictable and dialogue is trite. But the action and the special effects provide for a fast-paced two hours of entertainment."
Five years after its release, an anonymous reviewer for the ''
Ottawa Citizen
The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
History
Established as ''The Bytown Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris (journalist), William Harris, it was renamed the '' ...
'' described the film as a "bad umpteenth entry" in the series, and slowly paced. Linda Gross in the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' was kinder, declaring it "a fantasy laced with nostalgia and corn". In another retrospective review, Alan Jones of the ''
Radio Times
''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in May 1923 by J ...
'' awarded the film three stars out of five, arguing that it "may not be up to the standard of the previous two Sinbad adventures—it's too long and Patrick Wayne is a distinctly charisma-free hero—but there's still plenty of pleasure to be had from the special effects of Ray Harryhausen." ''
Halliwell's Film Guide
Robert James Leslie Halliwell (23 February 1929 – 21 January 1989) was a British film critic, encyclopaedist and television rights buyer for ITV, the British commercial network, and Channel 4. He is best known for his reference guides, '' Fil ...
'' described it as a "lumpish sequel to a sequel: even the animated monsters raise a yawn this time".
Some modern reviewers find the stop-motion work lackluster compared to previous Harryhausen films. Harryhausen biographer Roy P. Webber found the
ghoul
A ghoul ( ar, غول, ') is a demon-like being or monstrous humanoid. The concept originated in pre-Islamic Arabian religion, associated with graveyards and the consumption of human flesh. Modern fiction often uses the term to label a cert ...
s highly derivative of the
skeleton warriors
''Skeleton Warriors'' is a 13-episode cartoon series created by Landmark Entertainment Group, which originally aired in 1994 on CBS. The show was created by producer Gary Goddard.
Summary
The story takes place on the fictional distant planet of ...
from ''Jason and the Argonauts'', with the heads strongly reminiscent of the Selenites from Harryhausen's 1964 effort, ''
First Men in the Moon
''The First Men in the Moon'' is a scientific romance by the English author H. G. Wells, originally serialised in ''The Strand Magazine'' from December 1900 to August 1901 and published in hardcover in 1901, who called it one of his "fantastic ...
''. He also found the Minoton and the giant wasp to be lacking in character and so ancillary to the plot as to be dismissed.
[Webber, p. 198.] Harryhausen later admitted that the picture was too rushed, which led to many characterization problems in the animation.
[Dalton, p. 184.]
Other cinematic effects in the film have also been criticized. Webber, for example, notes that the traveling mattes used in the film to include various filmed elements are very poorly done, and the special effects used to show Zenobia transforming into a gull are "so bad that it is truly laughable."
However, some aspects of the film have received enduring praise. Webber notes that the baboon animation was so good that many people were fooled into believing a real animal had been used. The battle between the
troglodyte
A troglodyte is a human cave dweller, from the Greek 'hole, mouse-hole' and 'go in, dive in'.
Troglodyte and derived forms may also refer to:
Historiography
* ''Troglodytae'' or ''Troglodyti'', an ancient group of people from the African Red ...
and the
smilodon
''Smilodon'' is a genus of the extinct machairodont subfamily of the felids. It is one of the most famous prehistoric mammals and the best known saber-toothed cat. Although commonly known as the saber-toothed tiger, it was not closely related ...
is much better choreographed than the battle between the one-eyed
centaur
A centaur ( ; grc, κένταυρος, kéntauros; ), or occasionally hippocentaur, is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse.
Centaurs are thought of in many Greek myths as being ...
and the
griffin
The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (Ancient Greek: , ''gryps''; Classical Latin: ''grȳps'' or ''grȳpus''; Late Latin, Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a legendary creature with the body, tail ...
in ''The Golden Voyage of Sinbad'', and much more dramatic (with the
cat
The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...
actually raking with its claws and biting with its teeth, leaving deep wounds on its opponent).
References
External links
*
''Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger''at
Moviephone
Moviefone is an American-based moving pictures listing and information service. Moviegoers can obtain local showtimes, cinema information, film reviews, and advance tickets, as well as TV content and a comprehensive search tool that allows users ...
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger
1977 films
1970s fantasy adventure films
British fantasy adventure films
Seafaring films
1970s English-language films
Films directed by Sam Wanamaker
Films based on Sinbad the Sailor
1970s monster movies
British monster movies
Films using stop-motion animation
Films set in the Arctic
Films set in the 8th century
Columbia Pictures films
Films shot in Almería
Films scored by Roy Budd
American fantasy adventure films
American monster movies
Films about shapeshifting
Films produced by Ray Harryhausen
Films with screenplays by Ray Harryhausen
Films produced by Charles H. Schneer
Films with screenplays by Beverley Cross
Minotaur
Films set in the Middle Ages
1970s American films
1970s British films