Captain Sinbad (1963) We will NOT tolerate anyone deriding or mocking the plentiful amount of early 1960's special effects in this sweet little jewel box of a movie.
Yeah, we know.......it's far removed from Ray Harryhausen's dazzling, meticulous stop-motion effects in "The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad".
Ya know what? We don't care. 'Captain Sinbad' is such a charming, adorable children's matinee experience, we fell in love with it at first sight.
What's not love?! It comes courtesy of the King brothers (Frank 'n Herman) who toiled away in Hollywood as B-movie producers (including the classic 'Gun Crazy') until they moved to England to make that spectacular (and beloved by us) monster stomper, "Gorgo".
After 'Gorgo', the boys moved on to Germany where they concocted, with a combined British-German cast and crew, this beautifully photographed fairy tale.
Filmed in the ripest, most eye-popping Technicolor and featuring a gorgeous, haunting score by Michel Michelet, it's one of the most silly, childish and yet entertaining kiddie matinee we've ever seen.
A perfect cast parades on by......TV's 'Zorro' Guy Williams, make a dashing heroic Sinbad. Stunning curvy German starlet Heidi Bruhl is the perfect to-die-for Princess, with her permanently arched eyebrows......
And what a worthy villain in the character acting veteran Pedro Armendariz, making one of his last film appearances (along with his memorable role in "From Russia With Love"), before the suffering cancer-wracked actor took his own life.
There's invisible monsters, aerial warfare vultures dropping boulders on Sinbad's ship, paper mache crocodiles, a Hydra-headed puppet dragon and the palace magician (an extra hammy Abraham Sofaer ) amusing himself by making his own indoor weather and mini-nuclear blasts.
Our stalwart hero's attempts at sword-skewering the villain won't work since he keeps his beating heart conveniently parked in a remote tower so tall that even Rapunzel would need hair extensions to navigate it. (Not that stops our boy Sinbad, who asks one of his crew to lend him his hook.....)
But challenges await ou hero Armendariz's evil heart (literally a pulsing heart shaped like a Valentine's Day chocolate box ) is guarded by......a giant glove about the size of a Humvee. (Someone involved in the movie had a real sense of humor, since the glove waves a "oh-no-you-don't" wagging finger at Sinbad when he raises a sword against it.....)
We also don't want to forget the brief but gloriously wack-a-doodle palace dance number which features a scantily clad babe crawling out of a massive spider web hung for occasion.
Colorful beyond description and the most fun to watch, "Captain Sinbad" turned us right back into a child again......and at our age, that makes for a 4 star (****) experience.
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