Monday, April 9, 2012

Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger(1977)

What with the advances in today's cinematic special effects, including "green screen" technology and CGI(computer generated imagery) I believe there is definitely something to be said about the "stop motion" effects created by Ray Harryhausen. Harryhausen's stop motion technique has brought a variety of supernatural entities and creatures to life on the big screen including several "Sinbad" films. Lately I've started watching films featuring Ray Harryhausen's "stop motion" effects rendered monsters on DVD. Two weeks ago I enjoyed 1963's Jason And The Argonauts. Last night I sat down and watched Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger(1977), theatrically released by Columbia Pictures, directed by Sam Wanamaker and the third and final "Sinbad" film in which Ray Harryhausen contributed his marvelous effects work.



Sinbad is played in this 1977 sci-fi/fantasy movie by Patrick Wayne, son of legendary actor John Wayne. Sinbad, in all of these movies, is a dashing, handsome, brave and swashbuckling character long on courage and very adept with a sword. In contrast is the movie's villain, a female sorceress and witch named Zenobia, played by Margaret Whiting, who can shape shift into animals and create creatures out of her potions with which to fight Sinbad. The cast also includes hotties Jane Seymour and Taryn Power. The creatures in this movie, like all Sinbad films, are visually marvelous and also very dangerous to our hero Sinbad and his friends. In Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger the creatures include a bronze, bull headed automaton come to life called the Minaton, several insectoid, sword wielding assassins, a giant, horned and hairy hominid called a Troglodyte, an oversized and ornery walrus and finally a hostile and enormous sabretooth tiger which is literally long in the tooth. These creatures all collectively menace the cast during their journey to Hyperboria in search of a cure to transform a prince, turned into a baboon by the film's villainess, back to his human form.


Bull headed: the Minaton- from SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER(1977)


This film can be purchased on DVD at a very affordable price at Amazon and other various internet retailers. To see this movie for sale on DVD at Amazon click the title of this blog entry or click the link: SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER DVD

The movie's trailer: