SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER

UK, 1977, 113 minutes, Colour.
Patrick Wayne, Taryn Power, Margaret Whiting, Jane Seymour, Patrick Troughton, Kurt Christian.
Directed by Sam Wanamaker.

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger has excellent credentials – although, Patrick Wayne as Sinbad is rather lightweight compared with other Sinbad’s. Wayne is John Wayne’s son and the Princess Dione is played by Tyrone Power’s daughter, Taryn.

The story was based on an original story by Beverley Cross who was to create the story for The Clash of the Titans. Special effects as well as the story were contributed by Ray Harryhausen, the celebrated special effects expert who worked from the 1950s with such films as It Came From Beneath the Sea to much greater effects in the 1960s with Jason and the Argonauts and One Million Years BC. He continued to create all kinds of creatures for this kind of mythical film, concluding with The Clash of the Titans.

The film was directed by Sam Wanamaker, a Hollywood actor who was blacklisted and moved to the United Kingdom appearing in many films, directing and, most prominently, enabling the rebuilding of the Globe Theatre on the south bank of the Thames.

The action is familiar: Sinbad has to accompany a princess and her brother who has been transformed into a monkey in order to seek a wise man to find how the brother can be transformed. He then wants to marry a princess. However, the mother, Xenobia and a magician, have a control over the prince transformed into the monkey. There are various characters to be found on the way to the island and the wise man including a giant walrus, demons, a cat with sabre teeth.

The film is entertaining, the special effects excellent, the acting limited although this is an early film for Jane Seymour as Princess Farah.

1. Audience appeal for this kind of fantasy? quality of the plot and the production? its place in the series of Sinbad films, of Dynamation films?

2. The importance of colour, locations, sets, studio work? The Arabian nights' atmosphere? The contribution of the music? Costumes? How Important are for the enjoyment of this kind of film?

3. Dynarama, the techniques, the artificial reality of the effects? Audience interest in visual presentation, enjoyment of their effect within the film, the fight with the three, the Minotaur, his creation and his rowing of the boat, the baboon and its playing chess and behaving as baboon and human? Xenobia and her experience the bird, the trogladite, the final tiger and the battle? The special effects with the disappearance of Kassim at his coronation, the ship sequenece, the snow? The Aurora Borealis and the sequences at the source of life?

4. The entertainment of the plot, the Sinbad story, its fantasy, overtones of reality, dangers, goodies and baddies, wizards, power, the wise man Molanthus and his power? Heroes and heroines, princes and princesses? The quests, endurance, fights and courage?

5. The importance of the opening, coronation sequence and its splendour, the sinister use of eyes, power, danger? The explanation of the princess pleading with Sinbad, the prince?

6. The portrayal of Alabad, the credible and dashing bero, the encountering of the initial danger and the fighting? His men and their loyalty? The challenge of the princess, the undertaking of the voyage? Adventure Ingredients well presented?

7. The contrasts with Xenobia as villainess, the minister’s son, the creation of the Minotaur, the elements of pursuit with the two ships and their voyage?

8. the encounter with Digne? Her welcoming thm,, the discovery of Milanthos? Milanthos as a character, his humour, his believing their story, joining in their quest? the powers? The danger against Xenobia?

9. Xenobia and her turning into a bird, her spying, when she was reduced to a small size and captured, her escape? The magic potion? the horror and humour of her recovery at her webbed foot?

10. The two ships arriving in the new land, the long journey, mix Sinbadfor the quick journey for Xenobia and the confrintation? Their trek? The encounter with the trogladites? The door?

11. The buildup to the final fights, the death of her monster, restoration of Kassin and the romantic overtones? The buildup to Xenobia turning into the tiger? The battle with the trog and the paths of his death? The fight with Sinbad and the herolsm? The buildup to the applaud-winning death of the tiger?

12. The atmosphere of the happy ending, its being presented with the final titles? Audienced involvemnet with this kind of fantasy story? The basics of a good story, good adventure? The symbolism of basic moral values of the clash between good and evil?