SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER (1977)

SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER (1977)

Tagline:  Sinbad's Biggest Motion Picture Adventure Yet!

(Adventure, Action, The Thrill Of The Fight, Rising up to the challenge of our rival…) [G]

Extraordinary, a normal baboon wouldn't have recognized its reflection and attacked it thinking it was another baboon.

In this one, Sinbad (played by Patrick Wayne) is really in love with Farah (played by Jane Seymour), but her brother was turned into a baboon. That isn’t a good look for a prince about ready for a coronation, so Sinbad has to travel to see Melanthius (because he knows everything ) and will probably have an idea of how to fix Kassim (the baboon). Meanwhile, Sinbad and his crew have to battle giant walruses, idiotic mistakes by Melanthius himself, and the evil witch Zenobia (played by Margaret Whiting) who may or may not be the one who turned Kassim into a baboon. 

This movie came out when I was a kid and when it started coming on TV from time to time in the 80’s I was all about it. For me, this was the best of all the Sinbad movies. I don’t want to say it had the coolest Ray Harryhausen creatures in any of his films, but this thing is solid. I loved the storyline, the whole goal of the voyage, and the script moves along at a decent pace. Zenobia was also a step up from either of the villains in the other 2 major Harryhausen Sinbad flicks. 

Patrick Wayne is also the best of the 3 actors to play Sinbad in my opinion. Patrick Wayne may be best known for playing Pat Garrett in the movie YOUNG GUNS. I thought Patrick Troughton (best known for being one of the DOCTOR WHO’s) was pretty great as Melanthius, but I did like Kathryn Grant (from THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD) better as a female lead than Jane Seymour, but I am guessing there were just too many years between films to bring her back. 

 I love everything about the stop motion effects, but for this film, Harryhausen did have to make a mechanical baboon because it would have been near impossible to train a real one. By today’s standards, this movie is probably somewhat laughable although lovers of stop motion effects have oft brought them back into the movie-making fold. Stop motion isn’t smooth it’s choppy, but it’s what they had and I love pretty much everything Harryhausen did with this effects method. 

SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER has masterful acting and for its day wonderful effects and imagination. It also has the most straightforward story which made this one stand out more than the other Sinbad films and there is also a pretty crazy “you get what’s coming to you moment” which I never forgot. 

For today’s crowd, I get it, this might not be your thing, but I love this movie and can’t give it anything less than a 7 out of 7. 

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