bkoganbing I saw this film first when I was 11 years old and seeing it 59 years later hasn't diminished me enthusiasm. This is some of Ray Harryhausen's best work and first with classical characters as opposed to futuristic science fiction.Playing Sinbad is Kerwin Matthews who seemed to like doing these films, he was so often cast in them. He's getting ready to marry Princess Kathryn Crosby and that's something for even a sea captain to marry into the royal family.But when they're blown off course and come to an island where magician Torin Thatcher headquarters and shares it with a cyclops, a giant flying roc bird and a fire breathing dragon Thatcher keeps to protect his lair it's trouble. Thatcher has possession also of a magic lamp with a boy genie Richard Eyer who like Pinnochio wants to be a real live boy. Watching The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad really takes me back to when I was 11 years old. You can still thrill at my age to what Harryhausen does with those monsters. An 11 year old of any age can still thrill to the dragon and cyclops duking it out while our hero escapes with his lady love.Thatcher's a villain that will give you nightmares. He's pure evil, the kind you applaud when he gets his.After almost 60 years The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad is still a great family film with whole cloth heroes and the darkest of villains.

Theo Robertson I used to love this film as a child. The Regal Cinema in Rothesay used to show it on a frequent basis in its afternoon matinees and along with THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT it was one of these films I'd pop round to see when it was being shown. That said it's a film considered to be "movie magic" due to the special effects of Ray Harryhausen and one wonders how an adult in the 21st Century would regard this film now To be brutally honest the production only exists to exhibits the stop frame animation effects and everything else doesn't matter. The cast are either wooden in the case of Kerwin Mathews and Kathryn Grant or obvious in the case of Torin Thatcher . There can also be no excuse for spelling Baghdad wrong or believing it to be situated on a coastline. I suppose the producers might defend themselves on the grounds that it's a fantasy film and nothing to do with geo-politics but even this comes across as clumsy especially since we all know it's the present day capital of Iraq. The clumsy nature of the film extends to the plotting where Sinbad , a sailor is shown commanding a ship and because of reasons to the plot decides to hire some brigands for his quest. Ask yourself this - why not just hire his previous crew and pay them danger money ? Oh hold on I'm taking things far too seriously which is not the function of THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD. All it does is ask you to buy some popcorn , find your inner child and sit back back and enjoy a rollicking adventure while gasp at the special effects. If this was made nowadays everything would be done via the dreaded CGI and while the effects aren't one hundred per cent convincing in a film 60 years old you can at least respect them mainly down to the hard work involved . It's also a little bit nasty as the crew succumb one by one to the hazards they face

mark.waltz There's more to an exotic Arabian adventure than the flashing of skin and the flexing of muscles, and with Kerwin Matthews as a very Caucasian Sinbad, the results are silly fun that has achieved a cult status through the special effects and genius of Ray Harryhausen. Whether it be the one-eyed cyclops, the leashed dragon that all of a sudden gets loose or the two headed giant new born baby chick, this is filled with exotic creatures that only a special mind could create. There's also a skeleton army, an evil magician who turns on his so-called friends and a little boy Genii who longs to be free. A beautiful princess (Kathryn Grant) shrinks to the size of a barbie doll, and to bring her back to size, Sinbad and his crew (which includes the traitor magician) head back to the island of the cyclops whose body seems to be made of clay and impenetrable from anything sharp that would cause bleeding. While "Jason and the Argonauts" is a far more fantastic spectacle, this is still highly enjoyable from start to finish, colorful and exciting. Torin Thatcher is a great villain, with Richard Eyer very cute as the cursed genii who can only be rescued by having the lamp thrown into a lake of fire. The sets are exotic and always exciting, and the costumes lavish and colorful. A battle with the cyclops has many of the men enclosed in a bamboo cage in preparation for the cyclops to barbecue over a fiery pit, and the baby chicks aren't there for the petting. After life inside an egg, these two headed birds are hungry, and anything that smells like food is ripe for the pecking.Still early in the era of these kind of sword and sandal adventures, they hadn't gotten cheesy to the point of pure silliness, and as obviously un-Arabic as they are, Matthews, Grant and the rest of the ensemble (with perhaps the exception of Thatcher) do what they can to make their characters avoid being silly caricatures. Matthews manages to be strong and heroic without being cocky, and Grant is a force of nature in her own right. Thatcher isn't one dimensional, although by the end, you'll be anxious for him to get his well deserved come-uppance. Sure, some of the dialog is clichéd and the stop motion animation might seem dated compared to the type that's on screen now, but it's simple fun, and unlike the movies of this genre today, you won't have a headache when it's all over.

utgard14 When Sinbad (Kerwin Mathews) refuses to help the sorcerer Sokurah (Torin Thatcher) retrieve his magic lamp from a Cyclops, Sokurah shrinks Sinbad's love Princess Parisa (Kathryn Grant) to the size of a doll. The potion to restore her to her natural size requires the shell of a bird's egg from the island of Colossa where the Cyclops lives. Now Sinbad has no choice but to journey to Colossa and face the monster to save his lady.Fantasy adventure classic from director Nathan Juran and featuring the awesome stop-motion special effects from legendary Ray Harryhausen. Torin Thatcher is great as the nefarious wizard. Child actor Richard Eyer as the genie in the lamp is goofy but amusing. The leads are both fine. It's the special effects that are the real star with the justifiably famous climactic battle between Sinbad and a skeleton warrior a highlight.