Sinbad

  

(imdb)

THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD-1958-The famous sailor (Kerwin Matthews) and his crew wind up on a mysterious island also the home of the legendary Cyclops. During their encounter they meet magician Sokurah (Torin Thatcher) who has a magic lamp with a boy genie (Richard Eyer from THE INVISIBLE KID a year earlier) inside. They all escape but Sokurah loses his lamp. Also on board Sinbad's ship is his fiancee the princess of Chandra (Kathryn Grant). Her marriage to Sinbad will prevent a war with Baghdad. However Sokurah wants his lamp back. 

Sinbad refuses to return to the island. At a pre-wedding celebration Sokurah transforms the princess's lady in waiting into a snake woman and shrinks the princess and forces Sinbad and crew to return to Cyclops island for the lamp and also to get a shell from the egg of a giant bird the Roc. After killing the Cyclops Sinbad and his group encounter a dragon and a skeleton warrior. Another cyclops even shows up. All of it courtesy of the great Ray Harryhausen and his “Dynamation” stop motion process.

 Director Nathan Juran had worked with Harryhausen earlier on the classic 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH and must have liked this assignment better than the low budget horror movie he made the same year (ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMEN) as he used a pseudonym (Nathan Hertz) on that one!

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Mr. BIG's Pirates

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THE BOY AND THE PIRATES-1960-Jimmy (Charles Herbert), a little kid who likes pirates finds a bottle with a mini-genie (Joe Turkel) in it. Because of a wish he makes Jimmy winds up on “The Queen's Revenge”, a pirate ship ruled by the infamous Blackbeard (Murvyn Vye)) who makes Jimmy his cabin boy. He has to swab the deck, clean fish and get rum for the captain. After the pirates loot and kill on a Dutch ship Jimmy (who Blackbeard calls a “miserable cabin rat”) rescues Katrina (Susan Gordon), a girl about his age. Blackbeard wants to throw her overboard but Jimmy stands up for her. When the crew learn their captain is after some gold, Morgan (Timothy Carey) tries to burn out Jimmy's tongue. When a British ship attacks The Queens Revenge, Jimmy and Katrina escape to an island but Blackbeard follows them. Jimmy throws the genie bottle at the pirate and he winds up back home. 

Despite being aimed at kids there's long stretches of talk and blood and violence. 

This bizarre kiddie swashbuckling fantasy was the first color film for “Mr. BIG” himself Bert I. Gordon (still alive at the time of this writing). There are no giant monsters but it's definitely a low budget production with some mediocre SFX. This was the second of four appearances for Susan Gordon in her dad's movies. Star Charles Herbert was also a popular child star at the time having been in THE FLY and THE COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK and many TV shows. He was in William Castle's 13 GHOSTS the same year.

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Bowery To Bagdad

BOWERY TO BAGDAD-1955-In this nutty Bowery Boys entry, Sach (Huntz Hall) finds Aladdin's lamp and a genie (Eric Blore) occasionally appears to grant wishes but only to Sach. A gangster (Robert Bice) finds out about the lamp and sends his moll (Joan Shawlee) after it. Sound familiar? Leo Gorcey is of course Slip doing his usual Sach bashing and word twisting. Leo's little old daddy Bernard is once again Louie, owner of the sweet shop which this time the gangster wants to buy. Leo's younger brother (billed under the name David Conlon) is Chuck and Bennie Benedict is Butch. 

Meanwhile two turbaned ancestors of the original owner of the lamp lurk about with knives. As usual the focal point of the humor is on Sach's zaniness (some might called it lunacy) but little Louie always steals some laughs. Other familiar faces in the cast include Jean Willes and Dick Wessell. Edward Bernds co-wrote (with Ellwood Ullman) and directed it. 

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