It's Sindbad, not Sinbad!

 

Actually, I'm not bothered by the Anglocized spelling of the Arab sailor's name, but it's nice to see a more faithful translation. (If I understand it correctly, Sindbad is a Romanization of the original Arabic, but closer to the original than Sinbad. If anyone reading this can correct me on this if I've got it wrong, please let me know.)

One of those times the name is spelled the Roman way is the 1963 movie Captain Sindbad. Guy Williams, in full swashbuckler mode, had finished swashbuckling about on the TV series Zorro and was a few years away from getting lost in space as Dr. John Robinson. So he had opportunity to star in this imaginative (if obviously inexpensive) independent film. It was directed by Byron Haskin, who is best remembered for directing War of the Worlds in 1952.

Sindbad, in this version, is the only hope to overthrow the evil El Kerim, despotic ruler of Baristan. El Kerim biggest advantage is a ring he wears that forces the magician Galgo to serve him. One of Galgo's accomplishments is removing El Kerim's heart and placing it in a remote tower. That way, El Kerim can't actually be killed--a trait that unexpectedly foils Sindbad's initial attempt to dispose of the guy.

There's also a beautiful princess, of course--Princess Jana (Heidi Bruhl--whose performance endows the princess with a quiet courage). Jana is the daughter of the rightful king, so El Kerim wants to cement his position as leader by marrying her. She's in love with Sindbad, though, so is a very reluctant bride.

The movie, as I've said, is very imaginative. Sindbad's ship is sunk by men transformed into rocs who bomb the ship by dropping rocks on it. Later, Sindbad is a prisoner in an arena, forced to battle an invisible monster. Eventually, he and his surviving crew must brave a swamp full of various monsters (including a hydra-type creature--pictured below) and other dangers to get to the tower where El Kerim's heart is hidden. Then Sindbad must fight an unusual monster followed by fighting El Kerim himself to win the day. And save the princess as well. While all this is going on, Jana is being led to the execution block to be killed by getting stomped on by an elephant. Yuck.

The special effects obviously suffer from a lack of budget and technology, but you can always see what the filmmakers were going for. The story is fun and the cast gives it their all. I wish this had been a Ray Harryhausen film--that would have made it awesome. But it's still worth watching.

By the way, Gold Key put out a comic book adaptation with Russ Manning art. We'll take a look at it next week.