Sinbad, the Sailor

Try as Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., might, he isn't the star of this unexciting epic. It's the vivid Technicolor, which was so prevalent in the 1940s. It really is stunning, especially when compared with the Technicolor of the '60s or '70s, or worse, with the quality shot on video.

It seemed that Doug wanted to pay homage and emulate the fanciful flair of his famous father, the first and one of cinema's greatest swashbucklers. If this were a silent film, where Jr's type of exaggerated action and motion were called for, his performance would have been more credible. But here, he just tends to over-do it.

As for me, I'll take Ray Harryhausen's classic Seventh Voyage Of Sinbad (1958) with Kerwin Matthews any day. I'll even go so far as to take John Phillip Law in Harryhausen's 1974 Golden Voyage Of Sinbad.

What about Pat Wayne in the finale of Harryhausen's trilogy, Sinbad & The Eye Of The Tiger (1977)? Come to think of it, I also prefer Wayne and that film to this one - by a mile.

Why? Because they're doing wonderful and amazing things in those films. They're as terrifically escapist as can be. You keep waiting for the magic in Fairbank's film, but it only rarely shows up.