Capitaine Sindbad

Mildly fun movie based on ancient legends , being a loose retelling of the ¨Arabian nights¨ or ¨1001 nights¨ . Swashbuckling/legendary movie with a valiant hero , Sinbad/Guy Williams , who proves some his feats , as fighting , batting , and sword-play against the heinous enemies , but he buckles his way gallantly through this stirring actioner . Here Sinbad (Guy Williams who passed away in 1989 at age 65) must destroy the evil El Kerim (Pedro Armendariz) and his hoodlum Col. Kabar (Henry Brandon) in the peaceful kingdom of Baristan . Kerim schemes to capture his rival , Sinbad , who will soon go back from far seas along with his crew (Bernie Hamilton , Walter Barnes , John Crawford , and Helmut Schneider who died at 51) . Meanwhile , the wonderful Princess Jana (Heidi Brühl married to actor Brett Halsey and died early at 49) convinces the wizard Galgo (Abraham Sofaer) to transform her into a small bird . As Sinbad and his sailors sail towards Baristan , the Princess-Firebird descends and lands on the ship . But before she can deliver the message , El-Carim turns his warriors into giant human falcons , to drop rocks onto Sindbad's ship sinking it.... Later on , Sinbad must tackle a lot of dangers , such as an invisible monster , a many-headed hydra , quicksands , man-eating fish , crocodiles , a large fist clad in a spiked glove , and more . To kill the nasty Visir , Sinbad must slash his heart , which is kept in a tower with no entrance . Sinbad helped by the magician Galgo will have to face off several risks , villains and Kerim's henchmen .

Swashbuckling adventures of Sinbad the sailor accompanied a group of engaging adventurers . An enormous , epic US/Germany co-production lavishly shot in Bavaria studios , Múnich , recreated with matte-painting , and a great number of special effects , FX , in traditional and primitive style . Riveting and swashbuckling film with amazing adventures in which Sinbad rescues the beautiful princess and searches for destroy a heart located in a terrifying island . Stars Guy Williams who was no stranger to swashbuckling , as he also performed ¨The Prince and the pauper¨ , ¨The Golden blade¨ , "Damon y Pitias" and especially Zorro on the ¨El Zorro¨ (1957) TV series . Guy Williams fits perfectly in this eminent swashbuckling . Gorgeous Heidi Bruhl as Princess Jana , and excellent Pedro Armendariz as evil ruler named El Kerim . Support cast is frankly good , such as : Bernie Hamilton , Helmut Schneider , Walter Barnes , Guy Doleman , James Dobson , John Crawford and Henry Brandon , among them .

In the movie there are emotions , mythology , adventures , fantasy , swashbuckling and results to be pretty amusing . It is an exciting fantasy-adventure , though hamhanded and self-mocking , with some brief moments excessive , for its confusion and mayhem . Don't see this one for the script , which almost doesn't exist ; otherwise mildly fun . The runtime is adequate with various incidents and sub-plots . Director Byron Haskin works his magic around a well-developed screenplay and charming acting by the entire performers . The confrontation amongst the protagonist and enemies is mesmerizing and fascinating , plenty of leaps and bounds in which Sinbad runs , hits , fights and smiles . Cinematography by Günther Senftleben is colorful , brilliant and shining . Evocative music composer Michel Michelet creates an attractive and astounding score . This huge and high-budgeted motion picture was well directed by Byron Haskin , delivering a great sense of wonder . It's all in fun , and it is fun . The yarn will appeal to fantasy and fancy imagination buffs , well catching .

Other pictures about the great hero Simbad are the followings : ¨Sinbad the sailor¨ (1947) by Richard Wallace , it displays an all-star-cast formed by Douglas Fairbanks Jr , Maureen O'Hara and Anthony Quinn ; ¨Ray Harryhausen's Sinbad trilogy¨ , all of them full of special effects with great monsters and breathtaking scale models that are made by the Dynamation system and created by means of stop-motion technique by the magician Ray Harryhausen , Ray can once again claim credit for the unusual and marvelous mythical creatures springing to life , as : ¨The 7th voyage of Simbad¨ , directed Nathan Juran with Kerwin Matthews and Kathryn Grant ¨ , ¨Simbad and the eye of tiger¨ directed Sam Wanamaker with Patrick Wayne and Jane Seymour , ¨The Golden voyage of Sinbad¨ by Gordon Hessler with John Philip Law , Caroline Munro and Tom Baker . Furthermore , an Italian muscle epic titled ¨Sinbad of the seven seas¨ by Enzo G Castellari with Lou Ferrigno , Alexandra Martines and John Steiner . In addition , Hollywood cartoon movie ¨Simbad the legend of seven seas¨ (2003) produced by Dreamworks , a combo of computer generator and hand-drawn animation by Patrick Gilmore and Tim Johnson with voices from Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta Jones . In addition , TV series as ¨Adventures of Sinbad¨ (1996-1998) with Zen Gesner , George Buza and ¨Sinbad¨ TV series (2012) with Elliot Knight , Marama Corlett and Elliot Cowan .

CAPTAIN SINDBAD is one of those movies that a generation grew up watching, either on the big or small screen. Preferably the big screen, as this is an epic joy to behold in all of its colorful glory!

This was an especially memorable event for yours truly, at 9-10 years old.

Why? Monsters! Magic! Adventure!

This young lad sat mesmerized as Sindbad (Guy Williams) led his men on a quest to defeat the wicked wizard, El Karim (Pedro Armendariz), by first running his gauntlet of killer creatures. These include a multi-headed dragon, and an enormous, disembodied hand!

Our heroes must fight their way through these formidable freaks, in order to get to El Karim's only weakness. Ah, but said "Achilles Heel" is kept at the very top of a sheer tower of darkness!

If you've ever played Dungeons and Dragons as a bored teen -or adult, then, this movie should give you many ideas for that next campaign! I incorporated (aka: stole) several myself, those long years ago.

Still quite enjoyable today, this movie will take you back to the time before CGI made things look too easy. If your movies must be digitally perfect, then skip this gem by all means...

I'm referring to Guy Williams, not the movie. The movie itself, though not up to Harryhausen's SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD, is nonetheless a lot of fun and far more entertaining that either GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD or the awful SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER. Williams is excellent in the title role, physically perfect and far more dashing than any other actor I can think of in the part. And those who carp about the cheap special effects are (as usual) totally missing the point. Aside from the absurdity of using CGI as your yardstick (does anyone actually think the effects in AVATAR or LORD OF THE RINGS look real? Come on...) the manifestly theatrical menaces in CAPTAIN SINDBAD are part of the fun. The villain's pulsing disembodied heart, like a big satin pillow, is a clear tip-off: none of this is MEANT to be real! It's like an elaborate Christmas pantomime. And that giant mechanical hand is terrific. A cross between this movie and SEVENTH VOYAGE would have been the perfect Sinbad movie. Or Sindbad. Take your pick.

Through many viewings I've enjoyed this Sin(d)bad film much more than any in the better-known Columbia/Harryhausen series, which I thought had great monsters but dull stories and heroes. This one has it all: gorgeous color photography, interesting plot and characters, and unusual monsters (including an invisible (!) dragon. The late Guy Williams is fine as Sinbad, and more mature and dignified than any in the Columbia films. And Pedro Armendariz, in one of his last roles before his untimely cancer-related death, is simply wonderful as the villain, El Karim. This film (produced by the same folks who gave us "Gorgo") is aimed at young audiences, but I've watched it with viewers of varying age, and never run across anyone who wasn't delighted with it.

People who complain about the special effects in this 1963 adventure flick just don't understand how different the state of film fx was 45 years ago. I suspect that they're all too young to know much of anything. Back in the day, it wasn't the quality of your CG artists that counted. It was "how do I find simple photographic tricks that tickle the imagination, still tell the story and are fun"? This movie is full of well done yet low budget effects that beat all hell out of all the crappy, cookie cutter CG stuff out there today. Tell me you didn't smile when the magician's arm grew out about two miles long. Go on, tell me. And if you're answer is "I didn't" then why are you even watching this movie? Go somewhere and crow about how great the effects in that snorefest remake of King Kong was and leave the fun to the rest of us. I mean, really--so it's not Harryhausen. Get over it. It's still great fun.