Le fils de Sindbad

A couple years ago I taped Son of Sinbad but gave up on it when two of the early scenes involved a surprisingly long, mediocre dance sequence and a surprisingly long dialog between Lil' Sinbad and Omar Khayyam. But I'm an inveterate fan of the Eastern genre, and by 8 July 2008, when TCM ran a morning of Sinbad movies, I'd forgotten my earlier dismissal and gave the film a longer chance. The Houston Chronicle's TV Week gave it only one star, which is close enough, but a little patience is redeemed by offbeat treats and occasionally upscale production values.

As for the treats, Dale Robertson is a game Sinbad, Vincent Price is a trooper as Omar Khayyam, and eventually the onslaught of female pulchritude becomes embarrassingly charming in its exuberant abundance of blonde and redheaded Arab harem girls, sheer hosiery, intensive coiffures, and tear-away clothing that makes many of the dances more like G-rated strip routines. Wordsmith is right that the extended dance scenes throw off the film's pacing, but the action keeps recovering its pace, and the sets glow with the candy colors of 50s childhood.

False statements, repeated often enough, can reinforce false impressions. I believe this is what has happened to "Son of Sinbad". As a writer and aficionado of Grecianzed Near-Eastern adventures, I admire the construction of the plot, the dialogue, the characters and the execution of the visually-lovely little gem. I suppose some have fallen in with the maker's jest at Dale Robertson's Oklahoma accent; but in the main, he is charismatic, intelligent and virile in the part of the son of Sinbad, a man who loves adventure even more than he loves women and who is afraid of neither. The film is all but stolen by Vincent Price, essaying another bright comedic part as Omar Khayyam, poet and victim of Sinbad's ill fortune after he is caught leaving the Sultan's harem. Sally Forrest as Amir is lovely and does quite well with her difficult role as palace servant, secret agent, lover and jealous woman. Leon Askin is superb as the vainglorious Sultan, and Mari Blanchard is very good as a long-lost love, as is Jay Novello as the sinister court buffoon. The plot line is a good and straightforward one. The Mongols are threatening the Sultanate; Simon Aristides and his daughter come to court just in time to save Sinbad and Omar from being executed; when the old man is murdered for his secret of Greek fire, the atom bomb of the ancient world, Sinbad is allowed at his suggestion to take Omar with him and try to retrieve the weapon before the Mongol General who stole it can get its secret from Aristides' daughter and deliver it to his Mongol Khan. Enter Amir, and her organization, with whom Sinbad leagues to use the Greek fire in battle and destroy the Mongol general and his army. The satisfying conclusion of the film finds Sinbad second to the Sultan, his allies, female descendants of the forty thieves, as the Sultan's new bodyguards and Amir and Sinbad II united in matrimony. The film features four extended exotic dance numbers, with lovely music by Victor Young, rousing direction by action-film veteran Ted Tetzlaff, and a surprising number of interesting dialogue-rich scenes, some lovely outdoor scenery and some tongue-in-cheek humor at the Sultan's expense. The costumes are delightful, the art direction is colorful and very fine and Larry Germain's hairstylings are a great asset. This film was never intended to shock, as are so many bad recent films. Its maker, Howard Hughes, however, did intend it to violate silly taboos on the exhibition of females in film; the result is a movie than is fun, very attractively photographed and choreographed and a fine entertainment. If it has suffered, it is because those who have spoken most often about it have not seen it nor perhaps considered its many merits as an attractive "entertainment".

Sally Forrest's lush legs are wonderfully on display in a dance scene where she appears "Almost Nude!" Yummy. Corny but colorful not-so-serious adventure is enhanced by a dance scene that tends to tip it's hand to strip club dancing (complete with pole!) This segment is not as polished as her dance scene in "Excuse My Dust!" but she shows a lot more skin. Once again: Yummy!

Son of Sinbad is a dull film, more or less only watchable at scan speed. But what redeems this film is the performances by some of the top names in burlesque during the 1950s. A big thanks to Howard Hughes and those responsible for making this film. Burlesque Queen Lili St. Cyr is breathtakingly beautiful, and wears some of the most glamorous and lavish costumes seen in any harem-themed movie. Wonderful exotic dancing sequences featuring Nejla Ates and Kalantan make this film a must-see for fans of burlesque. Unfortunately, there's no stiptease here, but Son of Sinbad features a bevy of beauties in colorful costumes that make for some delectable eye-candy. There's no doubt the girls are the main attraction here, with a little story, plot, and action built around them.

Bruce Cook in his review called Son Of Sinbad, "A girl watchers dream (and a fun movie too). Quaxo calls it, "One of the funniest & campiest films I ever saw". Both reviews are accurate. They could also have mentioned idiotic but, notwithstanding, it is still great fun to watch. When multi-millionaire Howard Hughes (famous for his Casanova love-life) bought RKO studio it seems he must have been inundated with young ladies eager to get into the movie industry. It looks like he decided to kill many birds with one stone & put them all in this single movie. 127 of them according to one reviewer. Burlesque star Lili St. Cyr, Mari Blanchard & Sally Forrest are three of the principal leading ladies all of whom were knockout beauties. The latter of the trio performs an erotic dance in which she wears a skin-tight, flesh-coloured costume &, at first glance, appears to be dancing naked. I read that this dance sequence only just squeaked past the censorship. Made in 1953 it wasn't released until two years later when it finally passed censorship. Of its two leading men Dale Robertson is OK as Sinbad but scene-stealing Vincent Price as Omar Khayyam is hilarious. Mr. Price was a very talented actor so the only reason he must have accepted a part in this dopey movie was that mega-rich Howard Hughes offered him a big fat pay cheque. He probably knew he was involved in a load of nonsense & he plays it with his tongue firmly in his cheek. Just get it done then take the money and run seems to be his attitude. I cannot recommend that this film has much going for any female viewers but for us lads it is a feast for the eyes, no a veritable banquet!.