Simbad contro i sette saraceni

To begin with, the name of the most popular Arabian Nights character i.e. Sinbad has been variably spelled over the years and around the world – from Sindbad to Simbad and Szindbad. Moreover, the character of Sinbad has been included in films in which he had nothing to do with originally – the Russian adventure outing SADKO (1953) became THE MAGIC VOYAGE OF SINBAD in the U.S. – just as, in this case, he became Ali Baba when it crossed over the Atlantic! These facts alone are more interesting than anything that occurs in this film…because where are the seafaring adventures of Sinbad The Sailor to be seen in this one, not to mention the sundry creatures he generally struggled with? On the other hand, if this is Ali Baba, whatever happened to the Forty Thieves?

One thing is certain: I wasn't expecting Gordon Mitchell – who had previously portrayed such legendary heroic figures as Achilles and Maciste – to be the villain here, nor Sinbad to be incarnated by a teenager still wet behind the ears, thus making for possibly the lamest Sinbad in film history! Appropriately, then, the seven Saracens of the title are even more anonymous than the hero – and, what's worse, they don't even engage him in battle! At least, the heroine's physical attributes are well in evidence…but that's small compensation when set against the obligatory and unfunny comic relief provided by Sinbad's midget cellmate/sidekick and, for good measure (ugh!) a court eunuch with a bad facial tick; the pits, however, are reached by the silly gyrations of a particularly animated dancer preceding every ritual at court!

Like with a number of Italian movies American-International Pictures picked up in the 1960s, "Ali Baba and the Seven Saracens" bypassed North American theaters and was released directly to television. That was a good decision, but I think a better one would have been to have looked for a better movie to pick up. Those viewers expecting a retelling of the Arabian Nights hero (either loose or more accurate) will be disappointed, since the story has absolutely nothing to do with the Ali Baba hero - or Sinbad for that matter. It's instead another sword and sandal story about an evil tyrant and rebels trying to overthrow him. Despite the familiar story, it could have still worked, but the movie for the most part is simply dull and uninvolving. There's almost no real action in the first third of the movie, and while there's a bit more in the remaining portion, it's almost all choreographed and directed with no passion at all. Another problem is that the character of Ali Baba/Sinbad gets put on the back burner for long periods of time. I guess the production values are okay, but I would have sacrificed some of that for some real excitement and action.

Costumes, props, sets and locations are nice, so are the horses and a couple of battle scenes are great but that is just about it. No one in the film caught my attention, the story didn't grab me so I was bored with it. The film wasn't even campy or even unintentionally funny enough to poke fun at.

There is a heroic(?) dwarf crawling around in a tunnel this is suppose to give a little comedy relief but I didn't find him funny at all.

I'll speak of the male's costumes again - I loved them. In particular I loved the guys in black with the red hats. The females were is okay looking dresses, only one or two of them I found barely pretty.

Costumes, props and sets are really the only thing I liked about the film.

2/10

Is it Sinbad? Is it Ali Baba? Does it actually matter? Now the movie tries to take certain elements from other movies and put them together and make something out of it. The love story, the betrayal story, the friends/enemies story ... all seen before, sometimes as single story elements, but all done way better than what you get served here.

Having said that, if you are a Sword and Sandals addict (fan?) you might not even care. But there are so many of them and not all have many merits to watch them. I'd argue this is one of the weaker ones

Omar (Gordon Mitchell) intends to be the winner of a tournament to the death between the 8 leaders of the desert tribes. His most despised opponent is Sinbad (Dan Harrison, dubbed 'Alibaba' in the English version). Sinbad is in love with the beautiful princess Fatima (Bella Cortez), and when they both fall into the hands of Omar, he promises to Sinbad: "You are going to die a slow and agonizing death in personal combat, and Fatima is going to watch you die!" However, that has to wait until the tournament, and a lot could happen until then...

For a cheap oriental adventure, typical genre work of a little known director (Emimmo Salvi), this is surprisingly watchable. Surely the English version suffers a bit from the cuts, the Italian version was more than 10 minutes longer. But the camera work makes the fight scenes or the horse-cart race at the tournament look pretty good and Gordon Mitchell has a menacing, strong presence (he worked with the same director again in '3 Bullets For Ringo'). Nothing special, but acceptable.