Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger

Yesterday my brother John came over to visit and take a look at Mickey Sees the USA in person. He brought along a DVD copy of Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977) to give me, as we had been talking about Harryhausen before and I mentioned that this was the only one of the director’s “Sinbad Trilogy” I did not have. Having got an upgraded copy fairly recently and having this as a spare, he was glad to supply my deficiency. Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger was a movie we saw in the theater back in the day. This copy looks mostly like the one pictured, except it has a band on the top declaring “DTS: Digital Surround Sound”.

While certainly not the greatest Harryhausen film (a giant stop-motion walrus is perhaps his most forgettable creature) there is still plenty to make it a worthwhile view. Particularly interesting to me (an old wizard buff) is Patrick Troughton as the natural philosopher Melanthius, who helps Sinbad try to restore Prince Kassim, turned into a baboon by the wicked sorceress Zenobia, by traveling to the lost land of Hyperborea. Troughton had not only appeared in Harryhausen’s Jason and the Argonauts as the blind King Phineus, tormented by harpies, but was also the second Dr. Who and portrayed the immortal alchemist Cole Hawlings in the BBC TV series The Box of Delights. Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) moved the bronze Minoton for several non-stop motion scenes.

I think this might have been the first time I saw the so-called Treasury at Petra used in a film, here as Melanthius’s home.

I had recieved a set of Harryhausen creature toys from John for my birthday about twenty years ago. One was on display, the dragon from The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. John regretfully said he should have bought his own set at the same time. I decided on the spot that since the other figures had simply languished in a bin for years that he should have them. After a scramble and a struggle that went on a lot longer than I had imagined (the trouble it took to unearth them further proving that they were better off with John – my key to the contents of my bins was useless! Useless!) we finally got them out, found Minoton’s spear in the Accessories’ Drawer, and they were off to their new home.

                                              You can just barely see Talos off to Minoton's side.