Captain Sindbad (1963)

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Beautiful, moving film.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

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.

You can't take films like this as art. I choose to watch them on a Saturday or Sunday morning, because that's the type of film I remember being taken to as a child. Had this been not so obviously cheap, I would have been a lot tougher on it, so I can go into these with the intention of having a good time, maybe a laugh or two at its expense, but fill the need of why I watch these sword and sandal films on occasion in the first place.Once again, there is an evil man on the throne of a fictional country, upsurbing the throne from the rightful ruler with the intent of marrying his daughter who is really in love with the hero. Guy Williams of "Lost in Space" fame is the hero who is first visited by the princess in the form of a bird. Man-eating birds attack carrying boulders, capsize the ship, sending Sindbad and his men to shore to deal with the nasty villain (who is in possession of a magical ring) and ultimately head to the tower surrounded by a spooky forest filled with dangerous traps. The goal is to get to the upsurber's protected heart which prevents him from being killed if stabbed. It is here where the hero faces (only briefly) a mystical creature which actually looks like a tree with eye-filled branches and obviously not of the same expense as those found in Ray Harryhausen's adventure fantasies.Nevertheless, this is still a fun reminder of the kinds of films we had long before someone started doing special effects via a computer. So grab some popcorn, sit back and re-visit an era of movies that could be silly yet ultimately delightful fun.

It's been about 30 years since I saw this as a kid and now I just recently bought it on the new remastered WB Archives DVD. DID I WASTE MY MONEY?...Heck No! It was even better than I remembered. Wonderful fun, beautiful colors, great imagination and those surreal sets, WOW, WOW, WOW. Any lover of fantasy and whimsy will love this movie providing that they have an imagination to make up for any production shortcomings. The computer effects generation of movie goers who need to be spoon fed scene by scene a depressing story with lots of vulgarity should stay away from this one. This is a fine and super fun movie for the whole family.

After completing his voyages Sindbad the Sailor and his hearty crew have come home to find a palace coup d'etat has occurred and his home city is being run by a brutal dictator played by Pedro Armendariz. He's got designs on the beautiful young princess, Heidi Bruhl both lustful and political.Captain Sindbad which appears to be a joint German-American production stars Guy Williams who if he had come along a decade earlier might well have inherited the mantle of Errol Flynn. He certainly was a dashing Zorro for Walt Disney television. Williams's greatest challenge was keeping a straight face through a lot of very hokey dialog which he does admirably. Armendariz is invincible, we see proof of that when Williams runs a scimitar through him and he doesn't flinch. Finding out the secret of Armendariz's invincibility and rescuing his princess from a fate worse than death is the sum and substance of the film.I remember seeing this in the theater when it first came out and liked it. I still like it somewhat, but I certainly was a lot younger in 1963.The special effects are good, not DeMille or Harryhausen quality, but still good. I fear though that the hokeyness of the script will probably limit Captain Sindbad to the juvenile trade.