Weirdhouse Cinema Rewind: Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger

Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. Rewind. This is Rob lam and today we have an episode for you that originally published seven twenty five, twenty twenty five. It is the nineteen seventy seven Ray Harryhausen adventure film Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. This one's a lot of fun, so many great classic effects in it, which of course we discussed at length. Just a real fun flick. So let's jump right into the episode.

Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

Hey you, welcome to Weird House Cinema.

This is Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. And today on Weird House Cinema we are going to be talking about the nineteen seventy seven fantasy adventure film Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, directed by Sam Wanamaker and starring the most deliciously crunchy stop motion monster effects by the great Ray Harryhausen, including but not limited to, a gang of saber wielding ghules that rise up out of a fire, a giant hyperborean walrus, a one horned troglodite who just wants to love really, a I was gonna say, a demon wasp, but I think more accurately it is a bee, even though in it's an enlarged form, it looks kind of wasp like.

Yeah.

And then I would say, most importantly, the minoton, a magical bronze robot or automaton in the shape of a silent, frowning, bull headed minotaur.

Yeah. Kind of a mashup of Tallous and the minotaur.

Yeah.

Like everything in this film, everything is a mash up here. There's nothing really, there's nothing really authentic because we'll be discussing. But via the magic of Ray Harry Housen, special effects and filmmaking in general, it comes its own thing. It becomes this ridiculously fun flick.

Sindbad in the Eye of the Tiger has a special significance for me because somehow I had a bootleg VHS tape of this movie when I was growing up, and I watched it a lot. I've seen this many, many times, but less so in recent years. I was mesmerized by the monsters when I was growing up, especially the Minotan that when I found very scary and captivating. I think in part because of the you know, I guess none of the monsters in this movie talk but there's something about the silence of the Minoton that that feels especially significant, just that closed frowning mouth.

Absolutely, Ray harry Housen was able to pour just so much. I mean, in general, Ray Harry house I poured a lot of life into the things that he brought to life, these pieces of clay and other substances through stop motion. But in this picture in particular, I feel like there's a lot of heart and life and you can almost be out get into this sort of internal mindset, limited as it might be with the Minoton, but you still get a sense of like who this or what this creature.

Is animated by evil magic, but also somehow a little bit sad, Like I feel a bit of pity for the Minoton in the way he's just sort of bossed around and then discarded towards the end of the film when he has outlived his usefulness there. Yeah, so the Minoton is a you know, soulless a soulless weapon, a tool of evil magic, and I still somehow my heart breaks for him.

Yeah, this is this I imagine. I didn't see this film when I was a kid. I don't know how I avoided it because, as I've mentioned before, I watched Clash of the Titans over and over on various turner stations. It was just always on. So I'm kind of surprised I'd never seen this one. My wife had seen this one as a kid, but I never did. And it's a shame because I mean, to a limited extent, it's a shame because this was a great film to have seen as a kid, because it is very much monsters and stop motion effects. First, humans a distant second.

Certainly the main humans a distant second. Yeah. So while I love so many things about this movie, one thing I realized on coming back to it as an adult is that this is an example of a type of fantasy film that I think has not aged extremely well in its portrayal of real life human cultures for a couple of reasons. One thing is this is a Sinbad movie, so it's based on the character of Sinbad the Sailor, a hero who appears in later manuscripts of the Arabic language folk tale collection one thousand and one Nights. Sinbad is a brave and resourceful sailor from Baghdad who achieves great fortune through his travels across the sea to foreign lands, and he survives all these harrowing encounters along the way

and comes back with great stories to tell. From what I can deduce this story, the story in Sinbad in the Eye of the Tiger is not based on any particular story appearing in the Sinbad hero cycle, and it should not be taken as a faithful or authentic representation of the Sinbad folklore.

Yeah. I think it was based entirely on sort of the vibe of the past Sindbad films. Yeah, and also what Ray Harry Housen wanted to do special effects wise, he said he'd always wanted to do a smile it on, you know, a saber tooth cat, and so it's in the picture. I guess it was left to the screenwriter. Oh and also Ray has a story credit on this, so you know, I guess it was like, I want to smile it on in the picture. Let's figure out how to.

Make it work, rippling furry muscly beast of it. I love the smile it on in here, but yeah, I don't think you'll find that in any of the Sindbad folklore or in the versions appearing in one thousand and one Nights. Another thing I will say is that although this movie is I think not as offensive as it could have been in this manner, it is a movie depicting a historical Middle Eastern culture that was made mostly by Europeans and European Americans, and to me looking at it now, this movie comes across as bringing some level of ethnic caricature and some implicit orientalism. Orientalism meaning like a view held by some people from Western cultures that people of Eastern cultures are maybe less sophisticated, less refined,

maybe more treacherous and barbaric, and there I think there are currents of that running through the story here. It also probably goes without saying that the movie does not seem very concerned with historical or cultural authenticity and like trying to depict the environment of the Abbasid Empire in the you know, in which this story is originally set in the folklore version.

Yeah, yeah, We're pretty far removed from any any manner of historic or literary reality here.

And I think this is one of the difficulties of adapting fantasy that is more grounded in the real world. Like the more you try to root a fantasy story in real times and places, or to base it faithfully on real literature. The more difficult of a job you have, though I guess that makes me respect it even more when it's done well. And you know, and I can think about good fantasy films that are very rooted in history and are informed by what we know now about the culture of the time and stuff. So there are good examples of that. But you know, when you set out to do something like that historical in the real world, it's just harder to do. So I would say, of course, don't form your opinions about the Sinbad folklore or about

the historical culture and people of the opposite empire from this movie.

Yeah, nor should you base much concerning you know, prehistoric organisms either. There's nothing particularly accurate about this film.

But with all those caveats, I would like to speak for this movie's great virtues. It is a robust, swashbuck len adventure story set in an interesting and weird world. It's got wonderful monster and creature effects like give me all the minoton you got I wish. In fact, on coming back and watching this as an adult, there was less minoton than I remembered. The minoton looms larger in my memory than it actually does in the story, and so I almost wish I could could have had more of it. But I guess that's a good thing to feel after a story. After a story, it's better to feel that you wish there had been more of something than that there was too much and you got tired of it. Yeah.

Yeah, they're strong comparison to be made here to Boba Fett and Return of the Jedi. You know, we didn't see as much of them as we wanted, and that led everyone to just dream about what was possible and to obsess over this minor character, and likewise the Menoton here. I don't know. I also kind of feel like this movie did the Minoton dirty, but it's also so memorable, and I end up feeling for him so much, even though he is discarded like a used tool.

I also, in different ways, enjoy a lot of the acting in this movie. I'm going to say I don't want to be mean, but I think our main actor is in this particularly Patrick Wayne in the role of Sinbad, has got to go on some kind of leaderboard of big budget movie wooden performances. He is not spellbinding, but he is very funny, But I genuinely do love some of the character actor performances, and it particularly Patrick Trauton as Melanthius, the Alchemist and the Wizard, you know that the Greek sage. He's a lot of fun and there's some good color like that in there. Another thing that I thought was funny about Sindbad in the Eye of the Tiger is that I never knew this before researching before this episode. But it was released in the summer

of nineteen seventy seven, same season as a little movie called Star Wars, so I think it was facing some competition.

Yeah, yeah, So this was the third Columbia Sindad film with effects by Ray Harry Howsen, following up on nineteen fifty eight, The Seventh Void of Sinbad in seventy three is The Golden Voyage of Sindbad. The previous two films had been hits, but yeah, as lovingly crafted as this film is and as much as we love it now, it surely looked pretty long in the tooth compared to just the newness of Star Wars.

Yeah, and Rob, I think you'll know what I mean about this. There are some weird mismatches in the level of competence with the effects in the movie, like it has some of the best stop motion effects ever done in a lot of the monster scenes, but there are other parts of it where little just like matt shots and stuff feel very clunky and amateurish to me.

Yeah, there's some yeah, some matt shots and or some day for Night. I don't know, there are a few shots here. I couldn't tell if I was looking at bad or I don't want to say bad but maybe less effective matt work, or if I was looking at less of effective day for night. But and I also wasn't entirely sure how to view it, because, as I'll discussed in a minute, I saw this on the big screen, so I wasn't sure if I was looking. I mean, the effects looked amazing, but I wasn't sure. Well, is this the Is this a fully restored version of it?

I'm not sure, but yes, I definitely got a sense of that mismatch in the visuals.

I mean, on my Blu ray A lot of the scenes look great, but particularly the scenes set at night just did not look right to me. They are too dark. I can't tell who anybody is.

Yeah, they're very blue.

It's yeah, something's not working right there. But another thing I wanted to talk about with I The Tiger is a note on genre this Rewatching this movie got me thinking about how Sindbad and the Eye of the Tiger is kind of a paragon of the adventure genre. This is the kind of classic film people are thinking about when they use the word adventure for a movie genre.

And so I was thinking, why, what exactly is adventure and especially what distinguishes adventure from similars like action. The first idea I had about this was about travel. Adventure stories seem to necessarily involve travel or a journey, whereas action stories may or may not include travel and a journey.

But I think this is not good enough as a distinction, Like it certainly doesn't capture the whole difference, because for example, every James Bond movie, every Mission Impossible movie, those all involve travel to interesting new locations. So like, making a journey to an interesting new place doesn't make a movie an adventure, And I'm never tempted to think about these other movie series as adventure stories.

I think maybe part of it comes down to the presumed or implied mastery over travel, you know, like a modern film you've just been have characters just zipping around the world, and it doesn't seem like it takes any effort or even expense to do so. It's just you're one place one second or another the next. Whereas if a film either gives you, if a film gives you something to go on, that implies like a more historical difficulty in travel, or even maybe goes to the links of just showing you how far the character is traveling.

I'm thinking of like the map sequences in Indiana Jones, you know, you get more of that sense of globe trotting adventure.

I think that's a really good observation. Yeah, something about the difficulty of travel, the sense of going somewhere, going somewhere new, or going somewhere dangerous or unique. That is different than just like going to an airport somewhere, you know, flying in. Another thing I was thinking about is that adventure I think way more often includes fantasy or fantastical elements.

Of course it doesn't have to. There are totally realistic adventure stories, and action can also have fantasy elements too, Like there's a whole subgenre people call action fantasy. Big example Larus Highlander, and so again that doesn't fully capture the distinction, but that's kind of a tendency. Action I think is more likely to have what feels like a focus on physical conflict, fight scenes, and chase scenes. But of course you will find these elements in most adventure stories as well. The adventure movie we're talking about today has lots of action scenes. They both of these genres have thrills based on a sense of danger and risk.

But ultimately, I think the most important conclusion I came to was that, unlike action, adventure necessarily involves a feeling of discovery or amazement, which is tied up in the central goal of the protagonists. So like in an action movie, in the end, the thing you have to do is beat the bad guy, and in an adventure movie, the thing you have to do is uncover the great secret or reach the hidden place. So they're like fundamentally sort of amazement entangled goals.

Yeah, you may have a few fistfights on top of some trains and so forth on the way there, but but yeah, it's about that destination. It's about that great discovery.

Yeah, And so I think this is why a lot of my favorite action oriented stories are more action adventure. You know, I like stories about a quest to unveil something hidden more than just stories about conflict with an adversary, though there are plenty of great examples of the latter two. Yeah, all right, did you have an elevator pitch for this?

I would say Sindbad's Voyage to Hyperborea Like that would be a more accurate title, because Ie of the Tiger. There's there are some cat eyes going on in the film, but it's it's less overt. I don't know, And it also doesn't fit the title the title style of the previous two films.

It feels like Harry Housen's motivation to make a stop motion Sabertooth Tiger is infecting the themes of the title.

Yeah, he had Eye of the Tiger. Yes, that's what dictated everything else. Also I of the Walrus.

Wait, when when was Rocky? Did? Do we have Eye of the Tiger? Did that only come with Rocky two? I don't remember when was When was that song.

I Have the Tiger by Survivor? Yeah that was eighty two. Okay, but maybe maybe you know, I'm not entirely sure. I've never researched this. Maybe it has its roots in this film. Why not, that's something to look up. Okay, should we get some trailer audio. Yeah, let's listen to a little bit of trailer audio.

Here, these eyes peer out through time, through space, to the land beyond imagination.

These are the eyes of the Tiger.

Follow their gaze back.

Back to where legends first began, where fantasy is real and the land of the lost is rediscovered. Journey across the oceans of antiquity to the northern edge of the ancient world. As Sinbad battles with both human commong you what ese and supernatural even filmed in the Miracle of Dynorama. Come face to face with the prehistoric trogue. See the Sorceress bring life to the all powerful Minoton. See Sinbad battle the saber Tooth Tiger. Reguardian of the Secret Shrine.

Join Sindbad, the greatest of all adventurers, in his biggest adventure of all, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger.

All right, Well, you may be wondering at this point, how can I watch Sindbad and the Eye of the Tiger. Well, I mean, unless you have the same bootleg VHS that Joe had in his child that you're gonna have to find some other way to watch it. I had the pleasure of seeing this one on the big screen at Atlanta's Historic Plaza Theater as part of the Silver Scream spook Show series. Look it up. Their next show is going to be Frankenstein Meets the wolf Man on October third.

But there's also a great looking indicator Blu Ray that has tons of extras that seems to be a great physical media choice. It's region free as well. You can also get this one as part of Ray Harryhausen The Ultimate Collection, which also looks great. And there may be other Harry Housend box sets out there as well.

Let me look and see what mine is. I watched it on a four disc Blu Ray set called The Fantastic Films of Ray Harry Housen, and this set comes with Jason and the Argonauts, Golden Voyage of Sinbad, Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, and this one.

That's a nice collection right here.

Yeah, we could come back and do Golden Voyage sometime as well, because that one, I think is also a hit, also has amazing monsters and has Tom Baker in it as the villain.

Yes, Tom Baker, And that's what That's one that I saw many years ago at a drive in movie theater here in the Atlanta area. So it's been a long time since I've seen it at this point, but I remember it's a nice, sweaty movie. I think of it as an outdoor viewing experience in the summer, totally. All right, let's talk about the folks behind this picture. We'll start with the director, Sam Wanamaker, who we mentioned earlier, lived nineteen nineteen through nineteen ninety three, a veteran American actor and director who spent most of his career in the UK to avoid the blacklist in America during the nineteen fifties.

He had Broadway roots in the US and then played an important role revitalizing the Globe Theater in London during his time there. His TV and screen credits go back to nineteen forty eight and include nineteen sixty five, The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, nineteen seventy Eight's Death on the Nile, nineteen eighty six is Raw Deal?

Oh Oh? Nineteen eighty seven Superman for the Quest for Peace.

Raw Deal. That's a Schwarzenegger film, isn't it.

Yeah?

I don't know if that's one I've seen, but that I'm very familiar with the cover art for that one, where it's like Schwarzenegger holding a shotgun.

Yeah, and the tagline is I think it is they gave him a raw deal. No one gives him a raw deal.

Wanta Maker's TV credits include a role on the original Outer Limits, A feasibility study is the episode, and he was also nominated for an Emmy Award for his performance in the nineteen seventy eight Holocaust mini series. As a director, he worked on various TV shows and directed such films as nineteen seventies The Executioner, seventy one's cat Low, and Owen.

He is also father of British actress Zoey wanta Maker, some of you might remember from the Harry Potter movies. So I was reading a little bit about this. Apparently, given his skills as both an actor and a director, the studio brought him on expressly to perhaps pull a good performance out of some of the maybe stiffer members of the cast. Was he successful? Maybe not. But I think also, as we'll discuss, maybe this just isn't the sort of movie where you're gonna be able to do that, Like you're kind of setting anybody up for a challenge given some of the constraints involved here.

Yeah, and as I think I said earlier, I mean Patrick Wayne's would in this achieves a kind of excellence of its own.

Yeah. Yeah, Like at the end of the day, do I want someone more convincing in the role? Well yes in some ways, but in other ways absolutely not. Like it was. He's given it is all and we'll talk about him in a minute. But yeah, I enjoy his performance.

Yeah, me too.

Also worth noting, apparently, you know, you look at his other films, he did not direct films like this. He didn't direct big fantasy adventure films. He apparently took this project on in a life in large part to help finance his work with the Globe Theater. So you know, even if the acting in this film is not always top notch, well you know, maybe the end result is the money involved here helped support some great theater in London.

All right, now, story credit, producer credit, and of course creator of visual effects. We have the great Ray Harry Housen, who we've talked about on the show before, because of course we talked about Clash of the Titans, which was the film that he did right after this one. Harry Housen lived nineteen twenty through twenty thirteen. He was an American British Oscar winning animator and special effects creator. Who I mean, it's really hard to overstress his importance. He just a major pioneer in the industry. So thinking for instance, about Star Wars coming along and sort of pushing films like this into the past and making films like this seem increasingly old fashioned, like everyone involved in the special

effect and Star Wars was inevitably inspired by Ray Harry Housen, like he is just he is a legend, and everything that came after him, everything that kind of to varying degrees, replaced the style of old fashioned stop motion that he was bringing to the screen, Like they wouldn't exist without his work.

And genuinely, Ray Harry Housen's stop motion work does not look old and dated to me. I mean, it always looks fresh and exciting in a way that a lot of more cutting edge techniques don't hold up as well.

Right, Yeah, particularly like early CGI or even like really cutting edge CGI. Because I think we've talked about before a lot of it, as you can say this about a lot of practical effects. But I think especially about really well done stop motion is that you feel like you can touch it. It has this tangible quality to it.

It really does come alive in the way that I mean. It gets down down to the medium and art of puppetry throughout human history, like the basic twin powers of human artistry and imagination to make that which is lifeless take on.

Life, beautifully said, and I agree, and again, when I'm looking at stop motion effects, I'm also enjoying them for more than just a desire that they look realistic. You know, it's not just I want to believe this is a real monster on the scene. I mean, stop motion to me feels like an art form and I can appreciate its own dimensions of aesthetic virtue. It is an art unto itself, and it's beautiful in.

That way, absolutely, like you want to see the slight flaws in it in the same way that you want to see the puppeteer. You know, you don't have to hide the puppeteer. With puppetry. A lot of the time the puppeteer is visible, and it's just it's part of the performance, and you know, you're going to suspend disbelief and we're going to also see life and what has been created theatrically for us.

Right in the same way that like, if I'm looking at a great sculpture, I'm not bothered by the fact that it's not indistinguishable from a living human being. Like I'm enjoying it for what it looks like, as a piece of marble or rock that has been made into an image that is its own thing.

Absolutely So. I'm not gonna list all the different films that Ray Harry Housen was involved in, but just to mention a few, You've got films like Mighty Joe Young from forty nine. You have twenty Million Miles to Earth from fifty seven against seven, Voyage of Sindbad from fifty eight, Mysterious Island from sixty one one million Years BC from nineteen sixty six. I want to say that was a hammer picture. It may be misremembering the Golden Voyage of Sindbad from seventy three. The predecessor did this film, and then Sinbad in the Eye of the Tiger from seventy seven, and then eighty one's Clash of the Titans, which we previously talked about in the show. That was his swan song essentially, and that one features I think eight different

stop motion creatures. Tied with one million Years BC for the most creatures in a Harry Housen film. I believe today's selection is pretty close. There are a lot of a lot of creatures in here.

Yeah, it didn't count them. Do you count the ghouls as three creatures or is one? Because it's one sequence?

I think they're an act right, Okay, Yeah.

But I agree. I think just as for raw virtues. As a film, this is not the best Ray Harryhausen movie I've seen. I think I like Golden Voyage of Sindbad better, and I might like I might ultimately like Clash of the Titans better, but this is some of the best stop motion work. Like the monsters in here are on the top shelf with the other ones.

Yeah, and it's what you come to this film to see. These creations are the stars of the film without a doubt. All Right. The screenwriter on this picture was Beverly Cross. That's the British Beverly, the masculine Beverly name Beverly Cross, who lived nineteen thirty one through nineteen ninety eight, English playwright and screenwriter, longtime husband of the actress Maggie Smith till Beverly's death. His screenplays include nineteen sixty three's Jason and the Argonauts, nineteen sixty five's Genghis Khan that we started with Marshaif.

When I first saw that credit, by the way, I was briefly terrified that this was the screenplay for the movie where John Wayne plays Jingis Khan.

Thankfully not this one released ted O Marsharif and then of course today's film, as well as Clash of the Titans. So you know, we briefly mentioned Beverly Cross before in our Clash of the Titans episode.

Okay, but no, the I think the John Wayne Jingis Khan movie was The Conqueror, which I've never seen but have heard it is one of the most ludicrous films ever made.

Yeah, some notorious miscasting there, all right, Well, since we're talking about the Duke, Yeah, let's talk about the son of the Duke, Patrick Wayne, who plays sind Dad in this picture. Born nineteen thirty nine. It is indeed the son of John Wayne, the legendary American Western actor here playing the Middle Eastern Mariner from Arabic literature.

This casting choice one of the elements I too earlier that has not aged well.

Right. This would not be the last time, by far that a white actor would play a Middle Eastern character, but I think you'd be hard pressed to find a wider actor portraying such a character in a film. It's just such a mismatch. Wayne's screen credits here go back to I believe nineteen fifty when he started doing kid cameos in his father's pictures, which eventually led to larger roles in these productions, including nineteen fifty eights The Searchers, for which he won a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer.

His first starring role came with nineteen fifty nine's The Young Land That One co starred Dennis Hopper and Dan O'Hurley, and yet, needless to say, I should come as a shock to nobody Patrick Wayne mostly worked in westerns. His filmography is mostly Westerns, following the footsteps of his dad, but in the nineteen seventies he did branch out more and appeared in a trio of sci fi films. There's nineteen seventy threes Beyond Atlantis, which is just stupendous. It is, It's an outrageous movie. Co stars Sid Hague. Definitely check that one out if you haven't. There's this film, and there's also nineteen seventy seven's The People at the Time Forgot co starring Doug McClure.

I haven't seen either of those other ones. I kind of feel a calling to I wonder, is I think this is the only Patrick Wayne movie I've seen? Is he always like he is here?

You know? Well, I guess so, so I barely remember him at all from Beyond Atlantis. I was a little shocked that he was in it. But he's like the star, so he's ok. I mainly remembered said, hey, getting munched on by crabs, Oh okay. But it seems like he probably has a good co star and Doug McClure from the People at the Time, for God, haven't seen that one yet. That things that I've never seen any of his westerns. I'm I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe he's more at home in a Western, you know, maybe he fits there better.

I mean, if this makes any sense, even though he's very wooden in the role of Sindbad, he does feel comfortable. It doesn't feel like there's anything like really like catching or twanging or sticking out at you. Instead, it's just these very stiff, kind of uninflected line deliveries and just general beef slab energy. It's he's it doesn't feel like he's doing a lot of acting, if that makes any sense.

He's just sort of a presence.

Yeah, yeah, I mean it's I don't know, there's there's a hamminess to it. Yeah, and there's a there are plenty of moments where I kind of giggled or laughed, you know. It's just as it's it's fun if you like these kind of performances. But yeah, but yeah, I mean, on the other hand, there are a lot of other great actors that I would not even begin to cast as Sindbad the Sailor. Like, I mean, Harry ding Stanton is great, but can you imagine harryding Stanton playing Sinbad.

I can't really.

Wouldn't do that either.

Yeah.

Yeah, And it's also worth noting that Wayne he had pretty big boots to fill here because John Philip Law played Sinbad in the previous film, you know, seventy three is the Golden Voyage of Sinbad and John Philip Law, of course, was also an American non Arabic actor, but much more established, I think, in many ways, more experienced at least with like different sorts of genre films anyway, and arguably a more charismatic performer.

Not trying to beat up on Patrick Wayne, but yeah, yeah, I agree.

All right. Moving on to Sinbad's love interest, we have this character.

Farah, princess they call they pronounce her name different ways throughout the movie. Some characters call her Farah, some call her Farrah, but she's Princess Farah or Farrah far Ah. This is the character played by Jane Seymour.

Yes born nineteen fifty one, British actress, probably best known for her roles first of all, in the James Bond film Live and Let Die from seventy three. For the of you don't remember it, This is the sort of blaxploitation inspired Bond film which featured Yafit Coto Harrding Stanton's co star from Alien as the villain doctor Kanaga Kananga.

I'm sorry, Kananga, been a while since I've seen this one. Also, of course it had an amazing theme song as well, Livin Let Dyings. Yeah, yeah, that's gotta be one of my tops right there.

You mean, as far as Bond songs go, as.

Long as yeah, as far as Bond songs go, I would put that up with you know, Duran, Duran's of view to a Kill.

Yeah yeah. Livin Let Die was the first Roger Moore James Bond movie.

I need to receive it. I feel like it's a weird one. It is. But Jane Seymour is also known to many of you for her role on her title role on the TV series Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman from nineteen ninety three through nineteen ninety eight. Other genre credits include nineteen seventy three's Frankenstein The True Story and nineteen eighty three is The Phantom of the Opera, among many others.

She was also a Broadway actress, having performed in Amadeus during its original Broadway run from nineteen eighty through nineteen eighty three.

I'm gonna say, as with Patrick Quayne, I'm not trying to beat up on anybody here, but Jane Seymour is not spellbinding in this role. She's kind of she feels like she's kind of just wandering through it.

Yeah, and you know, I granted they brought a director on to, you know, to help the human actors, but it's hard to deny that a film like this was not created with the human actors in mind. So, unless you're a stop motion effect or a villain or an interesting side character, I don't know, you're kind of facing an uphill battle, I think in a picture like this.

Yes, and sometimes sometimes Jane Seymour's most awkward moments are not even her fault. There's one part I want to talk about later where she something scary happens and she screams, and they sample her scream twice in a row, like, they play her scream and then they cut to silence, and then they play the exact same scream again. So that was not her choice to scream twice the same way.

The reason it's funny is an editing choice. I don't know why they did that, but I'm kind of glad it's left in.

I mean, it's good, all right.

Up next, we have another character by the name of Diany. She is the daughter of the wizard inventor. We'll get to him in a second Melanthius and She is played by Tarran Power, who lived nineteen fifty three through twenty twenty. Actress and daughter of American actor Tyrone Power and Mexican actress Linda Christian. Her acting career was not extensive. It encompassed a string of credits, mostly from the nineteen seventies, but they included a major role in nineteen seventy six tracks This starred Dennis Hopper, and a supporting role in the nineteen seventy five TV adaptation of The Countermine Christo.

This is kind of a strange character. I think Tarin Power does pretty well with this role, but it's a weird character because they kind of introduce things about her that then these plot threads are not paid off on later, Like, Yeah, the fact that she's telepathic that doesn't go anywhere, or the fact that she's falling in love with the baboon prince is only briefly. You only get the briefest little like glimpse that that might be going somewhere at the end. Yeah.

Yeah, When they first introduced the telepathy, I'm like, oh wow, this is nice and weird. We're getting into some strange territory here, but they're not really as much, not really much as made of it.

Does it ever come up again? After that scene?

There may be one other scene of telepathy, but yeah, for the most part, it's not a major plot point. All right, Well, let's get to our central villain in this picture. It is Zenobia, the Sorceress, the Witch, played by Margaret whitting who lived nineteen thirty three through twenty twenty three, the British actress of stage, screen and TV, who, yeah, really gets to witch it up big time here. It's a I think it gets a completely over the top performance, which is not a bad thing in a movie like this.

You are, you know, competing with and acting alongside stop motion effects, and you need to be an effect, a special effect in your own right. And I believe that's what she brings to the performance of Zenobia.

You're correct, she does not hold back at all.

She worked mostly in British television, and her credits include Artemis eighty one, which caught my eye. I have not seen this, but as apparently a weird British television play which also features Danil Harley Sting and Daniel day Lewis. Well, we'll have more to say about this performance when we get into the character and the plot, because this is a pretty this is a pretty wild villain character and also one that I don't know. There's a lot of bumbling here from our magic users, yes, which will be fun to talk about.

From her and Malanthias. It's like our two smartest characters, the ones who were supposed to be outsmarting everybody else, make these really dumb mistakes.

Yes, sometimes right on top of each other, like one is like, ah, you messed up, Now allow me to roll the natural one and they just do it back and forth.

That's a good metaphor. Yeah, well, wait, so let's talk about Malanthias also rolling ones right back at her.

That's right. Played by Patrick Throutin who lived nineteen twenty through nineteen eighty seven, British actor, best remembered by a lot of you as the second incarnation of the Doctor on Doctor Who. So they you know, they followed up on the previous picture by casting a previous Doctor Who in the movie. He was the second incarnation of the Doctor from nineteen sixty six through sixty nine, but then he would reprise this a few times later in subsequent decades.

He was a fairly highly regarded actor whose mini credits include a delightful mix of Shakespearean drama and horror films, particularly Hammer horror. So his credits generally supporting roles include nineteen fifty five's Richard the Third That One starred Lawrence Olivier, nineteen sixty two's The Phantom of the Opera starring Herbert Lohm, sixty four is The Gorgon, nineteen seventies, The Scars of Dracula, nineteen seventy fours Frankenstein and The Monster from Hell, and nineteen seventy six is The Omen, in which he played Father Brennan, who has a very memorable death.

Oh is he the guy who gets the stake during the storm?

Yeah? It's like, what, like a lightning rod or something falls off the top of a cathedral and like skewers him standing up in the.

Okay, I didn't realize that was the same guy. I really love Patrick Troughton as Melanthias. This is one of the most fun performances in the film. He's a nice combination of krusty and jovial.

Yes and certainly bumbling. The character's a great bumbling vibe. Tremendous fun chewing it up there on the screen. He is a previous doctor on Doctor Who. I checked in with my uncle in law, who is a longtime Doctor Who fan, for his thoughts, and he said this was his favorite Patrick throat the movie and that his favorite Doctor Who episode involved this plot where where he's playing both the Doctor and a character known as Salamander. The episode is apparently titled The Enemy of the World, in which quote the Doctor impersonates Salamander to spy on him, and Salamander impersonates the Doctor to steal the tartists. This is apparently like a dual role situation. I haven't seen it, so I can't comment too much on it, but I

think the idea is that Salamander just happens to look like the Doctor and then that enables them to swap places with each other. But I can imagine how that would be a lot of fun, you know, from an acting standpoint, and then as.

A viewer that I'm sure doing it that way saves on the makeup budget.

Yeah, all right. Up, Next, we have Nudem Sowala playing Hassan born nineteen thirty three, Jordanian British actor who also appeared in such films as nineteen seventy four as Vampira, seventy five is The Wind and the Lion, and also Return of the Pink Panther from the same year seventy sevens The Spy Who Loved Me nineteen eighty five's Young Sherlock Holmes nineteen eighty seven is The Living Daylight. So that's two Bond films, and then later on he was in such pictures as two thousand and five Syriana.

So this guy is I would say Sinbad's main like lieutenant sort of on his boat. Maybe. I don't know if they actually ever announced their offices, so I don't think they say he's first made or anything. But he's like one of the crew members we see most often doing things along with Maroof, and all of the crew members are sort of buffoonish in this movie. They're sort of like Bottoms Gang in Midsommer Night's stream. You know, they are often there for comedy. But I like Nadim Siwala in his scenes and he, you know, he leans into the buffoonery in a pleasant way.

Yeah. Yeah, It's a fun supporting role that, along with the character of Marouf, brings some much needed but not nearly enough diversity to a very whitewashed film, And clearly he's a charismatic actor. You want to see more from him. But you know, given what little he's allowed to do in the picture, he still does a great job. Now turning to Maroof. Maroof was played by Salami Cocher, who lived nineteen forty five through nineteen ninety two. Again small supporting role, but memorable screen presence a lot of the time. Yeah, where like Patrick Wayne is in the forefront, but we're really more interested in, well, what are a Hassan and Maroof doing? Would love to see more of their antics.

Coker was a Sierra Leone born actor who trained in the UK and was part of the cast for a nineteen seventy two production of Macbeth titled The Black Macbeth at the Roundhouse Theater. I looked up some information on this. He played that production's version of McDuff.

Oh okay.

He also wrote and directed plays and appeared in the TV series Born Free in nineteen seventy four. He died during the Sierra Leonian Civil War. All Right, this movie is a lot of the plot centers around the character of Castine, who, in his human form is played by Damian Thomas, who lived nineteen forty two through twenty twenty five.

Oh my god, it's Count Carnstein. We've talked about I'm sure he's come up on Weird House before, but I know, Rob, you and I have talked about him off Mike because he's in these hammer horror movies like Twins of Evil where he's playing this recurring character of the vampire Count Carnstein. And there's a great scene in Twins of Evil where he's having this dinner with all these evil guests who were gathered around his table, and he raises a glass and he says to Satan.

Yeah, he's a lot of fun. We don't really. He doesn't really do much in this picture though. His main job is to look handsome whenever. His character is not a stop motion baboon, but he's more impressive other works.

Does he have lines as the non baboon version.

You know, I honestly can't remember if he does. If he does, he doesn't say much. I think he maybe has a line or two at the beginning, and then it's mostly baboon form. But yeah. Best known for his roles in seventy one's Twins of Evil. He was in nineteen seventy six Is the Message, and also the nineteen eighty TV adaptation of Showgun. His later credits included twenty Tens Never Let Me Go. On the small screen, he also appeared in one of my absolute favorite episodes of the Granada Sherlock Holme series starring Jeremy Brett, the Devil's Foot episode. He plays more to more Treganois in that.

This is the if anyone doesn't remember this, this is the one where Sherlock is investigating a case where it seems like some people dining in a home were frightened to death or madness by something appearing at the window, and so it seems like there might be some sort of supernatural el lament in play. But it turns out it's not. It's something more in a way, more mysterious and interesting. Anyway, that's great.

Is it an orangutan?

It is not an a rangute? Okay, we've actually talked about this one on the show before. I think we've talked about poisons. Basically, it turns out to be some sort of a hallucinogenic poison that is used against them. Okay, Now, note Thomas was born in Egypt, but he was of British and French heritage, but was often called on to play a host of foreigner roles in British productions. Now of note, the Menton, of course, is everyone's favorite. The minaton is depicted in two ways. We see a stop motion menaton primarily, but there's also a version of the menton that involves a human in a suit. That human.

Peter Mayhew nineteen forty four through twenty nineteen, the seven foot three actor best known for his portrayal of Chewbacca.

So wait, he had two big movies in seventy seven. Yeah.

Yeah, one way or another it was going to be Peter Mayhew's year. It just turned out to be the year of Star Wars and not Simbad in the Eye of the Tiger.

I would love to hear his thoughts on that, Like did he think maybe Sindbad was going to be a bigger hit?

Who knows? Yeah, I mean Simbad, Simbada and the Eye of the Tiger. As we've discussed and we'll continue to discuss, it is a very old fashioned picture, Like you can tell that, like it feels like a picture of the nineteen sixties, as opposed to the nineteen seventies, almost the nineteen eighties, but in that you can imagine some people thinking like, this is what a movie's about, Like this is this is a return to the basics, This is what people want.

Yeah, my swashes are buckled with this one. I don't know what a death star is.

All right? And finally the score here. The musical score is by Roy Budd, who of nineteen forty seven through nineteen ninety three highly talented composer and musician who died tragically young. Was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Song for nineteen seventy six is Paper Tiger. He also composed the Get Carter theme song, which, if you haven't listened to it it's pretty stellar, you've probably heard it somewhere. In addition to nineteen seventy ones Get Carter, his other scores include seventy ones Cat Low and seventy three's The Stone Killer, which has some nice synths in it.

The score for Symbat in the Eye of the Tiger is like a sweeping adventure score. It does its job perfectly. But listening to some of these other scores that Bud did, I get the impression that maybe he was at his best on films that enabled him to explore more modern nineteen seventy sounds like something a little synthy but also jazzy.

That seems to be a sweet spot because that Get Carter theme song is tremendous.

I don't know if I know it. I'll have to go listen to it after this. But yeah, I would say the Sindbad score does not really stand out to me much in either direction.

Yeah, but it does its job.

Yeah, well it actually, you know, there's some good music cues in it now that I think about it, especially in the scary scenes. It's like the creepy scenes with the minoton have some really nicely complimentary music.

Oh yeah, like when they've just finished baking his.

Heart, yes, and the heartbeat is playing and you get those creepy kind of woo things.

That's good stuff.

That is good.

All right?

Are you ready to talk about the plot?

Let's get into it.

So we open with a shot of fireworks showing there's a great celebration going on, and we get an establishing shot of a city on a coast with beautiful Islamic architecture and a full moon rising behind the city. So along the skyline in the moonlight, we can see white city walls, minarets, pyramid shaped roofs, domes, and then we cut to inside the palace in this city. This is the kingdom we will later learn is called Sharraq. So inside the palace in the capital of Shirak, there is a procession going on where the Sharrak is about to crown a new Khlifh. And in this part of the movie we see several main characters all in their formal court attire. They've got veils, turbans, lots of jewelry. And in this scene you've got Prince Cassim played by Damian Thomaskin.

That's Count Carnstein for you Hammer fans. This is the noble young prince who's about to ascend to the throne. He's about to be crowned Caliph Cassim's beautiful and kind hearted sister for Rah played by Jane Seymour. Cassim's stepmother is Zenobia played by Margaret Whitting and again she's the very first moment you see her. It's a case of like, okay, which one of you is the evil witch? Like she's just always She's got her nose upturned at everyone. Permanent witch sneer. In fact, I think I could make a distinction here. Maybe there are more categories than this, but broadly, if you're going to movie witches, I think there are like two big streams that you can split them into, and it's going to be like woods witch versus Castle witch.

And so you've got your more kind of earthy, ground level nature associated or independently operating, which is that's kind of your woods which and then you've got your aristocratic witches who are doing depraved evil magic. And these tend to be you know, rich schemers who are trying to, you know, protect their power. And Zenobia in this movie is very much in the latter camp. She is a she is an evil queen witch and aristocratic witch.

Yeah, absolutely, get you your goop witch, I guess yeah.

And then also you have Zenobia's son, Raffi, played by Kurt Christian, who is doing his best to look like he is scheming at all times.

Here.

Yes, So the procession leads into the throne room, Prince Cassim assumes the position at the head the hall, and there's a big ceremonial brazure of charcoal smoking in front of him, and then a cleric steps up behind Cassim to place the crown on his head. But as the crown is descending, we cut to Zenobia and then we see her eyes and she's looking very intense, as if she's casting a spell on Cassim, And the moment the crown touches his head, the brazier flares up and these flames leap to the ceiling and you hear a clamor break out in the room and Princess Farras screams, and this is the moment I was talking about earlier. In a quite funny editing choice, we get the exact same scream played twice, so it goes scream awkward, cut to

silence for a second, then the clamor resumes and the same scream plays, scream and scream again. Okay, yeah, exactly. However, we don't see yet what was so horrifying. We can't see what she sees. We cut away too sometime later.

Which I thought was kind of a confusing cut because I knew I knew about some of the starf motion creatures that I was in store for, and I thought maybe they were about to jump out, or we would find out later that they jumped out, but that's not really what happened either.

Will reveal if I had gone to the theater, Like if I'd seen a preview for this and had gone to the theater, I would be expecting. Okay, Jane Seymour just screamed, We're about to see the minoton but yeah no. So next we meet our other main characters, the brave Captain Sindbad played by Patrick Wayne, and his crew of lovable scoundrels. They anchor their ship in the harbor off the coast of the capital city of Shirak Heir, and they row ashore talking about how excited they are to eat roasted sheep's eyeballs, to meet some local women, and to have some wine to chill out at the inn.

But that's what the sailors are into. Sindbad himself is here for a specific purpose. He is in love with the Princess Farrah and he wants to ask her father's blessing for the two of them to get married.

Yeah, he is of higher goals, like not sheep eyebows eyeballs, but maybe sheep ears and not just any women, but the princess.

Herself, that's right, or actually, I don't know if he wants to ask her father, he might know that. I think it's that he wants to ask Cassim, her brother for her hand in marriage. Yeah. So anyway, when Sinbad comes to the entrance to the city, he finds the gates closed and the walls of the city are dark and silent. He tries to call out to the captain of the guard. Nobody comes. What's wrong? Well behind him, a man appears claiming to be a merchant, and he warns Sindbad that the city is under curfew due to an outbreak of the plague. Now we the audience can see the so called merchant is actually Raffi, the Queen's and Obia's son, and he tells Sindbad that he will not be able to pass the city gates until daybreak,

and until then he offers Sindbad and his men the comfort of his tent to share wine and food and a fire, so Sindbad accepts. Next thing, they are all hanging out around this fire, eating meat and watching belly dancers. There's one crew member here. I don't remember who this is, but he gets a great close up that is very much like a D and D dwarf with chicken and his beard thing. He's simultaneously like cartoon wolf, ogling the belly dancer in front of him and cramming some disintegrating white food into his mouth. So Raffi offers the other all the sailor's wine, and you know, they take their glasses and Sindbad is about to drink, but then another sailor who has already drank the wine starts screaming and

they figure out the wine is poisoned, so a sword fight breaks out between Sindbad and Raffi. Sinbad quickly gets the upper hand and he demands to know who Raffi really is and why he tried to kill them. But before he can get an answer, a strange feeling comes over everyone in the tent, and there's a cold wind howling from outside, and then a woman covered all in black except for just a strip where you can see her eyes, parts the flaps of the tent and steps into their midst and eerie music starts to play a sort of unstable witch theme that we hear throughout the film associated with Zenobia here and despite her disguise, obviously we the audience know this must be who this is.

But the camera zooms in on her face where only her eyes are exposed, and then her eyes fade and are superimposed with non human eyes with vertical slits like a cat's eize. So I think they're trying to give you a little payoff in the title. There yea the eye of the Tiger. This like shet her eyes turn into cat eyes.

Yeah, there's not much to it that. It's like it happens because she's doing magic, and maybe it's sort of foreshadowing something to come, but also not really.

So in a booming, echoing voice, she says, from the depths of the earth, I command you arise, kill them, kill Sinbad, and she points down to the campfire, and out of the fire emerge three creatures, our first stop motion monsters of the film, so it didn't take too long to get to them. These monsters are sort of clay flashed insectoid ghules. There are three of them, bipedal, basically human in form. They are very skinny. They're like skeletons, but with a little bit of skin and sinew stretched over the bones, with a texture that looks somewhere between clay but also sort of rubber and sort of wood, and they are armed. One of them has a sword, another has an axe, and I think one has a club.

And then on their heads they have mouths that are fixed in permanent gaping frowns, like they don't move their mouths, They're just gaping frown shaped with wrinkled cheek skin drooping on either side of the mouth. And then they've got these pairs of nubby horns or buds on top of their heads and huge saucer sized, bulbous eyes with no pupils, no color differentiation in the eyes, just each a solid color all the way across. One of them has black eyes, one red and one green. I loved these ghules when I was a kid, and I love them now. I think this is a really fun design and once the fight breaks out, this one is a hoot.

Yeah, these creatures look great. They you know, there's a bit of the devil to them. They're kind of like skeletons and then and also like bugs too. They remind they have a little bit of an Edgar Riis Burrows vibe to them. I could easily imagine them on the side of a van in the nineteen seventies. You know, they remind me a lot of things I remember from I remember seeing in nineteen seventies fantasy art. So they have a great visual flair for sure. And then the fight sequence is full of that, you know, Ray Harry hows and human versus stop motion sword fight effects. It's wonderful.

Yeah, And I love that stuff. Even when the edges are a little bit patchy, I still I love it. So Sindbad and his men fight bravely, but the Ghules are magical. So one of the men, it might be San stabs a Ghul through the chest with a sword and the Ghul just kind of looks down like what was that? Well, never mind, and then just keeps on fighting.

So we get the idea, you're not going to beat these guys with a few jabs of a sword, that you can't beat them that way. And the fight proceeds outside of the tent into the open port in the moonlight, and eventually it's just Sindbad versus these three monsters. So how is he going to beat them if his sword is basically useless? He uses a cool trick. This is the kind of thing I like in a fight scene.

I like when a fight scene is not just like application of weapon back and forth until somebody wins. I like it when there's somebody figures out an environmental trick or something. And that's what maybe I like that because I grew up watching movies like this. So Sinbad realizes there is a giant pile of timber logs stacked up on the shore. I guess they've just been loaded off of a ship here, and Sinbad cuts the rope holding the logs in place, and then they tumble out of their pile, falling on crushing and burying the ghules underneath.

And that's a flawless victory.

I think it's probably worth noting here that the ghules are at least vaguely connected to Middle Eastern lore here, as opposed to I think pretty much any of the other monsters in the picture. We've talked about ghoules on the show before, though these are I guess essentially gules and name only I don't know.

I don't think we see them eating grave flesh or anything. Right, So Sindbad is about to run back to his ship, but suddenly a woman in a pink veil calls out to him. He turns and it is his beloved. It's Princess Farah played by Jane Seymour, and so they have a brief reunion, but the witch is still about. So Sinbad sees a figure clad in black watching them, and there's no time to talk. They run and jump into the bay and all begin swimming out to Sindbad's ship. Also, his sailor friends are in the dinghy and they're rowing back to the ship as well. They're going out there to you know, until the morning comes, when things will be safer. But back on the ship, Faraf fills Sindbad in as she says it's not true that the city

is under plague. Her brother Cassim has come under a terrible curve quote worse than a thousand plagues, and she needs Sinbad's help to break it. And Sinbad says, oh, he owes Cassim his life from previous adventures, I guess, so he promises to do anything he can to help. In this scene, we also learn a bit about their relationship.

Sinbad and Pharrah have been in love, but they couldn't marry because they couldn't get on the same page. Sindbad refused to give up his life at sea. Farah refused to give up her life at court, and upon their meeting, Sinbad says, hey, okay, I'm ready to live on land, and she said, well, I'm ready to live at sea.

So I don't know which way they're going to compromise now, or maybe maybe they're at an impass again. They'd gift to the magi, so it would have been would have been a happy reunion one way or another, I guess, if not for the curse worse than a thousand plagues. So the next day, Fara's uncle Balsora, who seems to be kind of regent for the time being, he comes to meet them at Sindbad's ship, and he says that they have consulted all of the wisest doctors and astrologers from here to Alexandria, and no one knows how to help Cassim.

Balsora here is played by Bruno Barnaby, who lived nineteen oh five through nineteen ninety eight, a British actor of stage and screen. He was also in nineteen seventy six Is The Message, which starred Anthony Quinn.

So Balsora explains that unless Prince Cassim is able to be crowned caliph within the next seven full moons, he will forever lose his right to ascend to the throne. And I think that it's implied that the crown will then pass to Raffi's and Obia's son, And it's like, is there anybody here who can break the spell? Before then?

They talk about it, and Sindbad has an idea. He says, if there's anyone who knows how to cure Cassim, it could only be a Greek wise man named Melanthius, who is a hermit, natural philosopher, and alchemist who lives on an island culled Cascar off the coast of Phrygia. Sinbad says his deeds are legendary and he may not even exist.

It seems like a very far fetched plan. It's the kind of thing you'd instantly go for in dungeons and dragons, obviously, you know, but practically it's like, our only hope is someone who might not exist at all.

But it was your idea, but he might not exist, And so he says the journey will not be easy. That the crew talk about it. They say his island is ringed with deadly reefs and it's full of savages who eat human flesh and worship Malanthius as a god. And then also they say that some people some say that Melanthius himself, if he exists, is mad. But Balsora promises, He's like, okay, let's do that. Yeah, he promises to sind treasure for Sinbad's crew and for Melanthius. But before they can get underway, we have to have a meeting between the hero and the villain. So Zenobia arrives in like she's being carried and like a little compartment and when she shows up, all the horses whinny with fear, and she starts off kind of playing koy with She's like, oh, Sinbad,

why you know, what are you doing here? There is nothing that can be done about Cassim. But by the end of the scene she's just full on yelling at them. She tells them abandon hope. Cassim is doomed forever. And then Jane Seymour gets very upset at Zenobia because they do not have a friendly relationship, and she grabs a knife and she says, let me cut that smile from her face, but Balsora reminds her, you are not allowed to draw one drop of blood from a member of the royal family, or it has been prophesied. I guess you will bring down an eternal curse on your head.

And then Fara says, well, that's the only reason she has an outright murdered cassim. She says, as cunning as a snake, as malicious as a shark, RAFFI will never be caliph. Zenobia says there is no one who can prevent it, and Fara says Melanthius will prevent it, and this hits Zenobia is shaken. She stops for a moment to think, and she tries to dismiss it. She says, Malanthius is a myth and his powers are a legend.

He does not exist, but I guess we'll find out, and Zenobia retreats, oh do we want to mention? In the scene, we also meet a Hinchman kind of character I think named Zabide who is Balsaura's guard captain with an eyepatch very.

Oh yeah, played by Bernard Kay who lived nineteen twenty eight through twenty fourteen, a British character actor who also appeared on Doctor Who.

Yeah.

So Sindbad Farrah and the crew get ready to set sail for the island of Kasgar. Meanwhile, we get a scene of the witch Zenobia and her son Raffi together in private discussing their schemes. Zenobia is disturbed by Sindbad's plan. She says, if Malanthius exists, he is the only person who she fears could undo her magic, and Raffi is kind of whiny. He's like, but you promised me it was my turn to be Khalif. But mom, yeah exactly, but yeah, so they just goes. She's like, I will make sure that it is your turn to Bekahlief. So they go to check on a project. Zenobia's got a sort of medieval blast door on her laboratory here where you can look through the glass window into a furnace that's firing something. And in fact, it reminds me of

the radiation room in The Devil Bat where Belgosi is looking through the square window while he microwaves bats.

Yeah, yeah, there's definitely a mad science vibe to a lot of what she has going on here. Well, Malathius as well Malanthius as well as we'll see.

Yeah. So she says Sindbad may have a ship and a crew, and Balsora may have his palace guards. But then she stares through the window into the furnace and says, that will be our army. What is it we see inside? And it appears to be a white, hot metal form of a minotaur, a man's body, muscular, big shoulders, with the head of a bull, all made of bronze, glowing with heat.

Ah the menoton.

Meanwhile, Raffi has been working on something too. He's been crafting a golden heart covered with clockwork gears and jewels. And so we get this awakening scene. And I love this scene. I remember how scary it was when I was a little kid. I was mesmerized. So the bronze minotaur. This is a little bit later, and the minotaur is removed from the furnace and laid out on a stone slab in Zenobia's chambers. On the soundtrack, there is this steady rhythmic heart beat and some creepy atmospheric music, and Zenobia holds up the clockwork heart with its little gears pumping and milling around, and she says, Oh, brave and proud bull, whose heart my son has fashioned of purest gold, beat with the power as only I command you, oh

mighty Abu Selem, you who rule over a thousand devils by all the fires of hell and darkness, give strength in life to this your creature, men Oton min Oton. And as she says this, she pours little streams of a blood red potion out of a bottle onto the bronze statue's head, and the blood runs down like tears from the corner of the bull's eye, and then slowly the creature's eyelids creak open. And I don't know why this is so creepy, but this really hit me when I was young. The eyelids open, and then underneath them, the eyes are the same bronze material as the lids, and they're just blank. So it's like something opening and there's nothing.

Yeah. Yeah, this is just such a great sequence. I really enjoyed seeing this on the big screen. And I'm I'm glad that this is a family project, like so many things seem to be. Just as Anobia is doing, like she's doing all the leg work to try and get Rafy the throne. But here we learn, you know that he has also done his part. He has created the heart, he has cracked did the heart, and therefore you know, it's a it's a family effort to bring the Menoton into existence.

That's right. He is a crafter of clockwork, which you wouldn't you wouldn't guess based on the other things he does in the movie. Because generally, as Zenobia is the brains of the operation.

And I to it in a larger extent, I think it's it's worth noting that I think Zenobia has taken on too much in this quest. I feel like she's a very confident woman. She's a very capable witch, but she is trying to do a lot, mostly all by herself or via the efforts of things that she has directly created. And you're just gonna you're gonna have mistakes if you try and take on too many things. You just can't do everything effectively. And so she is going to begin to stumble here and there.

We'll get to a really good stumble in a bit. But I'd say right now, she's still cooking like she's ten for ten at this point.

Yeah, at this point, she's very confident and with good reason. Everything seems to be going her way, with the possible exception of this quest that she's about to squash. But hey, she has the Minton, the one man army of the menton here.

So back on Sindbad's ship, there's one scene where they're like, uh, they're bringing a crate on board for the journey. This is before they leave, and it topples over and reveals that it's actually a cage with a living thing inside, a large baboon creature, and the baboon grunts and gets agitated until Princess Farra goes to calm it. She is bringing this baboon with her on the journey. Later, a member of the crew, Hassan, is working on ropes on the outside of the ship and he spies through the window into the captain's quarters to see Princess Farah playing chess with the baboon.

Ah, this is such a great reveal.

Yes, And Hassan comes into the cabin and the baboon reacts violently before retreating to his cage. Then Sinbad also comes in and Hassan's like trying to tattle tale. He's like, Captain, the baboon was playing, and Sinbad says, chess, I know he's beaten me twice.

The bat boon, to be clear, is is a ray Harry Housen effect. Yes, and there's no live baboon used here, and it's clear that it's not a live batboon. But again, through the magic of Ray Harry Housen's craft, it feels completely alive. It feels like an authentic character with a complete, uh you know, internal state going on. It's wonderful, totally.

Yes, it is there in the room, and I don't see how this is possible. I mean, I think it looks wonderful. I don't see how this is possible. But I have read that some audience members mistook it for being like a real live creature in the in this set. I mean, I don't think I could possibly think that about it. But it looks great and it really does.

It has drama within it.

Yeah, I will. I'll just take it. I think we'll take that as the compliment that it that it probably was. I mean, I can't imagine being upset about that, where they're like, I thought it was a real bad damn you, Harry Housen.

So anyway, the part of the scene is the baboon is not just a baboon. It is actually Prince Cassim. This is the curse the witch transformed him from man into baboon and to prove it, the baboon writes on the wall with a pencil. He writes, I am Cassim. After this we get our first scene of the Minoton in action. This is good, so some guards left behind to watch Zenobia's castle. I think this includes Zabid, the character with the ipatch we mentioned earlier. They see a boat emerging from under the fortifications of Zenobia's castle, and it is a boat traveling without sails. Instead. It has many rows of oars pumping in the water, but only one oarsman. A single giant figure on the deck working a single mechanism that powers all of the oars at once.

This is the Minoton, rowing the galley by himself. The guards say they're going to go out and try to get aboard the boat, so they head out in a little dinghy. It does not go well. Zenobiac them and orders the Minoton to steer the galley straight into the dinghy. It rams and crushes their boat. One of the men is left alive in the water, calling for help, and then she commands the Minoton to finish him. So the Minoton goes. He gets its long spear and he stabs the guy and like heaves him up over the top of the boat onto the other side. Chilling scene. Another one that scared me when I was a kid.

Yeah, quality kill. Minoton looks very strong here and watching it for the first time, I'm like, we're building up to that battle between Meneton and Sindbat. I don't know how he's going to pull it off.

Okay, So next thing, our heroes arrive at the Isle of Casgar Sinbad and his companions. They get there, they go on shore and explore, and I really like the location shots here. There are some beautiful desert canyons and use of real rock cut ruins. I'm almost certain this is Petra in Jordan. It really looks like it is.

Yes, The what al Casne Mazwet Mausoleum is a popular tourist site and a frequent filming location. I think most people may remember this from this location from Indiana Jones in the Last Crusade, but it also shows up in films like Mortal Kombat Annihilation.

That is a mate, I do not remember that from Annihilation. I'm going to have to watch that one again. So as they approach the Temple of Melanthius. Suddenly, all of our heroes are pelted with rocks by people on the cliffs above, but then they are saved by the intervention of a young woman. This young woman with blonde hair comes out of the temple and orders the people to stop throwing rocks, and she interrogates the travelers. This is Diane, we will later learn Malanthius's daughter. And after sindbad he gets through to her. He's like, we have to meet Malanthius and she's like why, and he says it's a matter of great urgency and importance. She's like, oh, well, in that case, good enough. We'll go see Milanthius then.

And here's where we learned that Melanthius and Diane can communicate telepathically. I did not remember this detail from when I watched the movie as a kid. You know, they like, we see them have a conversation while they're on like, you know, not within speaking distance. They're on opposite sides of this great distance. And they're like, what is that And she says, my father taught me. He calls it telepathia, and again does not really seem to come up again in the film, but Malanthius explains that when they meet.

He explains he already knows who Sinbad is because thought is transferable and it can travel through time and space. Okay, maybe that's more telepath telepathic stuff, but so we have introductions all around for Ah and Sinbad introduce the baboon Cassim to Malanthius here, and Malanthius reacts well, he like says the scientific name of the baboon, and he's very happy to see the baboon. The baboon all so takes a liking to Diany. It licks her hand, and so Malanthius takes Cassim back to his laboratory to examine him.

He explains that as an alchemist, he knows that metals can be changed, one transforming into another, and by the same principle, he believes it's possible that one creature can be transformed into another. He gets a mirror and he gives it to Cassim, and this is basically the ancient Greek version of the mirror self recognition test. Yeah, Cassim looks in the mirror in his baboon form and is distressed and then saddened, and the baboon cries, and Malanthius says, by all the gods. A true baboon would have attacked the mirror, thinking it an enemy, and would not have recognized itself or have been moved to grief. So Melanthius here is shaken. He says this black magic is more powerful than he's ever seen before. He does accept Prince

Cassim's identity and he shakes the baboon hand. So they start kind of brainstorming about what can be done to save they. It just mentioned that they're having mint tea. I thought that was interesting. I was like, Oh, I wonder how far back mint tea actually goes in practice. Is that an ancient world thing? I don't know.

It's depicted here, so we have to just believe it at face value.

Yes, it's canon. Diany brings Cassim bananas, and I was thinking, like, wait, is this a joke about how he's a baboon? Do they associate bananas with primates?

I don't know. I guess it's a joke. But on the other hand, it's like everyone loves bananas.

Yeah, I love bananas. But Melanthius explains that the longer Cassim stays in this form, the less of his mind will remain, and the more his animal nature will take over. And also he finally recalls, He's like, wait a minute, I think there may be one way to cure him. He says, an ancient advanced civilization now lost, known as the rmas Pie, once knew the secrets of transforming matter one into another for alchemy purposes their machines. Those same principles may be able to transform Cassim back into his true form. He says that the Aramasspi lived in Hyperborea, the great Northern Continent, a warm and green valley surrounded by glaciers on all sides. And he says if they could find the great shrine in the temple of the

aramass Pi, cassium might be saved.

So mentions of Hyperborea date back apparently to the writings of Herododus, but its use here probably stems from more modern usage and esoteric the esoteric thought and more to the point, weird fiction. So Hyperborea may be more familiar with a number of you out there, because it shows up and say the writings of Roberty Howard as well as Clark Ashton Smith and others.

And I think the Aramaspi are also mentioned in ancient Greek writings like, doesn't Herodotus mention them as like the people who get gems from Griffin's or something like that.

Yes, yes, yes, I think we've talked about that on the show before, having we like a valley of the Gym and Griffins or the others. There are a few different stories and with different creatures involved.

Yes, yeah, I may be misremembering, but that's what I associated with. Also, the the the Ara mass Pie scrolls which they're going to use to guide them to this place. They're being kept in a basket with a bunch of gerbils.

Yes, I love this. This This got a great chuckle by the love from the live audience. So at my viewing, yeah, you just keep those in there with the with the rodents.

It's fine little rodent toilet paper containing the ancient lost secrets. But anyway, so there's a moment here where I didn't fully get the the causality, like why one thing leads to another. But quickly Melanthius like builds a laser and then he tests it. Then he considers the principle proven and he agrees he will go with Sindbad and Farrah to Hyperborea.

Yeah, he builds this death ray laser thing, and you, yeah, you kind of assume this will be more important, like, all right, we're laying it out. This is this canon is going to be important later on, but not really.

I think it just to make sure that he accepted the principle that transformation of a creature could happen, right, Yeah. So the next sequence we get is a fun one. This is Zenobia the Spy. Here's where we get both Zenobia and Malanthius kind of bumbling. So Zenobia, Raffi, and the Minoton remain in hot pursuit of Sinbad's ship, and Zenobia decides that she has to know their plan. She has to know what advice Malanthius has given them, So she drinks from her vial of blood potion, recites a spell, and then she transforms into a seagull, and in her gull form, she flies to Sinbad's ship, where she then retransforms into herself, but in tiny form, so it's attack of the puppet people's stuff. She's doll sized, running around

on the floor and spying. Now while she's doing this, I think it's actually Cassim in baboon form, who notices her and then with the Baboon's help, Malanthius captures puppet sized Zenobia and puts her in a jar. So it's kind of Doctor Pretorius Bride of Frankenstein.

Now, yeah, so she's already screwed up royally in an attempt to spy on her enemies. She is miniaturized, deep powered, and captured by her enemies, and now she's in a jar on their table.

Yeah. So Melantheus is left alone in the room with the homunculus Zenobia to interrogate her. He threatens to put a bee in the jar with her if she does not answer him. I was like, whoa, that is brutal.

Yeah, so, yeah, like this there's a these two don't know each other. Yeah, I mean, I've never met, but it's this this already seems like they are like long time enemies. Here. If he's already like all right, I'm just gonna put a wild to you giant bee in there, and we'll just see what happens when it stings you.

She knows of him by reputation. I wonder if he also knows of her by reputation. I don't think that's clear, right.

Or you know, he's the guy who lives mostly alone in the middle of an island far from humanity. Maybe he just distrusts every he treats everyone like this and that's why he's alone.

Yeah yeah. But anyway, so he's trying to figure out what she wants. He goes, why did you come here to get a look at these? And then he holds up the scrolls and show where they're going. Yeah, long enough for her to get a good solid look at them. And then he's also like, do you know that we're going to the shrine of the RMSPI.

Well, now she does, yeah, where you'll need this key and he holds that up as well, and she hit The movie is wise to what's going on, because she's like she's wide eyed over this, and she's like, oh, you know, I'm gonna memorize this really quickly. Oh that key, okay, I need to steal that later. So massive bumbling from Melanthius here as well.

He kind of catches himself like after he does it, he covers his mouth like ooops. And then she starts trying to hypnotize Melanthius and send him to sleep, but it works for a minute, but he kind of snaps out of it. But then Melanthius recovers the vial of magic blood potion that Zenobia dropped in the room. He thinks it may be possible to use it to transform Cassim back to himself, and he decides to test it on the bee that he was messing with earlier, and Zenobia is screaming the whole time. She's like, no, that's mine, I need it. But then the bee experiment goes very bad.

The bee laps up the potion and then it starts growing and growing and growing, and now you've just got a monster killer bee in the room. Yes, and Zenobia is yelling at it. She's like, yes, kill the Greek, kill Melantheus. So while he is busy being attacked by the bee, Zenobia escapes her jar, drinks more potion, shifts back into gull form, and then flies back to her ship.

But then when she arrives back at her ship, she has to transform back into human shape with more of the potion, and unfortunately there was not enough left. She is like ninety five percent transformed back into human shape, but she still has a seagull foot.

Shades of the fly here. Yeah, my wife mentioned that when she she remembered this scene from she remembered two scenes from seeing this as a kid, the baboon playing chess, and then the witch being stuck with a goal's foot this one.

This scene also made a major impression on me as a kid. I found this Now, this scene's kind of funny, but it was scary when I.

Was a kid.

I mean, the idea of being stuck with a gal's foot is actually scary.

Yeah, it's it's horrifying, and it really makes you kind of feel for zenobia here. This is where I begin to think, like, oh, this poor woman has taken too much on and she's she's not going to be able to pull this off. She's already having some massive setbacks here. And in general, this whole sequence is fascinating because it was clearly they clearly set out to have both of these characters fumbling all over the place. Everybody thinks they're out each each side thinks they're out smarting the other, but end up losing in the process. Like both sides have experienced massive setbacks.

Yes, yes, So eventually they reach Hyperborea, Sindbad's ship reaches the ice. There are these huge ice bergs in the water, and Sindbad discovers that they have to take the long route over the top of the ice, because there was going to be a hidden tunnel passage to the valley of the armas By, but it's too small for their ship to sail through. So eventually the ice brings Sindbad's ship to a stop and they load up sledges that they have fashioned according to Melanthius's designs, and they travel overland or over ice. Along the way, we get another stop motion creature battle where they battle a killer walrus.

This is yet another actually kind of sympathy for the villain here, this monster walrus comes up out of the ice and it attacks their camp, so they have to fight it. But I remember thinking when I was a kid and I saw this the way there, like it just seems like a big animal here, and they're like poking it with these sticks and stuff, and I was like, ooh, I bet that hurts the walrus. I remember having that thought.

Yeah, it just wants to eat like mollusks and stuff. But here these humans are messing with it.

But there is there is a good moment of peril here. I think it is Maroof, who gets like tangled in the rope, says they like they sort of drive it away by poking at it, and it starts trying to retreat and go back into the water. But Maroof is tangled in these ropes that are hanging off the back of the walrus, and it's like it's going to drag him under the water, and they've just managed to cut him loose in time before it dives.

Yeah. I'm glad they were able to say Maruf so that he can unceremoniously die later in the picture.

Yeah, in the final conflict.

Yeah, true, at least it's the final conflict.

This by the way, we as we mentioned earlier, this is one of those scenes where I think the cinematography like it's too dark. There needs to be more light here. I know it's supposed to take place at night, but it's just like blue blue Blue, you can barely see who anybody is. So next they go to the valley of the armas Pi and Sindbad and his companions. They make the journey on foot while Zenobia, Rafi and the Minoton are able to use a hidden ice tunnel to access the valley. The Sindbad's crew crosses over a snowy mountain and they see the Aurora borealis Malanthius explains what it is. He says that in Greek mythology it's known as something that maybe the crown of Apollo or something like that. And once in the warm valley, everybody has

a bath and a nice river. Everybody starts, of course, you know, skinny dipping. Malanthius observes that Cassim is turning carnivorous, and he says it will soon be too late to change him back. Meanwhile, Diany and Farra are bathing in a pool when they meet a new character, Trog, the lovable trog.

Trog is great because trog is I guess supposed to be some sort of is a troglodite. That's what the word is referring to. The name is referrad dweller, Yeah, cave dweller. But is again, don't don't draw. Don't assume that anything here matches up with with with actual real world organisms past or present. Because it is a horned humanoid.

It is. He's kind of like he's reminiscent of the Cyclops from an earlier Harry Howsen picture.

It's like a ten foot tall humanoid and a pelt with a horn on his head.

Yeah, he's got this he's kind of like, he's got this nice head of hair and very thoughtful eyes. I guess at first you don't pick it up on this as much because it seems like he is a threat, he's gonna probably try and abduct these women or something. But instead you quickly learn like, no, Trog is afraid and has has a heart and really is one of the most beloved characters in the film totally.

So when they first meet him, of course, the two women run away and Trog sort of walks after them, and then Sinbad comes up, you know, with his sword drawn and faces off against him, but Melanthius convinces Sindbad to lower his weapon, explaining that this guy is one of man's ancestors. They're called troglodytes, and so Diane once again is able to make friends. They immediately name him Trog.

They're calling him Trog within a couple of sentences, and we learn that Cassium and Trog can communicate. Melanthius like draws a picture of the shrine they're looking for in the sand, and then Cassim asks Trog where it is, and Trog knows and offers to lead them to it. So he t he's he's friend.

Yeah, Trog doesn't speak with language, but he makes these adorable sounds. I'm not there's kind of like kind of sounds you know that they're they're they're reminiscent of like some of like the soft sounds that a pet might make, like not full on barking or meowing, but some of those those more subtle sounds that our animals make around us.

They really went out of their way to make Trog sweet, and it's tragic what's going to happen to him as well. Yes, so we're leaning up to the final showdown. So both groups are headed for the shrine of the arimas Pie, which turns out to be in a giant pyramid that makes crackling electricity sounds because it's got the Aurora borealis right over the top of it. And Trog helps Sinbad's group get through the gate, but Zenobia's team goes faster because they have access to the tunnel. And I like the creepy scene as they're passing through the tunnel in their boat and they're looking at these graves in the walls of all these kind of mummified figures, and I think rafi asques are these the last of the aramas

Pi And Zenobia is like, who knows. It's a nice little mystery there. But Zenobia's team makes it to the pyramid first and oh no, no, Minotan no. So because they don't have the key to get inside, Zenobia uses some magic explosives and then now that one of the giant pyramid blocks is loosened, the Minoton has to manually remove it. So he's like scooting this huge stone cube out of the side of the pyramid in order to get through. But the block falls on top of the Minoton and crushes it. And it's a horrible moment.

It is. I I was crushed watching this in the theater. Just the Minoton is just doing what he is told over and over again, rode all the way here, has pulled this block out, and then it just falls on him and he's crushed. And then Zenobia is just like he's served his purpose or something to that effect, and they just leave him. They just leave him there, and I kept hoping, well, he'll come back, like you know, either he'll come back and turn the tide, or at least he'll come back and continue his programming to protect, protect Zenobia and Rafy, but he does not. He's just stuck under that block forever.

I think what she says is his work is done or something.

Yeah, yeah, man, and I have some again. I think Zenobia is absolutely wrong here, and we're just see why in a minute, because she's like, we don't need the the military support of our unbeatable automaton anymore. You and me, we've got this Rafi. It's not really going to work out that way.

So Zenovia and Rafi make their way into the temple, shortly followed by our heroes. Upon arriving, Melanthius explains that because the block was removed by the Menoton, the integrity of the shrine has been compromised and now its power is out of balance and it's about to collapse. Like they have to hurry if they want to be able to use it.

This was a moment in viewing the film where I was thinking about the fact that here they have traveled vast distances to a place that houses an ancient power of perhaps like world breaking intensity, in order to solve a very regional conflict.

In order to get this baboon eligible for royal for the Royal throne. Yes, so inside the shrine, the decor is kind of ice Egyptian in theme, like their hieroglyphic and stalactites like ice salacta icicles. There is a giant machine that is sucking the aurora from the sky into a beam that flows into this big pool of water, and then there is a cage on a chain that can be cranked into the flow of the beam. So the idea is they've got to put Cassim into the cage and put him in the beam. But first Zenobia comes out. She's like, the gods have abandoned you. Now Raffi, kill Malanthius. They are helpless without him. So Raffi, who this is all about? Raffi, by the way, the whole point is like get him on the throne. He runs

at Melanthius with a knife and tries to kill him, but the baboon Cassim attacks Raffi. They tumble down the stairs and then Raffi lies dead at the bottom, his neck broken.

Yeah, and this is a case where yes, okay, as Zenobia points out, he Raffi only has to kill Malanthius because he's the brains of this whole scheme. They're trying to pull off, but it still kind of breaks down to, Okay, Raffi defeat like five people at once, like that, this is where the minotague would have been essential, and you discarded him, And this is a ridiculous ask of Raffi.

You know, he's clearly, you know, a capable fighter and schemer in his own right, and you know, certainly a quite a capable alchemist or whatever as well. But like he's just doomed to failure here because the task is too much.

Something has has gone wrong, like see the wise the wise witch here has become foolish. Yeah, she's giving impossible orders, so uh now, and now he's dead and so she sort of goes down to his side and she's distraught. And meanwhile, Cassim goes into the pulley cage, Sindbad cranks him into the beam and magic happens. Melanthius praise to both Apollo and to the Great Mystery, and Cassim comes back down smoking and he's Captain Karnstein again. Farah is over joyed. Fully clothed too, Yeah, he's fully clothed.

Good point.

And I think Dione is Diany is like hubba hubba she likes Count Karnstein.

Here She's like, I was just going to marry the baboon, but now look at him.

So he's transformed back. But now Zenobia wants revenge. Nearby, the whole time they've been there, there has been this massive frozen figure in cased in ice. It is a saber toothed cat, a Smilodon. Zenobia turns herself into green smoke and then possesses the Smilodon, causing it to hatch out of the ice and attack. And this is our final fight scene. So this is a stop motion smilod On that first starts attacking Sindbad and the crew. Meanwhile the temple is collapsing all around them, and it really looks like there's no chance they're going to win this fight.

But then to the rescue comes Trog wielding the Minoton's spear.

Nice.

This is an excellent fight. It feels really visceral, like you can see that Trog is wrestling and the cat is attacking and it's like viciously like scratching at his back and cutting up his muscles while he's trying to wrestle it to the ground and choke it. And I don't know. I think this is like an all time great stop motion foight.

Yeah, this is an all time great monster battle and it's just a work of art, like this is a masterpiece. This is a Harry House and masterpiece. Yeah. No matter what you think about the rest of the film, the rest of the film is worth it for this sequence alone.

But it ends very sadly because we're all on Trog's side at this point. Everybody loves Trog. It's impossible not to love Trog.

Yeah, even if you're on team Menoton, like Trog and Menton never interact in anything. Trog has literally picked up the weapon of the Minoton and is continuing his legacy.

Yes, but Trog unfortunately is killed by the smilodn it goes for the Jugular and he lies dead. But he's bought them a lot of time, a lot of I think several of the people escape, but then Sindbad and a couple of the crew are still left there in the room, and so then the Smilodon attacks the remaining humans, including Sinbad. I think, is it Maroof is killed and Hassan survives.

Yes, Yes, sadly we lose Maroof, but Hassan lives.

On but Sinbad is able to defeat the smilod On in the end via a spear maneuver. He kind of gets under it on the stairs and then when it lunges at him, he holds the spear up and kind of like vaults it over him with a stab and then does a dagger to the heart and the evil witch possessed Smilodon is defeated.

Yeah, it's a symbat movie, so he should get the he should get the final kill.

And then they high tail it back to Shirak. It's just very quick wrap up after this, actually almost comically quick. After the fight is over, how fast they wrap up. We're like, oh, we're back in Hirak. Now here's the city and here's the ceremony where where we're seeing Cassim being crowned. And it's just a happy ending all around Sinbad and for a kiss. The way they're dressed up in this final scene looks very funny. I've got a screenshot for you to look out. Yeah, they're just wearing like teol clothes.

It's like bath matt teel.

Yes. And then I think it's implied maybe Diany is going to be Cassim's queen. But they don't make anything very clear there but just the end.

But we do get a stinger at the very end, right brief, very brief credits, and then the eyes of the Tiger, the eyes of Zenobia. Will there be a sequel, No, there won't be, but but it gives you that idea. Maybe you know the creature she inhabited survived. But what else is possible? Oh? Is it possible that that the green spirit essence of Zenobia. If it can't return to her own form, maybe it goes to the Menoton. Maybe we have Minoton Zenobia emerging from the rock or just stuck under the rock for alternity. I guess that would be fitting in its.

Own I would love to see some other filmmaker pick up the mantle of the Minoton and have us get another Minoton, give us another crack at the Minoton in a story like this.

Absolutely yeah, I love the Menoton.

Here Okay, one last reflection on At the beginning, I was talking about what defines adventure as opposed to other genres like action. This movie is very much adventure, and adventure I think has to do with a sense of discovery and amazement. And yet the discovery and amazement. It's permissible for that to be only really present in the audience rather than the main character. Does Sinbad in the movie ever act amazed. He doesn't ever, to me seem all that impressed by anything.

Well, he's very he's very confident, he's very capable, and he's goal oriented. He has a mission. So I guess on one level, yeah, he doesn't stop to he doesn't need to stop to acknowledge the wonders that he's traveling through. And he's seen a lot like this is Sindbad the Sailor. He's not his first rodeo, even if it is his first trip to the strange, forgotten temples of Hyperborea. But yeah, I guess it is a good point that the wonder is mostly for us, the audience. We don't have scenes of him going whoa and looking up to the temple walls.

I guess Melanthius and Diony both show amazement. Yeah, Yeah, they've got that scientific temperament, you know, appreciation for the wonders of the world.

Yeah, probably a good thing that the technologies of Hyperborea didn't fall into either of their hands. Though, Yeah, maybe there's nothing left for Melanthius to bring back and inevitably bumble.

Oh wait, you know who does show amazement a little bit is Rafi. When he's like when they're in the tunnels and they're looking at the mummies and stuff, he seems a little amazed.

Are we prepared to admit that maybe Rafi would have made a good calif we don't really know. He's never given a chance to rule. His method of achieving the throne is less than honest. I don't know. Maybe he would have ushered in a new golden age.

We get no comparison whatsoever between the like sort of policy outlook of Raffi versus Cassim.

So yeah, maybe Cassine idea is going to be a terrible ruler. Like right after the picture ends, he lifts the chalice and says to Satan.

Iron fist, yeah.

To Satan. All right. Well, that is Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. It's a lot of fun if you haven't seen it. Highly recommended, great monster mash, great effects, with some plenty of cheese spread in there as well. So we'd love to hear from everyone out there. Do you have thoughts or reflections on Sinbad in the Eye of the Tiger right in because we would love to hear from you. Do you have a favorite Ray Harry Housen film or favorite Ray Harry Housen creature or effect.

We'd also love to hear your thoughts on that. Just a reminder that Stuff to Blow Your Mind is primarily a science and culture podcast, with core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but on Fridays we set aside most serious concerns of just talk about a weird film here on Weird House Cinema. You can follow Weird House Cinema specifically on letterboxed dot com. Our username there is weird House, and wherever you get your podcasts, you can get Weird House Cinema in its regularly occurring spot in the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast feed. The Weird House Cinema can also be found on any of these podcast services under its own listing, So either way, we appreciate you subscribing and downloading and listening to the show.

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Weirdhouse Cinema Rewind: Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger

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