The 7th Voyage of Sinbad – A Review

The 1958 film The 7th Voyage of Sinbad starred Kerwin Mathews as Sinbad the Sailor, one of the heroes of One Thousand and One Nights, the tales reportedly made famous by Scheherazade. The film begins at night, with Sinbad guiding his vessel through fog in search of land to replenish the vessel’s supplies. Although his men are certain they are lost and will never find land, Sinbad orders them to take a sounding.

When the sounding indicates that they are coming up on an island, to be confirmed by a call from the crow’s nest, the tension eases immediately. Leaving his aide Harufa to guide the ship closer and drop anchor, Sinbad goes below deck to talk to his fiancée. Princess Parisa of Chandra is eager to arrive at Baghdad where she and Sinbad will wed to secure peace between the two kingdoms, though she understands why they must stop to gather supplies.

But while on the island of Colossa collecting water and other necessities, Sinbad and his men encounter the magician Sokurah being chased by an enormous cyclops. Though all hands escape safely the sorcerer loses the treasure he sought and for which the beast pursued him: a genie’s lamp. When Sinbad and then the Caliph of Baghdad refuse to give him passage back to the island to retrieve it, Sokurah shrinks Parisa, angering her father into declaring war on Baghdad.

Desperate to save the princess he loves Sinbad agrees to take the magician back to the island to find the ingredient needed to restore her to her true size. But the voyage back is fraught with peril, and Colossa’s natural inhabitants will not be easy to overcome…

This film has long been one of my favorites, primarily for the model work Ray Harryhausen did for the movie. In contrast to a great many CGI monsters of the modern era, the cyclopes’ and other beasts shown on the screen have a realistic feel to them. They look and move like true creatures of that general size would, and while the stop-motion animation is clear, that enhances rather than detracts from the film.

Harryhausen reportedly liked the cobra woman shown early in the story the best, with most viewers remembering the cyclops better. I concur with Harryhausen; the snake-woman was one of the monsters I recalled most vividly from this film, as it was both creepy and plausible. The stop-motion nature of the beast meant it really looked like a woman had been crossed with a cobra to create a monster that may or may not strike at any moment.

My second-favorite monster has to be the dragon. While the cyclopes were indeed impressive, the dragon is absolutely beautiful, in the way that an angry tiger is beautiful. You can admire it from a distance even as you bite your nails and hope the hero will not be eaten by it.

On a recent rewatch of the film, I was struck by the strength of the romance between Sinbad and Parisa. Kathryn Grant is every inch the bright-eyed, somewhat naïve princess who is head-over-heels in love with her betrothed. In a world where romance is generally approached as a game of equal give-and-take, this more straightforward view is not seen often these days. Sinbad and Parisa are not just marrying so as to secure peace or solidify an alliance; they are so deeply in love that the sailor is willing to risk his life and the lives of his men on Colossa in a desperate gamble to save her.

There are few modern movies today that would portray such determined devotion in the hero or such certain faith in the heroine. On the night she is bespelled, Parisa tells Sinbad that she will dream of monsters just so she can envision him coming to rescue her. The scene has some foreshadowing in it, given Sokurah’s (Torin Thatcher’s) treachery some hours later. But the fact that she falls into Sinbad’s arms at the slightest excuse, finds every chance to kiss him, or otherwise throw herself into his expectant embrace is extremely refreshing.

In modern times romance is less about the woman alluring the pursuing man toward her and more about equal give-and-take. While both types of courtship occur in the real world and have their place in fiction, the former has been all but replaced by the latter, which is a shame. It is nice to see a heroine behaving like an actual girl rather than insist on taking care of herself when the man swoops in to her rescue. Parisa is not helpless – she displays cleverness, loyalty, and unshakable faith in her husband-to-be throughout the story.

But she is a woman. She is not capable of fighting a sword-wielding skeleton, avoiding a dragon, or battling a cyclops; these are all things she has to rely on Sinbad and his men to do. That reliance is accepted and reciprocated, as Sinbad asks her to take advantage of her small size to help free him and his men when they are captured. It makes her a more endearing heroine and Sinbad a more admirable hero.

Of equal interest is the moment when Parisa is confronted by a dilemma with regard to a promise she made to free the genie. Unlike Aladdin in the Disney movie of the same name, Parisa wants to free the young spirit but wonders along with Sinbad if it might be necessary to keep him imprisoned to escape Colossa safely. After a few moments’ contemplation, however, Sinbad unhooks the lamp from his belt with the comment: “Well, you must keep your promise.” Thereafter Parisa releases the genie from the lamp before joining her fiancé to return to the ship.

What is most striking is the fact that Sinbad considers Parisa’s honor more important than their mutual survival. Despite knowing firsthand how the genie can provide them a safe path out of Sokurah’s fortress and through the island’s many dangers, he is unwilling to put practicality over his future wife’s integrity. Thus he decisively solves the dilemma by reminding her that she gave her word before demonstrating that he is willing to brave the dangers of Colossa for her dignity as well as her life. That is something seen even less today than the romance between the two characters.

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad has a great deal to recommend it, but the vibrant romance and the reminder that honor is important to both man and woman has to be one of the most significant items. Are there better stories in film? Certainly. But in this lost day and age, the passion of Sinbad and Parisa along with the note on the sanctity of integrity is not to be underestimated or dismissed. If nothing else it will be 88 minutes worth of fun for the whole family to enjoy!