SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER (1977)
Article 2429 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-21-2007
Posting Date: 4-6-2008
Directed by Sam Wanamaker
Featuring Patrick Wayne, Taryn Power, Margaret Whiting

Sinbad helps a prince who has been changed into a baboon to seek out an alchemist/sorcerer to help return him to his original form. However, an evil sorceress is trying to prevent this from happening.

This was the third of Ray Harryhausen’s Sinbad movies, and it is easily the least. This is not to say that the movie is devoid of good points; many of Harryhausen’s creations here are not merely monsters for our heroes to dispense with, but characters who interact in many different ways with the human characters; the Baboon and the Troglodyte are the most striking examples here. There’s also touches I really like, such as what happens to Zenobia when she doesn’t have quite enough potion to return to her human form. But the movie’s problems are rather noticeable; the story seems to have fewer and shorter action sequences than the other movies in the series, and it is significantly longer. Furthermore, the non-stop-motion special effects are fairly weak and rather cheesy; I’m especially disappointed at Zenobia’s transformation into a bird. The end result is that the sense of wonder that is so prominent in the other Harryhausen movies is rather muted here, and despite the character touches, none of Harryhausen’s creations here rank with his most memorable. The battle between the Troglodyte and the Tiger is the high point here; it’s at this moment when the movie comes closest to recapturing the magic of his other movies.