Celebrate the Drive-In: Coffy

Celebrate the Drive-In is a tribute to a beloved venue of the past. During it's heyday, a trip to the drive-in was one of my favorite things, both on the rare occasions as a child, and in my early adulthood. This blog is going to celebrate Drive-In Day (Jun 6) with a series of movies that I was too young to see (or in a couple of cases, not even born yet) that I wish I could've experienced in a drive-in. Keep coming back for the entire week as there will be one per day for the duration.

 

Women! Can't live with them, can't shoot them! Presenting the next Coming Attraction! Coffy!

 

 

One of the tropes of the era of 70's film was the one termed as "blaxploitation". For a brief period from about 1969 to 1979 Hollywood attempted to appeal to a sector of the populace, the black audience, by producing films that were supposed to draw in a viewership of the country that did not find movie figures that it could relate to in the standard fare of the day.  

Blaxploitation is a portmanteau word, combining "black" and "exploitation". It was coined by Junius Griffin, the leader of the Beverly Hills NAACP. It was not meant to be a complimentary word. Griffin was pointing out that, by making movies that depicted blacks as power figures in the community, but as mainly working in the criminal world, was no better than the previous tradition of depicting them as subservient.

The Hollywood machine was influenced by the rising Black Power movement in this respect. The idea did have some merit, whether or not their hearts were in the right place. The basic idea was to present black people as being in control of their own destinies, without having to answer to "The Man" (the white people). While it did provide an outlet for the populace to see black people in more prominent roles, it wasn't necessarily well received by said populace.

Among the people who spoke out against this new trend was Jesse Jackson, who criticized the trend because it tended to promote a different type of stereotype, making the black person a caricature in a different form. Instead of the "yassuh, boss" caricature, the films promoted the idea that black people were violent hypersexual criminals. Often in these films the main character was working in unsavory roles; pimps, pushers, etc.

On some rare occasions the main character would be a character working on the right side of the law, but even those characters would often be less scrupulous about their actions than their white counterparts. Shaft featured Richard Roundtree as a private detective who had no qualms about taking the law into his own hands. Truck Turner starred Isaac Hayes as a bounty hunter and Black Belt Jones had Jim Kelly going head to head with the Mafia, both of which had their hearts in the right place, even if the execution of their ideals would have caused Superman to recoil in shock.

Rarer still were the use of females in starring roles. Pam Grier made a career out starring in these kinds of films, and her characters were often characterized as "embodying strength, style and resilience". She was one of the first, if not the first female action star. She got her start in the "women in prison" genre with such films as The Big Doll House (her first starring role), Women in Cages and The Big Bird Cage. But she started getting recognition for her potential in action movies with Coffy and Friday Foster.

In terms of blaxploitation films, I think many of her films helped to make the genre more accessible to people like me. She was not on the side of the criminal. Most often she was more of a vigilante, seeking justice in a world where "justice" was a mythical concept. That's why I chose Coffy as a choice for Celebrate the Drive-In Week. Her character in the film has some ideals that appealed to me, even if often she strayed into areas that the law-abiding public might frown on.

Grier went on to many other significant roles. You may remember she made appearances at The Midnite Drive-In several times. She was Wendell Jones' wife in Greased Lightning. She was a former cohort of Snake Plissken in Escape from L.A. She was also in Mars Attacks! and Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey.  She was a favorite of Quentin Tarantino, who cast her as the lead in Jackie Brown in 1997. And as recent as 2023 she was still active, appearing in Pet Semetary: Bloodlines.

By the way, a side note, in case you didn't know: Pam Grier is the sister of Rosey Grier, the former NFL football star turned actor, who made his debut at The Midnite Drive-In last year in The Thing with Two Heads. 

 

    

Coffy (1973):

The protagonist (I hesitate to use the word"hero") of this film is a woman who goes by the name of "Coffy". Her last name is Coffin, so the appellation appears to be derived from that. (Elsewhere I read her name is Flower Child Coffin, but I don't recall it being mentioned in the film...) Coffy is a woman with a mission.

 

 

The first time we meet Coffy is after a man called Grover (Mwako Cumbuka), enters a bar and tells his boss, Sugarman (Morris Buchanan), that he has a surprise waiting for him in his car. When Sugarman gets to the car he finds a woman desperate for a drug fix, willing to "do anything" to get said fix. It turns out, however, that she is just faking it to lure the two to a private session of her own brand of "justice". She executes both of them.

 

Sugarman and Grover

Coffy, in her private life, is a nurse. Her sister, LuBelle, has become a heroin addict, due to LuBelle's dealer, Sugarman. Coffy is determined to rid the world of those she deems responsible.  But Sugarman is only the beginning. As usual in movies like this there are higher ups that are running the show.

Coffy has a friend on the police force, Carter (William Elliot), and at one point she seems on the verge of revealing everything she has been doing in her vigilante role to him. But she backs away at the point, only hinting at the idea that the evil doers dealing drugs in the black community deserve death. 

 

Coffy and Carter having coffee

 

She also has a boyfriend, Howard (Booker Bradshaw), who is an up and comer in the world of politics. He is a city councilman on the verge of being elected to Congress. 

 

Coffy's boyfriend, Howard

 

She continues on her goal, eventually working her way into the "stable" of prostitutes run by a character called King George (Robert DoQui). This is primarily to get in contact with her ultimate drug kingpin goal, Vitroni (Allan Arbus). But in so doing she is also looking to gum up George's drug dealing. She substitutes sugar for his heroin stash.

Coffy and King George

 

Eventually she does get called to Vitroni's house, because Vitroni likes a certain type of girl which Coffy pretends to be to get inside. 

Coffy and Vitroni

 

But her ruse is discovered and she ends up being held captive. And just before Vitroni sends his henchman, Omar (Sid Haig) out on a quest to kill her, she finds out that her "loyal to the people" boyfriend Howard is not all that honest as a politician. 

 

Vitroni and Omar

Of course, Coffy manages to escape her captors and exacts more of her vigilante justice. Including that traitor of a boyfriend...

Despite the drug connection that seemed to be a part and parcel of the typical blaxploitation film, this one has several things that set it apart. For one, it has a resounding anti-drug message. And, of course, there is the fact that the main character is a woman as opposed to the generic male dominated movie. Up until this point women usually played secondary roles that were typical in lots of movies of this type.  Grier, I think, opened the door for many movies yet to come, where a female character could carry the load that was typically left to only male protagonists.

You should be forewarned, however, that the film is not without some titillating (no pun intended) scenes. In other words, several scenes with topless women. This film, being firmly entrenched in the drive-in milieu of the 70's, almost HAD to have that. But the good thing is (almost) none of it comes off as exploitative. They all happen in character with the situation at hand. Both Grier (on screen) and director Jack Hill (off screen) play these scenes well. Occasionally they may come off as a little unnecessary (I refer basically to the all out "catfight" scene in the brothel here; not the brawl itself, just that the ripping of the dresses may not have been all necessary). 

The only real objection I have to the film is the way that Vitrioni and Omar take out King George, believing that George was responsible for sending Coffy to kill him. I won't reveal here what happens, but it absolutely shocking in its execution.

 

Outside of Grier the rest of the cast is pretty unremarkable. But: Does Robert DoQui look familiar? He had pretty extensive career playing cops, but many of you who watch the same kinds of movies I do may immediately recognize him; he was the Detroit police sergeant in charge in the RoboCop films. Allan Arbus may also trigger a "hey, I know that guy!" thought. He was the psychiatrist in several episodes of the TV series M*A*S*H*. And Sid Haig menaced a lot of people in secondary roles throughout his career. None of them really stand out here, however, but that doesn't mean they were just flashes in the pan.

Don't go into this film expecting too much. As a vigilante movie. it pretty much toes the line established in movies that came before it and followed it, plot wise. You should go into it, however, expecting to see the potential from it's lead actress, who surely impacted many actresses who came after her. Is Coffy her best movie? Hardly. But she does put up a good performance.

Until next time, drive safely, folks. Remember, drugs are bad for you. And so are women with a grudge. Come back tomorrow for  Hot Rod Girl! 

Quiggy

  

Celebrate the Drive-In: Day of the Triffids

Celebrate the Drive-In is a tribute to a beloved venue of the past. During it's heyday, a trip to the drive-in was one of my favorite things, both on the rare occasions as a child, and in my early adulthood. This blog is going to celebrate Drive-In Day (Jun 6) with a series of movies that I was too young to see (or in a couple of cases, not even born yet) that I wish I could've experienced in a drive-in. Keep coming back for the entire week as there will be one per day for the duration.

Some days it just doesn't pay to get up and water the plants! Presenting the next Coming Attraction! Day of the Triffids! 

 

 

 

The theme of alien invaders is a trope that crops up time and again in science fiction. What would science fiction be without an alien or two? You would be limited to Back to the Future, The Terminator or some other time travel movie, or dystopian science fiction films like Blade Runner or Soylent Green or Logan's Run. None of which are even remotely bad films, but still, you would miss out on such classics as The Day the Earth Stood Still and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. If you were to list your own favorite science fiction movies, I would be willing to bet that at least 50% of them had some sort of alien beings in them.

In my own list of the top science fiction films of all time (according to my account on FlickChart) no less than 7 of the top 10 have some sort of alien coming into play over the course of the film. Only Escape from New York and RoboCop (a dytsopian future film) and The Final Countdown (a time travel movie) have no aliens present. (Terminator 2:Judgement Day, which comes in at #11, also has no aliens). It's safe to say that the science fiction world would probably not exist if aliens had not been a factor in the beginning.

So, if aliens are one of the most predominant factors in science fiction, it makes it important that at least some of the aliens have something different to make them stand out against the crowd. One of the more interesting alien invasions, based on a novel by Jack Finney, had the aliens come to earth as seed pods and gradually replace the human race with exact duplicates. The Body Snatchers has been done at least 4 times in film, first in 1956, with remakes of the same story in 1978, 1993 and most recently in 2007.

In a similar vein, John Wyndham wrote The Day of the Triffids. The triffids were a new species of plant that had come to Earth via a previous meteorite storm. They were animated later, through the after effects of a another meteor shower. Although I guess you couldn't put any intelligence into those spores, quite possibly it could be inferred that was an "alien invasion", since the spores do come from outer space. But then, who is to say both of those events weren't engineered by an advanced race trying to prepare the way for an invasion... something to think about. (That idea is just my own thoughts, the movie doesn't expose any nefarious plans...)

   

 

 

Day of the Triffids (1962):

The film begins as our narrator (voiced by Peter Dynely, whose voice you may recognize from the TV cartoon Thunderbirds) intones sonorously:

"In nature's scheme of things, there are certain plants which are carnivorous, or eating plants. The Venus Fly Trap is one of the best known of these plants. A fly drawn to the plant by its sweet syrup, brushes against triggered bristles. Just how these plants digest their pray has yet to be explained. There is much still to learn about these fascinating eating plants. This is a newcomer: Triffidus Celestus, brought to earth on the meteorite during the Day of the Triffids!"

 

There is a freak occurrence of a meteorite storm of unprecedented proportions coming to Earth. But no big deal, at this point, as our narrator tells us:

"All reports confirm that the world is witnessing an unprecedented shower of meteorites. There is no record of a display such as this in recorded history. At observatories astronomers are noting this fantastic phenomenon, and are carefully calculating the effect on our solar system. The consensus of option is that the meteorites burn up from the intense heat before they reach the Earth."

(BTW, if you have ever witnessed one of those meteorite storms that occasionally streak across the night sky you may conclude that this one HELL of a "freak occurrence". Those things are really coming in close...) 

Apparently the only person in the whole world who is not able to see the meteorite storm is Bill Masen (Howard Keel), who has had the unfortunate timing of having had to go through a recent eye surgery, and his eyes are currently bandaged up. And the killjoy of a doctor insists that he wait until the full 10 days required for waiting go by before removing the bandages, which won't happen for another 8 hours. (Killjoy!)

 

In a remote lighthouse we also have a pair of married marine biologists, Tom and Karen Goodwin (Kieron Moore and Janette Scott). These two are also unable to watch the meteor storm, not because their eyes are bandaged up, however. They're too busy working. Or at least Karen is. Tom seems more interested in getting drunk. 

 

The first indication of something strange happening is when a night watchman at the Botanical Gardens is attacked and killed. (Why does the botanical Gardens need a night watchman? Hell, I don't know... Except SOMEBODY has to be the first victim...)

 

The next morning, at the hospital, Masen wakes up to find out it is an hour later than when he was promised to have his bandages removed, with no one around. So he removes the bandages himself. What he finds is a hospital in shambles and apparently no one on the premises. But eventually he finds his doctor, who is now blind. It is revealed that everyone who had watched the meteorite storm has been inflicted with blindness. 

Not only that but there is a strange plant that has figured out how to become mobile, uprooting itself from the ground, moving about and attacking humans. A radio announcer tells anyone "if you are blind it is urged that you stay indoors..." (Thanks for the warning). Masen gets out of the hospital and wanders the streets of London where everyone he sees is walking around blind. 

 

 

He rescues a little girl, Susan (Janina Faye), apparently one of the few people that can actually still see. She was accosted by a disreputable character against her will, but given the fact that he is one of the many who are blind, it is apparent he only wanted her to help him (but he could have asked first...) Masen takes Susan with him to his ship, where he was an officer on board. But no one is there. But via the radio they find that chaos is in effect nearly everywhere.

 

 

Between the pair stranded on the lighthouse island and the pair motoring around London trying to find a place where some semblance of normality may still exist, the sighted people find not much hope. Those triffids are on the move. (And, I realize there is a whole mess of them around, but those things are pretty slow, so it doesn't seem like it would be all that hard to stay out of their reach, since they can see where they are...)

 

Eventually Masen and Susan come across some others who can see.  These are a couple and another person who had (coincidentally, or conveniently, depending on your perspective) collided with each other in a car wreck and were under sedation when the meteorite storm hit. Everyone who can still see had the same set of circumstances happen; they were otherwise unable to see the meteors, which is why most of the rest of the world is now blind.  (Question... weren't at least some people in bed asleep as part of their normal routine? Where are THOSE people?)

 

The survivors that Masen and Susan find are running a sort of refuge and have a contingent of blind people they are helping. But the threat of the triffids threatens to overwhelm them. These things are plants, after all, and in the way it is with all plant life, it has ways of regenerating itself. Eventually, some of the survivors think that safety is only by making it's way to a naval base. (Of course, in the tradition of everything threatening life in the free world, the military is THE answer...)

 

Spoiler Alert! If you want to watch this movie stop now and come back to it after watching it.

 

Ultimately, however, the answer is much simpler, as is discovered by our two refugees on the lighthouse island. The key to defeating the triffids turns out to be something which the Earth has a very high concentration. Salt water, or sea water.

 

"A simple method had been found to destroy the triffids. Sea water, from which life on Earth had sprung, became the means of preserving life on Earth. Mankind survived and once again have reason to give thanks." 

 

One of the more interesting tidbits I read is: the entire subplot sequences involving the marine biologist couple was sort of an afterthought. After getting the film ready, the production crew found that the running time of the finished movie would only last about an hour. They needed more. (Credit is due to Bill Cram at Screenage Wasteland for this tidbit. I found his review after I wrote most of this review, and I found it  quite interesting.)  The solution that comes to the biologists seems to alter whatever the trajectory the film would have had without them. Which makes me wonder... if it hadn't been for them would the film had had a happy ending? The novel did end a bit differently, with only a hope for triumph, rather than an actual triumph.

The Day of the Triffids suffers from the same unbelievability that the mobile rocks did in The Monolith Monsters, if you ask me. But like that other film, the story that surrounds it, as well as the lead actors playing their roles, make the whole thing tons better than you would expect. The film suffers quite a bit on special effects, although not really for the triffids; they look pretty effective and gruesome. The real problem is that a lot of the matte paintings look just like what they are, matte paintings. And a plane crash that occurs early in the movie looks entirely like what is is, a model plane crashing into miniature buildings.

The Day of the Triffids currently holds a 79% Fresh rating, and I am not sure how well it did at the box office. It had a budget of a little over $1 million, and probably most of that went to making the mobile plants look decent. Only Howard Duff was a big name in the feature. I didn't find any contemporary reviews, but one I found on Variety website said "A simple method had been found to destroy the Triffids. Sea water, from which life on Earth had sprung, became the means of preserving life on Earth. Mankind survived and once again have reason to give thanks." (They also had a comment that I liked: "Basically, this is a vegetarian’s version of The Birds..." I wonder whether any vegetarians would be so quick as to advocate a plant-based diet after watching this film...😆)  

While I don't think The Day of the Triffids holds up as well for someone who has seen many other creature features that followed in it's footsteps, I think it is a very effective film. 

Until next time, drive safely folks. And maybe forgo that short cut through the woods... Come back tomorrow for Coffy!

Quiggy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Celebrate the Drive-In Week: The Born Losers

Celebrate the Drive-In is a tribute to a beloved venue of the past. During it's heyday, a trip to the drive-in was one of my favorite things, both on the rare occasions as a child, and in my early adulthood. This blog is going to celebrate Drive-In Day (Jun 6) with a series of movies that I was too young to see (or in a couple of cases, not even born yet) that I wish I could've experienced in a drive-in. Keep coming back for the entire week as there will be one per day for the duration.

 

It's a bad day when you wake up and a band of outlaw bikers are creating havoc in your home town. Presenting the next Coming Attraction! The Born Losers!

 

 

The legend of Billy Jack may not be readily apparent if you were born after about 1980. The Tom Laughlin created character of Billy Jack first appeared in The Born Losers, but his cache of appeal wasn't readily apparent until the sequel, Billy Jack. It was then that the character became something of a counterculture hero.  But even in the first outing for Billy Jack, the reluctant fighter for the rights of the downtrodden comes out.

According to history, Tom Laughlin and his wife, Delores Foster, came up with the story of Billy Jack back in the 1950's. The story that the pair wanted to tell was of an outcast veteran who used his skills to help young people from a corrupt system. (Essentially the plot of Billy Jack, except, I guess, the "veteran" was a WWII veteran at the time.) 

But Laughlin and Foster couldn't find any reputable studio willing to take a gamble. The 50's establishment in Hollywood, still operating under the repressive censorship established by Joseph Breen and the Hays code were unwilling to touch that particular keg of dynamite. But by the time the late 60's rolled around, with America dealing with much larger issues like campus unrest and a war that almost nobody wanted to continue, the doors became open a little wider.

The pair decided to take a new slant on the theme to begin with, however. As one reviewer I read says they decided to try to "ease in" and make the first film more commercially palatable. (Not sure if the end result was all that much "easier" to swallow than the first idea, but then, you can't argue that they didn't make it more "commercial"...) For one thing, our hero is now a disillusioned veteran of that less than popular war in Vietnam.

Laughlin had a new co-writer for this script, his eventual co-star in the film, Elizabeth James. The script they hashed out is based loosely on a real event. A band of Hell's Angels motorcycle club had gotten into trouble in the early 60's. Two members of the gang had been arrested in Monterrey, California for the rape of two teenage girls. In that incident, much like the story behind the film, the charges were dropped due to a lack of concrete evidence. (Whether or not that was because the motorcycle gang intimidated people in the real life incident is not mentioned in the article I read, as it was in part of the film).

The film company that produced The Born Losers was American International Pictures, which had a history of producing counterculture biker movies, but they had problems with this one, some of which had to do with financial oversights in the production, but also because the company had a difficult relationship with Laughlin, who insisted on creative control and conflicted with the studio's bottom line of "get it made and get it made cheap". So the three sequels were instead made under a different company.

  

 

The Born Losers (1967):

A biker gang, The Born Losers, headed by Danny (Jeremy Slate), have been terrorizing the small town of Big Rock. When a local accidentally bumps into one of the bikes with his car, the bikers beat the crap out of him. 

 

None of the locals have the guts to step in, but Billy Jack (Tom Laughlin), a loner ex-Green Beret who happens to be in town steps in. The bikers end up being arrested, but they also arrest Billy Jack, whose only crime apparently was doing the job the police SHOULD have done.

 

The bikers get off with basically a slap on the wrist, but the judge slaps Billy Jack with a heavy fine. As a result he has to sell his jeep to come up with the money, otherwise spend some time in jail. Billy Jack has had some dealings before with Danny. (Not sure, since it's never actually stated, but I think either they were in high school together or possibly they both served time in the Vietnam War).

 

The bikers figure they have the  upper hand in town, and as a result they eventually rape a couple of the town girls. Devastated by the actions as they are, the girls refuse the pleas to testify against the biker gang. The D.A. (Paul Bruce) and the Sheriff (Stewart Lancaster) are frustrated by this, of course, but the bikers' intimidation tactics are very thorough. They convince the girls and their families that it would be better for their safety to just lay low, or maybe even leave town. 

The coming of a new girl in town, Vicki (Elizabeth James), is a new twist on the bikers however. She, too, is a victim of the illicit sexual tactics of the band of outlaws. When the D.A. tries to approach her she seems willing to help, but only if the authorities can guarantee her safety. Unfortunately the authorities cannot convince her she would be completely safe. But maybe Billy Jack can.

 

 

Initially Billy Jack is only trying to confront the gang because they raided his mobile home and stole his stash of money he had hidden there (Billy Jack doesn't trust banks... and there is a trope that always bugs me.  Why do these loners always mistrust banks?) Billy Jack confronts the gang and demands they return his money, and that apparently is his only motivation. But in the process he develops a little bit of care for the downtrodden Vicki, a foreshadowing of the character he becomes in the sequels. The character gradually becomes a hero of sorts defending the underdog. The fact that a peace loving individual resorts to violence in order to promote peace was a source of consternation among some critics, but the character of Billy Jack gradually comes to be the kind of antihero that not only found a following in the 60's and 70's but even finds a following in today's society.

A couple of familiar faces show up during this movie. Jack Starrett, who plays the deputy, will be familiar as the sadistic deputy who gets on Rambo's wrong side in the first First Blood film.

Starrett as the Deputy

Starrett in First Blood 

 

And Robert Tessier, who may be familiar from The Longest Yard and Breakhart Pass made his film debut here, as Cueball (albeit before he shaved his head...) 

 

Tessier as Cueball

Tessier in The Longest Yard

Tessier in Breakhart Pass

 
Also appearing in a brief role is pin-up icon Jane Russell as the mother of one of the victims.

 

The film was a modest success, financially.  It went over budget as far as AIP was concerned, but even so, with a cost of $2 million to produce it managed to pull in over $35 million at the box office. It was not particularly well received by the critics. Many of them, like Leonard Maltin,  citing the aforementioned criticism of using violence to promote an anti-violence message. Bosley Crowther, in his review, also said it was "difficult to have empathy for the victimized youngsters after seeing them half-naked in beachwear, coyly edging up to the cyclists".

The Born Losers is a tough movie to watch if you are remotely sensitive to any objectifying of women, even if the message of the film is that that objectifying on the part of the cyclists is not acceptable (as opposed to some of the typical drive-in movies of the day which tried to make titillation a rite of passage of young men of the day). One of the most difficult parts of the film is when one of the girls who were victims says that she and the other girls wanted to be a part of the gangs' activities, and thus were not "raped".

While I like The Born Losers as an introduction to a character that I really liked in the sequel, Billy Jack, I would submit that this may not be a movie for all people. If you found Easy Rider a difficult movie to like, you probably will be turning off The Born Losers before Billy Jack ever begins to show he's got a pair. But if you can get over the stark images that the movie presents, it is worth a look. Fortunately the movie shies away from actually showing the sexual aspect (except for a few scenes with the girls wearing bikinis, there is not that is much overtly titillating in the film).

That wraps up today's movie. Drive safely, folks. Don't hit any motorcyclists while backing out. Come back tomorrow for Day of the Triffids!

Quiggy

 

Celebrate the Drive-In Week: The 7th Voyage of Sinbad

Celebrate the Drive-In is a tribute to a beloved venue of the past. During it's heyday, a trip to the drive-in was one of my favorite things, both on the rare occasions as a child, and in my early adulthood. This blog is going to celebrate Drive-In Day (Jun 6) with a series of movies that I was too young to see (or in a couple of cases, not even born yet) that I wish I could've experienced in a drive-in. Keep coming back for the entire week as there will be one per day for the duration.

 

Don't you just hate it when a magician shrinks your fiancee to the size of a GI Joe doll? Presenting the next Coming Attraction! The 7th Voyage of Sinbad!

 

A few years ago I covered a couple of movies featuring an adventurer named Sinbad (no relation to the African American comedian...), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. Both of those I was fortunate enough to have seen at a drive-in theater when I was still in my teens. As I related in the review (and you can follow the link if you want to read the whole thing yourself), the story of Sinbad and his adventures captivated me. A lot of that had to do with the stop-motion special effects of Ray Harryhausen.

Those films came out in the 70's. But those were not the first pairing of Sinbad the Sailor with the special effects expertise of Ray Harryhausen. (And actually there was an even earlier film, Sinbad the Sailor from 1947, with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr in the title role, but that was just a "plain Jane" swords and sandals pirate melodrama, lacking the monsters that populated the Harryhausen films). The best Sinbad movies were these later epics which added some fantastic creatures for the pirate to battle.

Sinbad had his origins in classic literature, specifically a book called One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. They were originally published in English in the early 1700's, but the history dates even before then. The collection was of stories and legends that had been collected Middle Eastern folktales circa the 8th to the 13th century. 

The story behind the collection of tales, if you are not familiar, focuses on a girl in a sultan's harem. The sultan would have sex with a girl in his harem and then have her executed the next morning. Scheherezade, one his girls, told stories to the sultan each night, always leaving a cliffhanger at the end of the night, thus postponing her execution. Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and the tale of Aladdin were two of these stories, and you have probably heard of several others. 

Sinbad was a hero that ended up having seven classic voyages, although none of the classic films were actually directly based on the print stories. Instead, the films were more or less original tales inspired by the adventures of the literary character. I suggest you find a good copy of the book and read some of those stories however. They are entertaining in their own right. Sir Richard Burton (the British adventurer from the 1800's, not the actor) has the best version.  

 

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958): 

The film opens as Sinbad (Kerwin Mathews) and his crew are sailing to Baghdad. They have been looking for a place to resupply their ship, as they have apparently run out of food. Sinbad, the heir apparent to the Caliph of Baghdad, is on his way back with the princess of Chandra, Parisa (Kathryn Grant). The imminent marriage between the two serves two purposes; one they are truly in love, but also a marriage between the two will be able to stave off a war between the two countries.

 

They  make landfall on the island of Colossa, where they encounter a giant Cyclops, as well as a magician who has been stranded there, with his magic lamp. The magician, Sokurah (Torin Thatcher), has some incredible magical powers, plus he has the genie in the lamp (Richard Eyer), but seems to be unable to get off the island by himself...

 

Cyclops

 

Sokurah

Genie

As Sinbad, Sokurah and his crew try to make their escape, Sokurah loses the lamp, which is recovered by the Cyclops. When Sinbad finally gets to Baghdad, Sokurah does everything he can think of to try to get the Caliph, Sinbad's father (Alec Mango), to authorize and finance a trip back to Colossa to get the lamp again. Not all of his efforts are above board... He finally uses some of that (seemingly) elusive  magic that he is capable of to shrink the princess to the size of a porcelain doll. 

 

 

Then he manages to convince the Caliph that some other magic has caused it, but that he, Sokurah, can reverse the spell. The only thing is, he needs a part of the shell from an egg of a roc, and that creature can only be found on...wait for it....Colossa.

 

 

Due to the fact that most of Sinbad's crew is not willing to go back with him to Colossa, he has to get a crew of prisoners from the local jail. And you can see what's coming. That crew of reprobates is not interested in fulfilling their mission, probably because they know if they succeed they'll just be back in prison when they get back. So they mutiny. But forces beyond their control end up with them back on Colossa anyway.

On the island Sinbad and company divide forces. One group of them find the Cyclops' stashed treasure trove, and of course, lose track of the original mission. While they are overcome by the greed inspired by their discovery, the Cyclops captures some of them, including Sinbad. It is up to the miniature Parisa to help free them, and at one point she enters the lamp and meets the young boy who is the genie. The genie only wants one thing in life, to be free from the curse of imprisonment in the lamp. Parisa promises to help. (It's a sure bet Sokurah isn't going to be so magnanimous...)

Since Sinbad holds all the cards (read: the lamp), he has the necessary motivation to get Sokurah to reverse the curse. But Sokurah is not going to go so gentle into that good night. He kidnaps the princess and takes her to his cave, which is guarded by a fire-breathing dragon. The genie helps Sinbad get by the dragon, and confronts Sokurah, making him follow through with the promise to reverse the curse. 

 

 

Ultimately there is a battle between the Cyclops and the dragon, and wonder of wonder, the good guys end up winning. (Did you expect it to end any other way?) 

 

And Parisa follows through on her promise to help the genie escape his bondage. 

 

Throughout the film there are several scenes that involve other Harryhausen creations. In one, Sokurah turns one of Parisa's handmaidens into a serpent woman.

Serpent woman

 

In another, Sinbad does battle with a skeleton (which might be confused with a similar battle in Jason and the Argonauts, although in that movie it was an entire contingent of skeletons).  

 

The 7th Voyage skeleton

Jason vs. the skeletons

 

 

 

 

 

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad is one of those rare movies that garners a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Most critics agree that it is the best of the Sinbad movies. Roger Ebert, although not a reviewer at the time it came out (he was still in high school), reminisces in an article that it was one of his favorites. It made a fairly decent profit, managing to get a little over $3 million in tickets sales against a budget of only $650 thousand.  

You can't go wrong watching any of the movies that Ray Harryhausen was involved in, whether it be the Sinbad movies or Jason and the Argonauts, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers or even Valley of the Gwangi . Like I say, the stop motion animation that he helped advance may seem quaint to people who grew up on CGI, but I can't name one movie in Harryhausen's oeuvre that is not worth watching multiple times. 

It's hard to believe he was never nominated for an Oscar, although he did get an honorary award in 1992. How he was passed over for a even a nomination nod for the 1981 film, Clash of the Titans, is a mystery, although he probably would have ended up losing to Raiders of the Lost Ark, since that film was one of the darlings at the Academy Awards that year... Especially effective, visually, was his Medusa. 

 

 

Realizing after writing this review that Harryhausen has been neglected in my 10 year span of writing, I am going to start posting a few more movies of his over the next few months. Just gotta find the time.  I have a LOT of projects going on at this time. But since I am retired, there is no excuse of "I gotta work"... 

See you next time, folks. Drive safely. And don't pick up any suspicious looking magicians... Come back tomorrow for The Born Losers!

Quiggy