Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger is a
1977The year 1977 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*In the Academy Awards, Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway and Beatrice Straight win Best Actor and Actress and Supporting Actress awards for Network....
fantasy filmFantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered to be distinct from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap....
, the third and final Sinbad film that
Ray HarryhausenRay Harryhausen is an American film producer and, most notably, a special effects creator most famous for his brand of stop-motion model animation...
made for Columbia (the others being
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and
The Golden Voyage of SinbadThe Golden Voyage of Sinbad is a fantasy film released in 1974 and starring John Phillip Law as Sinbad. It includes a score by composer Miklós Rózsa and is noted for the stop-motion effects by Ray Harryhausen...
) and the penultimate movie in which
HarryhausenRay Harryhausen is an American film producer and, most notably, a special effects creator most famous for his brand of stop-motion model animation...
would use the stop-motion technique he had pioneered since the late 1940s. The movie was directed by
Sam WanamakerSamuel Wanamaker was an American film director and actor, credited as the person most responsible for the modern recreation of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London.-Early years:...
and cost 7 million dollars to make, making it the costliest of the Sinbad series.
Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger is a
1977The year 1977 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*In the Academy Awards, Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway and Beatrice Straight win Best Actor and Actress and Supporting Actress awards for Network....
fantasy filmFantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered to be distinct from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap....
, the third and final Sinbad film that
Ray HarryhausenRay Harryhausen is an American film producer and, most notably, a special effects creator most famous for his brand of stop-motion model animation...
made for Columbia (the others being
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and
The Golden Voyage of SinbadThe Golden Voyage of Sinbad is a fantasy film released in 1974 and starring John Phillip Law as Sinbad. It includes a score by composer Miklós Rózsa and is noted for the stop-motion effects by Ray Harryhausen...
) and the penultimate movie in which
HarryhausenRay Harryhausen is an American film producer and, most notably, a special effects creator most famous for his brand of stop-motion model animation...
would use the stop-motion technique he had pioneered since the late 1940s. The movie was directed by
Sam WanamakerSamuel Wanamaker was an American film director and actor, credited as the person most responsible for the modern recreation of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London.-Early years:...
and cost 7 million dollars to make, making it the costliest of the Sinbad series. The live action was filmed in
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
,
MaltaMalta , officially the Republic of Malta , is a densely populated developed European country in the European Union. The Southern European island nation is an archipelago that includes the inhabited islands of Malta, Gozo and Comino, along with a number of smaller, uninhabited islands...
, and
JordanJordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in Western Asia spanning the southern part of the Syrian Desert down to the Gulf of Aqaba. Jordan shares borders with Syria to the north, Iraq to the northeast, Saudi Arabia to the east and south, the Gulf of Aqaba to the southwest,...
(at the tombs of ancient
PetraPetra is an archaeological site in the Arabah, Ma'an Governorate, Jordan, lying on the slope of Mount Hor in a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Arabah , the large valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba. It is renowned for its rock-cut architecture...
) between June and October of 1975, with Harryhausen's stop-motion animation work lasting from October 1975 up to March 1977.
Plot
Sinbad (
Patrick WaynePatrick John Wayne , is an American actor and second son of movie star John Wayne and his first wife, Josephine Alicia Saenz. He made over 40 films in his career, including nine with his father...
), sailor and Prince of
BaghdadBaghdad is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is coterminous. Having a municipal population estimated at 6.5 million, it is the largest city in Iraq and the second largest in the Arab World....
, seeks permission from Prince Kassim to marry his sister Princess Farah (
Jane SeymourJane Seymour, OBE is an English actress best known as a Bond girl in the 1973 James Bond film Live and Let Die and the star of the 1990s American television series Dr...
). A spell is placed on Kassim by their evil stepmother Zenobia (Margaret Whiting) turning him into a
baboonBaboons are African and Asian Old World monkeys belonging to the genus Papio, part of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. There are five species, which are some of the largest non-hominid members of the primate order; only the Mandrill and the Drill are larger...
(one of Harryhausen's stop-motion creations) just as he was going to be crowned
caliphThe Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the leader of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transliterated version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...
. Sinbad sets off with Princess Farah to find an
alchemistAlchemy is both a philosophy and a practice with an aim of achieving ultimate wisdom as well as immortality, involving the improvement of the alchemist as well as the making of several substances described as possessing unusual properties...
named Melanthius (
Patrick TroughtonPatrick George "Pat" Troughton was an English actor most widely known in his role as the second incarnation of the Doctor in the long running British science-fiction television series Doctor Who, which he played from 1966 to 1969.-Early life:Troughton was born on 25 March, 1920 in Mill Hill,...
), who knows where to discover a cure to break the evil spell.
Sinbad and his crew eventually find Melanthius and his daughter Dione (
Taryn PowerTaryn Stephanie Power is an American actress and the younger daughter of the actor Tyrone Power and his second wife, the Mexican actress Linda Christian.-Early life:Born in Los Angeles, California, Power's parents divorced in 1956...
), who agrees to help them with their quest. Melanthius tells Sinbad and his crew that they must travel to the land of Hyperboria to find an ancient pyramid where Kassim can be cured. Zenobia, her son Rafi, and the
Minaton (a mechanical version of the
MinotaurIn Greek mythology, the Minotaur , as the Greeks imagined him, was a creature with the head of a bull on the body of a man or, as described by Ovid, "part man and part bull." He dwelt at the center of the Cretan Labyrinth, which was an elaborate maze-like construction built for King Minos of Crete...
) secretly stalk them. On their quest, Sinbad and his crew encounter creatures such as a trio of ghouls, a killer
waspThe term wasp is typically defined as any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is neither a bee nor ant. Almost every pest insect species has at least one wasp species that preys upon it or parasitizes it, making wasps critically important in natural control of their numbers,...
(effected by Zenobia's magic), a giant
walrusThe walrus is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous circumpolar distribution in the Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the Odobenidae family and Odobenus genus. It is subdivided into three subspecies: the Atlantic...
, a
troglodyteTroglodyte may refer to:* Caveman, a member of a primitive race or tribe of cave-dwellers* Hermit, who lives in seclusion* One of a group of people who built homes into the faces of cliffs, connected by underground passageways, such as in France or Tunisia...
(a creature that is friendly to Sinbad and his crew), and a
smilodonSmilodon , often called saber-toothed cat or saber-toothed tiger, is an extinct genus of the subfamily machairodontine saber-toothed cats endemic to North America and South America living from the Early Pleistocene through Lujanian stage of the Pleistocene epoch , existing for approximately 1.790...
(whose body gets possessed by Zenobia).
Cast
- Patrick Wayne
Patrick John Wayne , is an American actor and second son of movie star John Wayne and his first wife, Josephine Alicia Saenz. He made over 40 films in his career, including nine with his father...
as Sinbad
- Taryn Power
Taryn Stephanie Power is an American actress and the younger daughter of the actor Tyrone Power and his second wife, the Mexican actress Linda Christian.-Early life:Born in Los Angeles, California, Power's parents divorced in 1956...
as Dione
- Margaret Whiting
Margaret Whiting is a singer of American popular music who first made her reputation during the 1940s and 1950s....
as Zenobia
- Jane Seymour
Jane Seymour, OBE is an English actress best known as a Bond girl in the 1973 James Bond film Live and Let Die and the star of the 1990s American television series Dr...
as Princess Farah
- Patrick Troughton
Patrick George "Pat" Troughton was an English actor most widely known in his role as the second incarnation of the Doctor in the long running British science-fiction television series Doctor Who, which he played from 1966 to 1969.-Early life:Troughton was born on 25 March, 1920 in Mill Hill,...
as Melanthius
- Kurt Christian as Rafi
- Nadim Sawalha
Nadim Sawalha is a Jordanian-born British actor and father of actresses Julia and Nadia Sawalha.He was born in Jordan in 1935...
as Hassan
- Damien Thomas
Damien Thomas is a British actor noted for his roles in British films and television.Film credits include: The Message, Twins of Evil, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, and Henry VIII and His Six Wives....
as Prince Kassim
- Bruno Barnabe as Balsora
- Bernard Kay
Bernard Kay is a British actor with an extensive television repertoire.He has appeared four times in the Doctor Who series in various roles, most notably as Saladin in the classic Doctor Who story The Crusade in 1965, alongside William Hartnell and Julian Glover...
as Zabid
- Salami Coker as Maroof
- David Sterne as Aboo-Seer
Production
- Originally Laurence Naismith
Laurence Naismith was an English actor.Naismith appeared in films such as Diamonds Are Forever , Richard III , Jason and the Argonauts , Sink the Bismarck! and as Captain Edward Smith of the RMS Titanic in A Night to Remember...
was considered for the part of Melanthius but at the time he was busy with another production.
- The exterior of Zenobia's palace was a 16-inch model matted into the Almeria coastline, with the actors standing on the rocks.
- Ray Harryhausen visited London Zoo
London Zoo is the world's oldest scientific zoo. It was opened in London on April 27 1828, and was originally intended to be used as a collection for scientific study. It was eventually opened to the public in 1847...
and spent hours observing the baboonBaboons are African and Asian Old World monkeys belonging to the genus Papio, part of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. There are five species, which are some of the largest non-hominid members of the primate order; only the Mandrill and the Drill are larger...
s and tigerThe tiger is a member of the Felidae family; the largest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera. Native to much of eastern and southern Asia, the tiger is an apex predator and an obligate carnivore...
s, making sketches and filming them on 8mm8 mm film is a motion picture film format in which the filmstrip is eight millimeters wide. It exists in two main versions: the original standard 8mm film, also known as regular 8 mm or Double 8 mm, and Super 8...
.
- Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger took three years to complete and cost $3.5 million, almost three times as much as The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad is a fantasy film released in 1974 and starring John Phillip Law as Sinbad. It includes a score by composer Miklós Rózsa and is noted for the stop-motion effects by Ray Harryhausen...
.
- Sinbad's ship is the same one used in the previous Sinbad film, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. In fact, there is a brief sequence in the film in which the figurehead from the previous film, that was brought to life and attacked Sinbad's crew, is clearly visible.
- The stop motion
Stop motion is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence...
model of the Troglodyte, was later dismantled, so that the armature could be used to create Calibos in Clash of the TitansClash of the Titans is a 1981 fantasy adventure film based on the myth of Perseus. It was released on June 12, 1981 and was a box office hit, grossing $41 million domestically, on a $16 million budget It was the 11th highest grossing film of the year....
.
- A fourth film, Sinbad's Voyage to Mars, was written and locations were scouted, but the film was never made. It had Sinbad hitch a trip to Mars on a jewelled flying saucer and was loosely inspired by the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.-Biography:...
.
- Patrick Troughton
Patrick George "Pat" Troughton was an English actor most widely known in his role as the second incarnation of the Doctor in the long running British science-fiction television series Doctor Who, which he played from 1966 to 1969.-Early life:Troughton was born on 25 March, 1920 in Mill Hill,...
who plays Melanthius also played the blind seer Phineas in Harryhausen's masterpiece Jason and the Argonauts (film)Jason and the Argonauts is a Columbia Pictures fantasy feature film starring Todd Armstrong as the titular mythical Greek hero in a story about his quest for the Golden Fleece. Directed by Don Chaffey in collaboration with stop motion animation expert Ray Harryhausen, the film is noted for its...
and is famous for his portrayal on television of the second incarnationThe Second Doctor is the name given to the second incarnation of the fictional character known as the Doctor seen on screen in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who...
of the DoctorThe Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and also features in a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
in Doctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a mysterious alien time-traveller known as "the Doctor" who travels in his space and time-ship, the TARDIS, which normally appears from the exterior to be a blue 1950s police box...
. Coincidentally, Tom BakerThomas Stewart "Tom" Baker is an English actor. He is best known for playing the fourth incarnation of the Doctor in the science fiction television series Doctor Who, a role he played from 1974 to 1981, and for being the narrator of the comedy series Little Britain...
, one of his successors as the Doctor, appeared in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad as Koura.
- Kurt Christian who plays Zenobia's son also appeared in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad as the more sympathetic Haroun.
- Peter Mayhew
Peter Mayhew is an English actor known for playing the Wookiee Chewbacca in the Star Wars movies. His peak height was tall.-Early life:Mayhew was born in Barnes, London, England, five days after Star Wars creator George Lucas...
who plays "The Minoton" (uncredited) also appeared in "Star WarsStar Wars is an epic space opera franchise initially conceived by George Lucas. The first film in the franchise was originally released on May 25, 1977, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, spawning two immediate sequels, released at three-year intervals...
" as ChewbaccaChewbacca, nicknamed Chewie, is a Wookiee character in Star Wars franchise. In the series' narrative chronology, he appears in the films Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the...
.