Torin Thatcher

(Expanded, edited version) The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad The film begins with Sinbad (Kerwin Matthews) on board his ship, with Harufa (Alfred Brown) his chief lieutenant, sailing through a thick fog, en route to Baghdad from the Kingdom of Chandra (1) with a special cargo, the Princess Parisa (Kathryn Grant) (2), accompanied by her handmaid, Sadi (Nana DeHerrera): Parisa will wed her beloved Sinbad to avert a war between Chandra and Bagdad (3). The ship stops for supplies at the Isle of Colossa (4). While loading food and water, a magician named Sokourah (5) (Torin Thatcher) emerges from a mask-crowned stone portal, chased by a Cyclops with satyr's legs (created as a stop-motion model, like most of the non-human cast, by Ray Harryhausen). The wizard rubs a magic lamp and is helped by a boy genie, Baronni (Richard Eyer), (6) who creates a magic barrier between the Cyclops and Sinbad's crew, who escape, taking Sokourah with them. But the Cyclops throws a rock to sink their boat, and the lamp is lost: the Cyclops recovers it from the shallow surf. Now at sea, Sokourah tries to persuade Sinbad with a bagful of jewels into returning to Colossa to regain the magic lamp; but Sinbad's mission is to go to Bagdad and avert war with Chandra by marrying Parisa. Once in Bagdad, Sokourah tries to convince the Caliph (Alec Mango), to grant him a ship for an expedition to Colossa, also showing him designs for a giant crossbow. But the Caliph listens to Sinbad about the perils of returning to Colossa, and even after putting on a fantastic magic show during a feast for the Caliph and Parisa's father, the Sultan of Chandra (Harold Kasket), during which Sadi is transformed into a blue four-armed snake-woman which performs an exotic dance, Sokourah's request is denied. Sokourah then prophesies war between Chandra and Baghdad, which upsets the Caliph and the Sultan, and Sokourah is banished from the city. Sokourah steals into Parisa's bedchamber at night, and enchants her with the green smoke of a magic candle, which shrinks Parisa down to a few inches high. In the morning, Sadi discovers her and calls for the Caliph, Sinbad, and the Sultan: the Sultan becomes infuriated, vowing to avenge Parisa by laying waste to Bagdad. Sinbad seeks out Sokourah, and implores him to restore Parisa to her normal size, being apparently unaware that Sokourah was responsible for her miniaturization. Sokourah initially feigns helplessness, but finally concedes he can restore the Princess but he needs as a vital ingredient a piece of eggshell from the Roc (7), a giant bird that nests on the peaks of the Isle of Colossa. Sinbad now agrees to the voyage, and musters a crew partly from the condemned men from the Caliphs prison - a murderous rabble whose loyalty is questionable. Parisa journeys with Sinbad in a jeweled casket, and the giant crossbow is also made and loaded aboard. The crew mutiny once out at sea, and force Sinbad to yield by threatening Sokourah. They then lock up Sinbad, his loyal crew member Harufa and Sokourah, who curses the crew with madness: he knows that a storm will drive the ship towards rocks south of Colossa inhabited by wailing demons whose screams are unbearable: Sinbad saves his and his companions sanity by using waxed cloth to block their ears. The mutiny ringleader dies in a fall from the mast, and the men release Sinbad to save the ship. The ship and a more obedient crew arrive at Colossa. As the giant crossbow is assembled on the beach in front of the stone mask, Sinbad and Sokourah each lead a party through the Valley of the Cyclops, with Sinbad secretly (for a few minutes, at least) followed by his lieutenant, Harufa. Sinbads band discovers a giant spiked club and a store house full of treasure; though Sinbad tries to stop them, they become greedy trying to seize it: a Cyclops discovers them, hauls all five of them out, and locks them in a cage, from which it extracts Harufa whom it ties to a roasting-spit and starts to barbecue. Sokourah hears the shouts of Sinbad and the other trapped men, but does not release them, instead entering the treasure-chamber to find the magic lamp. Sinbad now reveals the tiny Princess Parisa, who manages to unfasten the cage's latch, enabling Sinbad and the men to escape. The four men who were with Sokourah, having become drunk on a stream flowing with wine, now attack: the Cyclops kills two by squashing them with an uprooted tree. During the following fight Sinbad manages to free Harufa, seize the lamp from Sokourah, and kill the Cyclops by first blinding him with a burning stake from the fire, and then leading him over a cliff, where the Cyclops falls to his death in the stream below. Sinbad is now suspicious of Sokourah, and refuses to let him have the lamp until Sokourah restores Parisa to her normal size. Sinbad, Sokourah, Harufa and the remaining three crewmen all climb a steep, rocky mountain (losing one man who falls off en route), until they find a giant egg. The two hungry crewmen break the egg with axes, releasing a two-headed yellow-down-covered Roc hatchling, which they kill and roast: Sinbad takes some of the eggshell. Parisa enters the lamp to speak with the genie, where he reveals to her his name, the magic words needed to use the lamp, which she passes onto Sinbad, and a prophecy which would free the genie to become, as he desires, a real boy - "into fiery rock, to rise, you must fall". Shortly an adult Roc appears, attacks the crew, knocking the two remaining crewmen off the mountain to fall to death, and carries Sinbad, unconscious, off to its nest. Sokourah seizes the opportunity to kill Sinbad's right-hand man Harufa with a spear, and takes Parisa prisoner. Sinbad escapes from the Roc's nest, and summoning the genie of the lamp, discovers that Parisa is being held in Sokourah's castle in a cave at the foot of the mountain. This is guarded by a chained wingless green fire-breathing horned Dragon, which Sinbad must bypass by winding in its chain on one of a pair of windlasses. At Sokourah's castle, Sinbad orders Sokourah at the point of a sword to restore Parisa to normal. Using the prepared potion, the piece of eggshell, and an incantation, Sokourah fills a large chest, into which the Princess has been placed, with green smoke, and Parisa becomes normal size again. However, Sinbad refuses to give up the lamp until he and the Princess are safely back at his ship: enraged, Sokourah animates a skeleton which, armed with scimitar and shield, fights Sinbad, he ultimately defeating it by pushing it off the top of a spiral staircase. Sokourah tries again to stop Sinbad and Parisa escaping by magically smashing a rock bridge over a channel of molten lava: the genie, summoned, helps them by materializing a rope they use to swing across the chasm to safety. Parisa realizes the chasm is the "fiery rock" mentioned in the prophecy of release for the genie, and casts the lamp into the lava flow, infuriating Sokourah. Sinbad and Parisa manage to sneak their way past Sokourah's guard Dragon, but another Cyclops enters the cave and blocks their way. Sinbad releases the Dragon by cutting the ropes of the windlass, enabling it to break its chain; the Dragon then fights and kills the Cyclops, biting its throat out. Sokourah follows shortly after, and with his dragon, chases Sinbad and Parisa back to the stone mask, where the giant crossbow is used to shoot the Dragon, which falls onto Sokourah, presumably killing him: the Dragon drags itself to the beach before expiring. As Sinbad and Parisa escape, back on board ship, Parisa calls Baronni by name he reappears, now a genie no longer but Sinbads cabin boy who has also thoughtfully filled Sinbad's cabin with the Cyclops' treasure, as a "sort of a wedding present". Notes (1) Spelling uncertain: historically, 'Chandra' is a Hindu lunar deity (2) This spelling of 'Parisa' is used p163 in 'The Art of Ray Harryhausen', by Ray Harryhausen and Tony Dalton, 2006, Billboard Books, New York (3) This spelling of 'Bagdad' rather than 'Baghdad' is used as a text overlay in the film, although the video sleeve has 'Baghdad' (and so may be unreliable on other points) (4) This spelling of 'Colossa' is used p162 in 'The Art of Ray Harryhausen' (5) Spelt 'Sokourah' in 'The Art of Ray Harryhausen' p 162 et. seq., and so used here, although the video sleeve has 'Sokurah': the role is not given in the title credits (6) Spelling uncertain, and could also be 'Birani' or any phonetic variant: in the title credits simply 'The Genie' (7)The roc or rukh is a giant bird in Persian mythology, probably inspired in part by the eggs or even sightings of the Aepyornis elephant bird, a now-extinct three-metre-tall flightless bird of Madagascar, for which there were reported sightings at least in folklore memory recorded in 1658. The eggs were known at least as early as 1420, according to a caption in the 1456 Fra Mauro map: Marco Polo also gave an account of the rukh in 1298. (Original version) The film begins with Sinbad and his crew sailing through a thick fog. They are enroute to Bagdad, returning from the Kingdom of Chandra with special booty, the Princess Parisa and her handmaid, Sadi. The ship must stop for supplies at the Island of Colossus. While loading supplies, a wizard named Sokurah emerges from a cave, chased by a cyclops. The wizard rubs a lamp and is helped by a boy genie. Sinbad's crew narrowly escapes the cyclops, taking Sokurah with them. But, the lamp is lost to the sea during the escape. The gigantic cyclops recovers its precious lamp from the shallow surf. Now at sea, Sokurah tries to bribe Sinbad into returning to Colossus and retaking the magic lamp, but Sinbad's primary mission is to go to Bagdad and avert war with Chandra by marrying Parisa. Once in Bagdad, Sokurah tries to convince Sinbad's uncle the Caliph to lend him a ship for an expedition to Colossus. But, the Caliph listens to Sinbad, and even after putting on a fantastic magic show before the Caliph of Bagdad and Parisa'a father, the Sultan of Chandra, Sokurah 's request is denied. During Sokurah's performance, he prophesies war between Chandra and Bagdad. The dark prophecies upset the Caliph and the Sultan, and Sokurah is bannished from the city. Sokurah steals into Parisa's bedchamber at night, and enchants her with the smoke of a magic candle, which shrinks Parisa down to the size of a small bird. In the morning, Parisa's handmaid discovers her enchantment. The Caliph, Sinbad, and Parisa's father the Sultan are shocked. The Sultan blames Bagdad, and becomes infuriated. He vows to avenge Parisa by laying waste to Bagdad. Sinbad seeks out Sokurah, and implores him to restore Parisa to her normal size. He is unaware, at this point, that Sokurah commited the treachery. Sokurah feigns helplessness, but finally concedes he may be able to help restore the Princess by using the egg shell from the Roc, a giant bird that lives on the Isle of Colossus. Sinbad agrees. He musters a crew from the prison. These are murderous, lecherous rabble whose loyalty is questionable. The crew proves unreliable once out at sea, where they mutiny and lock up Sinbad, crew and the magician Sokurah. Before they are locked in the hold, Sokurah curses the crew with a storm and madness. His curse plays out when a storm and the unbearable wail of sirens drives the crew mad. In their madness, they release Sinbad and his men to save the ship. The ship and a more obedient crew arrive at Colossus. The crew discover a store house full of treasure, and become greedy. Sinbad finds the magic lamp. The cyclops discovers them, and locks them in cages. It is soon learned the cyclops eats men. Sokurah has the opportunity to release the caged men, but leaves them behind without explanation. Sinbad reveals the tiny Princess Parisa to the men, who were unaware of her presence in a tiny tent crafted by the Royal Jeweler. Parisa manages to unfasten the cage's latch, and all escape. Parisa enters the lamp to speak with the genie, where he reveals to her his name and the magic words needed to use the lamp. Sinbad is now suspicious of Sokurah's intentions, but catches up with him. The magician is still needed to restore Parisa to her normal size. All the men climb a steep, rocky mountain, where they find pieces of the Roc's shell. The hungry men resort to killing a two-headed Roc hatchling for food. Later, while roasting the gigantic chick, the mother Roc appears, and carries Sinbad off to its nest. Sokurah seizes the opportunity to kill Sinbad's right-hand man Harufa, and takes Parisa. Sinbad escapes from the Roc's nest, and using the lamp, discovers that Parisa is being held in Sokurah's fortress in a cave. Sinbad finds the cave, and Parisa. He orders Sokurah at the point of a sword to restore Parisa to normal. Using the piece of shell and an incantation, Parisa becomes normal size again. But, Sokurah will not let Sinbad go with the lamp, and enchants a skeleton to life. Sinbad fights the skeleton, defeating it. He and Parisa narrowly escape Sokurah's chambers. There is another obstacle before them, a fiery chasm. The genie, whose name we learn is Baronni, helps Sinbad and Parisa one final time, by materializing a rope they use to swing across the chasm to safety. In an unselfish act, Parisa takes the lamp and casts it into the chasm of fire, for she recalls a promise of freedom, which read, "Into the fire you must go." Sinbad and Parisa manage to sneak their way past Sokurah's guard dragon, but another cyclops enters the cave and blocks their way. Sinbad helps the dragon to escape its iron collar, and the dragon and cyclops engage in battle. Sinbad and Parisa escape the cave, and the dragon kills the cyclops. Sokurah follows shortly after, and with his dragon, chases Sinbad, Parisa and the crew. The crew have one more weapon, a giant crossbow, which was originally intended for the cyclops. The crew unleash the arrow on the dragon, which falls to its death, also crushing Sokurah. The crew escape. Parisa is restored, but they have no lamp. Parisa affectionately remembers Baronni, and mentions his name. "Did someone call Baronni? Here I am!" It is Baronni, no longer the genie, but Captain Sinbad's cabin boy. In his final act of magic, Baronni fills Sinbad's cabin with the Cyclops' treasure, "as a sort of a wedding present." The ship is safely on its way back to Bagdad.

A few years after War War II, in London, Leonard Vole (Tyrone Power), is accused of murdering a rich widow, Emily French (Norma Varden), who has recently changed her will and bequeathed him a substantial sum of money. Sir Wilfred Robarts (Charles Laughton), a skilled lawyer who has Just be released from hospital, is asked to defend Vole. Sir Wilfred's doctor has instructed him to avoid excitement. After his hand-picked replacement barrister expresses doubt over Vole's innocence, Sir Wilfred decides to handle the case himself, despite protests from his nurse (Elsa Lanchester). After a conversation with Mrs. Christine Vole (Marlene Dietrich) and assessing her attitude, Sir Wilfred decides not to call on her to testify in defense of her husband. In the courtroom, Christine Vole surprisingly appears as a Witness for the Prosecution. A parade of circumstantial evidence points to Vole being the likely murderer. Christine's testimony does not provide an alibi for her husband. All seems lost as the defense concludes its case. But a late night phone call reveals new evidence that Christine wrote letters to an anonymous lover named Max about purposely denying her husband an alibi to get her freedom. This evidence changes the jury's opinion and Leonard is acquitted. However, Sir Wilfred suspects something is amiss with this sudden reversal and dramatic convenient evidence. All is revealed in the last dramatic court scene, as Christine admits to deliberately sabotaging her own testimony with the letters, to get her guilty husband freed. But in the penultimate twist, Leonard shows his true stripes and reveals his intention to leave his "wife" for a younger woman. Christine seizes the knife used as evidence of an accidental cut causing Vole's bloody jacket and, in full view of Sir Wilfred, his nurse (Miss Plimsoll), and the other woman, stabs Leonard, killing him. Miss Plimsoll cancels Sir Wilfred's planned trip to Bermuda and announces he will defend Christine Vole in her trial for murder.

Discovering that a ventriloquist is travelling to Zurich, a spy ring hides secret plans in his dummies' heads. When a second spy ring learns of the plans, they descend upon the ventriloquist, causing city-wide pandemonium. Ventriloquist Jerry Morgan has to see another love affair fail. The reason: when the relationship reaches the point when it is time to discuss marriage, his doll Clarence becomes mean and jealous. His fiancée Audrey leaves him and Jerry smashes his two dolls, Clarence and Terrence. Morgan's doll maker Papinek is a member of a spy ring who has stolen secret plans to the top secret Lafayette airplane. Since Morgan is leaving for Zurich the same night, Papinek decides to use Morgan's dolls as a mailbox and hides the secret plans in the heads of the dolls. Another secret spy ring also wants to get their hands on Jerry's luggage and they *also* follow him. Eventually, Jerry is chased by both these organizations as well as the police, who suspects him of murder. —Mattias Thuresson

Peasant Myles Falworth is trained for knighthood and is groomed by various nobles to defeat the evil Earl of Alban who's plotting to usurp King Henry IV's throne. Technicolor and tights. In the days of King Henry IV, stalwart young Myles of Crisby Dale, and his sister Meg, have been raised as peasants, without any knowledge of their father's true identity. They are sent Mackworth Castle by their foster father with a letter to Lord Mackworth, urging him to take in Myles and Meg as wards. There, Myles is smitten with Mackworth's daughter, Lady Anne, incurs the enmity of the chief knight-in-training, and is assigned by Lord Mackworth to train for knighthood, himself so that he may claim his birthright and assist Mackworth and the stalwart Prince Hal in defeating the evil Duke of Alban, who plots to usurp King Henry's throne. —Kathy Li

In the 1890s, young Harry Houdini is performing with a Coney Island carnival as Bruto, the Wild Man, when Bess, a naive onlooker, tries to protect him from the blows of Schultz, his "trainer." Harry then appears as magician The Great Houdini and, spotting Bess in the audience, invites her on stage. Harry flirts with the unsuspecting Bess during his act, but she flees from him in a panic. When Bess shows up to watch Harry perform two more times, however, he corners her. Bess admits her attraction, and soon after, the two appear at Harry's mother's house, newly married. Bess becomes Harry's onstage partner, touring the country with him, but soon grows tired of the low pay and grueling schedule. After Bess convinces Harry to take a job in a locksmith factory, Harry works as a lock tester while fantasizing about escaping from one of the factory's large safes. On Halloween, Harry and Bess attend a special magicians' dinner at the Astor Hotel, during which magician Fante offers a prize to anyone who can free himself from a straight-jacket. Harry accepts the challenge and, through intense concentration, extricates himself from the jacket, greatly impressing Fante. Afterward, however, Fante advises Harry to "drop it," noting that Johann Von Schweger, a German magician, retired at the height of his career after performing a similar feat, fearful of his own talents. Bess then persuades Harry to give her his prize, a single, round-trip boat ticket to Europe, so that she can cash it in for a down payment on a house. Later, at the factory, Harry locks himself inside one of the big safes, determined to make an escape. Before he can get out, however, the foreman orders the safe blown open, then fires Harry. That night, in front of his mother, Harry and Bess argue about their future, and frustrated by Bess's insistence that he quit magic, Harry walks out. Soon, a contrite Bess finds Harry performing with a carnival and presents him with two one-way tickets to Europe. Sometime later, at a London theater, Harry and Bess are concluding their magic act when a reporter named Dooley challenges Harry to break out of one of Scotland Yard's notoriously secure jail cells. Harry, who hired Dooley to issue the challenge, accepts the challenge, unaware that the jail's cells do not have locks in the door, but on the outside wall. Despite the added difficulty, the dexterous, determined Houdini picks the cell lock and appears on time for his next performance. Now billed as the "man who escaped from Scotland Yard," Harry begins a successful tour of Europe with Bess. In Berlin, Harry is joined by his mother and begins searching for the reclusive Von Schweger. While performing an impromptu levitation trick with Bess at a restaurant, Harry is arrested for fraud. During his trial, Harry denies that he ever made claims to supernatural powers, insisting that all his tricks are accomplished through physical means. To prove his point, Harry locks himself in a safe in the courtroom and breaks out a few minutes later, noting that safe locks are designed to keep thieves out, not in. Vindicated, Harry then goes to see Von Schweger, who finally has responded to his queries, but learns from Von Schweger's assistant, Otto, that the magician died two days earlier. Otto reveals that Von Schweger summoned Harry to ask him the secret of "dematerialization," a feat he accomplished once but could not repeat. Although Harry demurs, Otto insists on becoming Harry's new assistant and travels with him to New York. There, Harry finds he is virtually unknown, so for publicity, hangs upside down on a skyscraper flagpole, constrained by a straight-jacket. Harry executes the escape and soon makes a name for himself in America. To prepare to be submerged in a box in the chilly Detroit River, Harry bathes in an ice-filled bathtub. During the trick, which takes place on Halloween, the rope holding the box breaks, and the box drops upside down into an opening in the ice-covered river. Although Harry manages to escape from the box, the current drags him downstream, and he struggles to find air pockets under the ice and swim back to the opening. Above, Bess and the horrified audience assume Harry has drowned and proclaim his demise. To Bess's relief, Harry shows up later at their hotel, admitting that he heard his mother's voice, directing him toward the opening. Just then, Harry receives word that his mother died at the exact time that he heard her voice. Two years later in New York, Harry, who has not performed since his mother's death, reveals to Simms, a reporter, that he has been trying to contact his mother's spirit, without success. Harry invites Simms to attend a seance with him, and after the medium appears to have communicated with his mother, Harry and Otto expose her as a fake. After a public crusade against phony mediums, Harry decides to return to the stage and builds a watery "torture cell" for the occasion. Terrified, Bess threatens to leave Harry unless he drops the dangerous trick, and he agrees not to perform it. Before the show, Harry admits to Otto that his appendix is tender, but goes on, despite the pain. When the audience noisily demands that he perform the advertised "water torture" trick, Harry succumbs and is immersed, straight-jacketed and upside down, in a tank of water. Weak, Harry cannot execute the escape and loses consciousness. Otto breaks the tank's glass, and after reviving, Harry vows to a weeping Bess that he will "come back."

Nightclub singer and her brother-in-law try to find her husband's killer. When Steve Emery arrives in Trinidad at the urgent request of his brother, he is stunned to find that his brother has not only been murdered, but that his brother's wife Chris is succumbing to the seduction attempts of the man who quite possibly is the murderer. His feelings are further exacerbated when he discovers that he, too, is becoming strongly attracted to Chris, who is a steamy cabaret singer. She, in turn, is playing off one against the other while betraying the secrets of both men to the police, for whom she is secretly working. —Alfred Jingle and Albert Sanchez Moreno In Port of Spain, Trinidad, the mediocre painter Neal Emery is found dead apparently after committing suicide. Inspector Smythe seeks out Neal's wife, the dancer Chris Emery that is the lead attraction of the Caribe night-club to tell her about the death of her husband. Soon Smythe finds that Neal actually was murdered and his prime suspect is Neal's friend, the wealthy Max Fabian and has eyes on Chris. Smythe asks Chris to spy Fabian to find an evidence to arrest him. Meanwhile Neal's brother Steve Emery unexpectedly arrives in Trinidad to visit his brother and learns that his brother had committed suicide, but he does not believe on the official statement. He stays at Chris house and decides to investigate the murder of his brother. Soon Chris and Steve fall in love with each other, but Chris cannot tell to him the reason why she continues to meet Fabian. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil