REVIEWED BY DAN STUMPF:         


SON OF SINBAD. RKO, 1955. Dale Robertson, Sally Forrest, Lili St. Cyr, Vincent Price, Mari Blanchard, Nejla Ates. Director: Ted Tetzlaff.

SON OF SINBAD

   There’s silliness and to spare in Son of Sinbad, with Dale Robertson and a cast of strip-tease artists cavorting around in skimpy outfits and Technicolor so bright you need sunglasses.

   Director Ted Tetzlaff was an accomplished cinematographer (Notorious and The Enchanted Cottage come to mind) and a director who had his moments (The Window, from a Woolrich story), and while Son of Sinbad will never make the pantheon of great movies, he gives it a certain gaudy panache, throwing bright colors across the screen every chance he gets and trying to impart a sense of motion to a story that is mostly inert.

SON OF SINBAD

   Also thrown across the screen are girls. And more girls. And still more girls, all wearing not very much at all, and showing it off with surprising stylishness.

   Mention must also be made of Vincent Price dressed in a circus tent, playing Omar Khayyam (!) with tongue in cheek, having a good time with dialogue that shows surprising glimmers of intelligence. The best-known line comes when he settles down to sleep and mutters, “To sleep… perchance to dream… An interesting thought, but I’m too tired right now; I’ll leave it to some future poet.”

SON OF SINBAD

   Just a flash of wit in what is essentially a good dumb movie.

EDITORIAL COMMENT.   I’ve not seen the movie, yet, but I have watched two clips from it on YouTube. The first features the exotic dancing of Nejla Ates; in the second, Sally Forrest dances up an equal storm while dressed, as Dan so eloquently states, wearing not very much at all.

   I have more pictures I could show you, but the one below will have to suffice, then it’s back to regular programming:

SON OF SINBAD