Thu 2 Jul 2009
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: SON OF SINBAD (1955).
Posted by Steve under Action Adventure movies , Reviews[5] Comments
SON OF SINBAD. RKO, 1955. Dale Robertson, Sally Forrest, Lili St. Cyr, Vincent Price, Mari Blanchard, Nejla Ates. Director: Ted Tetzlaff.
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.
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.”
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:
July 2nd, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Well, I see the obvious mystery connection because Vincent Price was in both LAURA and THE SON OF SINBAD.
I disagree with your comment about back to regular programming. I recommend that we continue to discuss the mystery elements in SON OF SINBAD, especially concerning Sally Forrest and her burn the tent down dance. Where were the censors because I imagine many 13 year old boys(and older) became bugeyed monsters after viewing her dance.
Please keep surprising us with these off topic reviews.
July 2nd, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Walker
Besides the question of where the censors were, the real mystery is how Sally Forrest stays as nearly dressed as she does.
— Steve
July 3rd, 2009 at 12:50 am
Hard to choose between Sally Forrest and Vincent Price as the high point of this film — just kidding, Sally wins hands down — well, something down, if not hands.
Although it’s no equal to Sally Forrest’s dance in this one catch Yvonne De Carlo playing Lola Montez (more or less) in Salome Where She Danced and Debra Paget’s cobra number in Fritz Lang’s Journey to the Lost City (aka The Hindu Tomb and Tiger of Eschanapur — the cobra is a laugh riot, but Debra’s outfit and number are worth seeing). For that matter Dolores Gray’s “Baghdad” number in Kismet is an eyeopener too, though a bit more clothed than Sally’s number.
What is amazing in retrospect is Son of Sinbad was primarily aimed at a younger audience. You have to wonder what the adult version would be like.
And come on, no praise for Oklahoma’s own Dale Robertson as the son of Sinbad? Hollywood casting is a wonderful thing to behold.
Re the censors, the story goes that when Agnes De Mille was filming her sexy dance in C. B.’s Sign of the Cross C.B. stopped the number, and turned to the on set censor to inquire if the number was turning him on. When the censor admitted it wasn’t C.B. is supposed to have told Agnes to sex it up a little. If you have seen the film you know she took direction well.
July 3rd, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Some sources say that the movie was made in 1953, but its release was held up for two years while Howard Hughes negotiated with the censors.
There’s a long list of uncredited players in this movie on IMDB, most of them female, and one of them is Kim Novak. If the filming was done in 1953, it could have been the first movie she did.
July 6th, 2009 at 6:48 am
Hughes films almost never came out on time, and often over the wrangles with the censors, The Outlaw being the most famous example.
I think my favorite Hughes moment in a film is in Von Sternberg’s Jet Pilot, which was made in 1950 and set on the shelf for seven years. When Janet Leigh, the most unlikely Mig pilot in history, lands at an American airbase, she is brought to John Wayne’s office, where she proceeds to strip out of her coveralls. Just as her not inconsiderable top is revealed in a tight white turtle neck a jet soars overhead Vrrrooommmm … and to let you know its no accident a few minutes later when she emerges from behind a pot bellied stove in a towel the same thing happens again.
The film also has a number of accidental Psycho references that no one could have planned.
At least no flying carpets break the sound barrier while Sally Forrest is dancing in Son of Sinbad. Though I’m sure a few male blood pressures soared.