"They became too civilised and destroyed each other."
Nor do I insist on po-faced criticism of Muslims drinking wine (the history of that religion is not so uniformly Puritan as commonly supposed; I'm happy to raise a glass with any Muslim, as did the Ottomnn Sultans to Hajj pilgrims), or on the historical absurditu of Melanthius, a Greek pagan who was supposedly friendly with Archimedes interacting with Muslims from several centuries afterwards.
No; what matters is the sheer fun of the film. It may run to a time-honoured formula, but it works. One would have thought that, in that Star Wars watershed year of 1977, this kind of stop motion film would be thought old fashioned. Yet this is still the age of Doug McClure, and not yet the age of computer effects... much.
Most effusively, beyond the wonderful Harryhausen himself, the cast is superb.John Wayne's lad is perfectly fine but he is, I'm afraid, utterly blown away and usurped by the wily alchemist played by the great Patrick Troughton, patron saint of character actors. Troughton, in Doctor Who, is compelling whole being deliberately restrained, playing an intelligent but modest hero who allows others to shine. Here, Troughton utterly owns his every scene, showing that this was an acting choice.
This is, quite blatantly, the best of these three Sinbad films.
