The_Film_That_Changed_My_Life

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
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The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
1958
Directed by Nathan Juran
Starring Kerwin Mathews, Kathryn Grant, Richard Eyer, Torin
Thatcher, Alec Mango, and more
How would you describe The 7th Voyage of Sinbad to someone who has
never seen it?
Landis: The movie is about Sinbad the Sailor, and it’s very Arabian Nights
fairy tale fantasy. He is bringing his fiancée, who is a princess, back to the
kingdom where she’s from, and they stop at an island for fresh water and
supplies, the island of Colossa. While they are there, they encounter the
Cyclops, who are these spectacular stop-motion figures done by Ray Harryhausen,
and a magician, Sokurah (played by Torin Thatcher), who is running
from the Cyclops. He’s carrying a lamp, but in the escape at the beginning
of the film, he drops the lamp. The Cyclops walks away with the lamp,
and Sokurah is desperate to get the lamp back. It’s terrific. It scared me, it
thrilled me, it excited me, I loved it.
Do you remember where you first saw it?
Landis: I saw it in 1958 at the Crest Theatre on Westwood Boulevard, which
is still there in Los Angeles, where I grew up.
In literature, it’s called “suspension of disbelief,” and I had complete suspension
of disbelief—really, I was eight years old and it transported me. I
was on that beach running from that dragon, fighting that Cyclops. It just
really dazzled me, and I bought it completely. And so, I actually sat through
it twice and when I got home, I asked my mom, “Who does that? Who
makes the movie?”
And my mother, she was pretty smart—we didn’t have any relatives in
the business or anything—she said, “The director.” So I thought, “Ah ha! The
director!” That’s what I want to do; I want to make movies. From the time I
was eight, that was my whole focus. I dropped out of high school, became a
mail boy at Fox, and went to Europe to make movies. When I was twentyone
I made my first movie. All my energy and efforts were to be a filmmaker,
and it was because of that film.