Bloody Pit of Rod: Ray Harryhausen

Sunday, July 23, 2017

THE VALLEY OF GWANGI (1969) Poster Art (and Comic Book Cover)

I rewatched this Harreyhausen classic last night and it really hit the spot. I've loved this movie for years but it had been over ten years since my last viewing so it was nice to have the movie surprise me a few times. I had forgotten how appealing James Franciscus is in the lead role even though his character is less than the hero at times. I had also forgotten just how beautiful Gila Golan was and that she had been obviously dubbed. I'm guessing her European accent wasn't quite what the filmmakers were looking for in the role of a Mexican national. And I had forgotten that Richard Carlson plays a large part in the story meaning that he is in three of my favorite science fiction monster movies of all time! (The other two being THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954) and IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE (1953) of course.) This is a perfect film for summer viewing as it takes place mostly in the bright blazing sunlight. You can almost feel the sweat!

Saturday, January 10, 2015

THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1973)

As The Golden Voyage of Sinbad begins, the fabled nautical adventurer (John Phillip Law) and his crew are sailing on the open sea when they spot a strange flying creature. Frightened by an arrow fired by one of the sailors, the creature drops a small golden tablet. After Sinbad ties the object around his neck he has several nightmarish visions of a tall man dressed in black and a dancing girl with an eye tattooed on the palm of her hand. When a storm blows the ship off course, Sinbad is sure the land they come upon is connected to his dream somehow. Going ashore alone he encounters the man in black from his vision. The dark man (Doctor Who's Tom Baker) identifies himself as Prince Koura, a sorcerer who claims the golden tablet as his own and demands its return. Escaping into a nearby city, Sinbad is met by the benevolent, golden-masked Grand Vizier (Douglas Wilmer), who explains Koura's bid to obtain ultimate power. To gain this power, the wizard must unite the three separate pieces of a magical sign. The golden tablet Sinbad wears about his neck is one of these pieces, while the Vizier controls another. When combining their two segments they discover a map that can lead them to the third and so together they vow to foil Koura's evil scheme. A rich man's wastrel son and the slave girl Margiana (Caroline Munro), whose tattooed hand may play a part in stopping the Prince, join Sinbad on the journey. They set sail for the legendary isle of Lemuria with Koura and his henchmen in close pursuit.

Of the three Sinbad movies made by Ray Harryhausen, Golden Voyage has always been my favorite. Most people prefer 1958's The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and I can understand that, but I feel the story in Golden Voyage is better and I really like John Phillip Law in the lead role. He seems much more suited to the character and even affects an accent to add to his performance. It also helps that Caroline Munro — one of the most beautiful women to ever grace the silver screen — is the only female on display here, giving us more time to stare longingly at her tanned body and lose ourselves in her lovely eyes. (And she's not even a special effect!)

Although Jason and the Argonauts will always be Harryhausen's greatest film, this one gives him plenty of moments to shine and he capitalizes on all of them. Each creature brought to stop-motion life here is a wonder to behold with beautiful details and amazing, flowing movement. I'll never get over my original childhood fear of the prow of Sinbad's ship, which comes to life under Koura's power. It's a combination of the blank, unchanging face of the wooden woman and the creepy sounds of her moving that send chills down my spine.

There are two showstoppers in Golden Voyage that rival the skeleton fight in 7th Voyage. One is the grotesque one-eyed centaur that battles a mighty griffin, the other the living, six-armed statue of Kali. The fight between Kali and Sinbad's crew is a masterful bit of action that bears repeated viewings. With all these pyrotechnics you might expect the film to be a bit too broad, but my favorite moment in the film is the quiet scene of Koura's new homunculus awakening to life. The detailed facial expressions and body language of the small winged beast is mesmerizing; this is one of the best animation sequences of Harryhausen's career. Moments like this make Golden Voyage a wonderful film that will go on entertaining audiences for generations to come.

It's often said that 'They don't make 'em like they used to' and this film is a perfect example of that statement's truth. The clearness of purpose that can be felt behind Harryhausen's fantasy films is almost never evident in cinema today. Each of his movies feels as if it were crafted by people who cared very much about making the best possible film they could create. These stories weren't shaped by committees, vetted by a legal department or altered by businessmen looking for a good Happy Meal tie-in. These films were put together by people in love with the stories and in love with filmmaking. Any story changes were done for budgetary or time constraints, not because the vice-president of marketing thought his kids would like a blue monster instead of a green one.

So much of what has been lost over the years in Hollywood is a plain unwillingness to admit that creativity needs both freedom and limits — the freedom to attempt new and untried things and the limits imposed by schedules and money. If a Sinbad movie were to be made today there would be more effort put into the toy and fast food tie-ins than on the script or pre-production. And you know what happens when that approach is used? The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, The Scorpion King, Spider Man 3, the Transformer movies and the 1998 Godzilla film... Empty marketing tools camouflaged as entertainment. But you won't find the folks behind those bad movies agreeing with me — each one made more than $100 million domestic. Who needs a good story, well told, when the audience seems perfectly happy with crap? Give the people what they want. Thank goodness that the Harryhausen films are still around to let us see the qualities we can hope for in a fantasy film.