We now come to the 3rd and final Sinbad movie from Columbia Pictures that Ray Harryhausen was involved in. 1977’s Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger saw a yet 3rd actor play the famous ship captain with Patrick Wayne. Taryn Power, Margaret Whiting, Jane Seymour, and Patrick Troughton also star in this film directed by Sam Wanamaker.
Sinbad is set to marry Princess Farah once he asks her brother Prince Kassim’s permission. However on reaching Charak he and his crew find the city under curfew. Sinbad is attacked in his tent by 3 ghouls who were summoned by a witch called Zenobia from a fire, but he manages to vanquish them. Zenobia is also the stepmother to Kassim and Farah and she has turned Kassim into a baboon using an evil spell, just before he was to be crowned caliph. If Kassim cannot revert back to his human self in 7 nights, Zenobia’s son Rafi will be crowned instead. Sinbad meets with Farah who tells him of her suspicions about Zenobia’s powers Sinbad, Farah, and the baboon Kassim set off to find the old Greek alchemist named Melanthius (Patrick Troughton), a hermit of on the island of Casgar, who is said to know how to break the spell. Following in a ship propelled by a bronzed robotic minoton are Zenobia & Rafi. The baboon displays human intelligence as in playing chess but when irked it gets violent and only Farah can calm him down.
As Casgar they find Melanthius and his beautiful daughter Dione to whom the baboon/Kassim seems to take to. However Zenobia has shrunk herself into a tiny size so as to spy on them but is found and captured. Unfortunately her potion to grow in size is spilled and a wasp drinks some of it, growing in size and attacking the humans. As Sinbad kills it with a knife, Zenobia takes her potion, turns into a gull and escapes. But there is too little of the drink left: While Zenobia is restored to human form and full size, the lower part of her right leg looks like a seagull’s foot. Sinbad’s party sets off for a distant land guided by Melanthius and after a frigid landscape are attacked by a giant walrus that kills two men but is itself killed off. The group then reach a lush Mediterranean like valley through a tunnel. Sinbad’s group meets a giant caveman like creature with a single horn on his head that seems to be genuinely interested in the humans and follows them to a pyramid. Zenobia ad Rafi have already gotten thru thanks to the Minoton who was killed when a large rock fell on him as he pushed open the doors to the pyramid. Sinbad and his friends arrive minutes later and find a large block of ice in which a sabre toothed tiger is frozen.
Rafi attacks Kassim but in killed in the fight and a grief stricken Zenobia transfers her spirit into the sabre-toothed cat that awakens and frees itself from the ice and attacks Sinbad and his men. The caveman creature tries to kill the tiger but is maimed and killed along with 2 men and Sinbad ultimately kills the tiger. With Zenobia dead the spell is lifed and Kassim regains his human form just in time for the group to escape the pyramid that begins to collapse. Sinbad, Kassim, Farah, Melanthius, and Dione and return home just in time for Kassim to be crowned Caliph. Sinbad and Farah share a kiss. The film fades to black, and the eyes of Zenobia appear on the screen accompanied by an evil laugh.
Probably the best of the 3 with better casting and special effects. I’ll give it a 7.5 outta 10!