Sinbad the Sailor is a Soviet animated short by Valentina and Zinaida Brumberg, released in 1944 by Soyuzmultfilm. The film is based on the Arab fairy tales about Sinbad the Sailor and his incredible adventures in foreign countries.
Trailer
Reviews
CinemaSerf
7
By CinemaSerf
First thing's first, this is seriously verbose. The dialogue is mostly second rate and boy, is there a lot of it... That said, though, Douglas Fairbanks is charming in the title role. Here, armed with a medallion/map, he sets out to track down an enormous treasure hidden by Alexander the Great. The supporting characters are fun - the evil "Melik" (Walter Slezak), the gorgeous "Shireen" (Maureen O'Hara) and the avaricious Emir (Anthony Quinn) and the compendium style construction of the film pulls together the adventurous streams into a final quest for the loot in an agreeable manner. It's bright and colourful, there is enough swash and buckle to keep it interesting and Slezak is particularly effective as the scheming plotter. It's a bit too long, to be fair, and is a bit too stage bound at times - but Roy Webb creates a suitably grand Arabian score and the cinematography provides for an enjoyable enough costume adventure that I really quite liked.
