Sinbad and the Calif of Bagdad

5/27/2023

I can only imagine how much fun this must have been for all concerned to work on: it looks like it must have been a joy. Great costumes, wobbly sets, a dialogue to - quite literally - die for and Robert Malcolm manicured to about an inch of his life - all contributing well to this magnificently hammy magical adventure. The dreadful dubbing really doesn't help it; nor the tacky belly-dances as the thinly structured story lurches, quite amiably, from a positively daft start - the caliph shooting at the women in his harem with a crossbow; through some camp adventures with a kidnapped, and counter-kidnapped "Sinbad" on the high seas towards a pretty obvious ending. The production standards are pretty ropey, as is the dialogue - but if you've had a glass of something before watching this, it wi