Sinbad the Sailor *** (1947, Douglas Fairbanks Jnr, Walter Slezak, Maureen O’Hara, Anthony Quinn, George Tobias, Jane Greer) – Classic Movie Review 3718

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr’s magically acrobatic performance as Sinbad in the kind of role his father Douglas Fairbanks Snr pioneered in silent movies is the chief delight of director Richard Wallace’s lavish Technicolorful 1947 RKO swashbuckling adventure movie. It expertly combines all the required action and romance against a background of the mysterious Orient.

Sinbad, renowned teller of tall tales, describes a treasure hunt on the trail of Alexander the Great during which he falls for Shireen (Maureen O’Hara), the Emir (Anthony Quinn) of Daibul’s favourite slave girl.

Perhaps John Twist’s screenplay is too wordy and short on humour, but the Technicolor cinematography (by George Barnes), the costumes, the sets and the performers are superlative.

Also in the cast are Walter Slezak, George Tobias, Jane Greer, Mike Mazurki, Sheldon Leonard, Alan Napier, John Miljan and Barry Mitchell.

A strike at the Technicolor processing plant meant prints were not ready for its planned 1946 Christmas attraction opening and RKO had to chose a black-and-white movie instead: It’s a Wonderful Life (1946).