Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Absolutely amazing

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Bruce Cook in his review called Son Of Sinbad, "A girl watchers dream (and a fun movie too). Quaxo calls it, "One of the funniest & campiest films I ever saw". Both reviews are accurate. They could also have mentioned idiotic but, notwithstanding, it is still great fun to watch. When multi-millionaire Howard Hughes (famous for his Casanova love-life) bought RKO studio it seems he must have been inundated with young ladies eager to get into the movie industry. It looks like he decided to kill many birds with one stone & put them all in this single movie. 127 of them according to one reviewer. Burlesque star Lili St. Cyr, Mari Blanchard & Sally Forrest are three of the principal leading ladies all of whom were knockout beauties. The latter of the trio performs an erotic dance in which she wears a skin-tight, flesh-coloured costume &, at first glance, appears to be dancing naked. I read that this dance sequence only just squeaked past the censorship. Made in 1953 it wasn't released until two years later when it finally passed censorship. Of its two leading men Dale Robertson is OK as Sinbad but scene-stealing Vincent Price as Omar Khayyam is hilarious. Mr. Price was a very talented actor so the only reason he must have accepted a part in this dopey movie was that mega-rich Howard Hughes offered him a big fat pay cheque. He probably knew he was involved in a load of nonsense & he plays it with his tongue firmly in his cheek. Just get it done then take the money and run seems to be his attitude. I cannot recommend that this film has much going for any female viewers but for us lads it is a feast for the eyes, no a veritable banquet!.

Son Of Sinbad is a film that follows the old studio rule that when you have an expensive picture and build an expensive set, get some use out of it. Any film fan will readily recognize the sets that were used in the RKO classic Sinbad The Sailor that starred Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Maureen O'Hara.Fairbanks had the style and dash to play the scimitar wielding Sinbad, ladies man and teller of tall tales. I suspect Sinbad also told a lot of tales about the women as well as the voyages in his life. But here we get poor Dale Robertson who must look back on this film with no amount of horror. But as he was working for Howard Hughes I'm sure that Robertson did not have to worry his paycheck wouldn't clear.In the Citadel film series book, the Films of Vincent Price both Price and Sally Forrest who played one of the many women in the cast both looked back with amusement on the whole thing. Price acknowledged that he hammed up his part of Omar Khayyam to the hilt. The role did give the classically trained actor a chance to speak Omar's immortal lines for the screen.The plot if you can call it involves Sinbad and Omar Khayyam teaming up to save the Caliph Leon Askin from the invading Mongol hordes of Tamerlane. They also manage if you can believe to bring Aladdin's magic lamp and the Amazonian descendants of Ali Baba's Forty Thieves. This is an errand for their lives because Askin already has Robertson and Price under a death sentence for some harem indiscretions.All this was an excuse for Howard Hughes to put in as many opportunities as he could to bring in as much leg and cleavage as he could pack on the screen at one time. At the drop of a gold dinar a harem dance number will occur, too bad the silly plot had to get in the way.The film was shot in 1953 and waited two years for release, something not unheard of in the RKO years of Howard Hughes. It awaited approval of the Legion of Decency which controlled the censorship of films. Hughes apparently had to cut some of the more revealing scenes before inflicting this on the general public.Son Of Sinbad gets as high a rating as it does for the sheer campiness of the film. Don't give this film one serious moment of viewing if you choose to watch it. Apparently the players didn't.

A couple years ago I taped Son of Sinbad but gave up on it when two of the early scenes involved a surprisingly long, mediocre dance sequence and a surprisingly long dialog between Lil' Sinbad and Omar Khayyam. But I'm an inveterate fan of the Eastern genre, and by 8 July 2008, when TCM ran a morning of Sinbad movies, I'd forgotten my earlier dismissal and gave the film a longer chance. The Houston Chronicle's TV Week gave it only one star, which is close enough, but a little patience is redeemed by offbeat treats and occasionally upscale production values.As for the treats, Dale Robertson is a game Sinbad, Vincent Price is a trooper as Omar Khayyam, and eventually the onslaught of female pulchritude becomes embarrassingly charming in its exuberant abundance of blonde and redheaded Arab harem girls, sheer hosiery, intensive coiffures, and tear-away clothing that makes many of the dances more like G-rated strip routines. Wordsmith is right that the extended dance scenes throw off the film's pacing, but the action keeps recovering its pace, and the sets glow with the candy colors of 50s childhood.

I saw the film originally in 1956 ( I would have been 10!) I have seen the movie a few times since. However I seem to recall additional scenes not in the TV versions? For instance I recall one of the 40 Thieves captured by the Mogul's Army?Have I imagined this?I saw the film with my Grandfather at a Cinema now turned into a Supermarket!! I remember feeling very embarrassed at the content, I'm sure he wouldn't have realised how explicit it would have been for it's day. Probably had no idea that Howard Hughes was the Producer or the background as to why he used so many beautiful young women. I've never forgotten the impact on me, so that has to be a good thing.