86% (2) The 7th Voyage of Sinbad 88 min, G, [Action, Adventure, Family, Fantasy] [Nathan Juran] [23 Dec 1958]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 71%, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%, External Reviews
Awards: 1 win & 2 nominations.
Actors: Kathryn Grant, Kerwin Mathews, Richard Eyer, Torin Thatcher
Writer: Ken Kolb
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: UK, USA
Plot: While sailing with Princess Parisa to Baghdad to their wedding, Sinbad finds the Colossa Island and anchors his vessel to get supplies for the starving crew. Sinbad and his men help the magician Sokurah to escape from a Cyclops that attacks them, and Sokurah uses a magic lamp with a boy jinni to help them; however, their boat sinks and he loses the lamp. Sokurah offers a small fortune to Sinbad to return to Colossa, but he does not accept and heads to Baghdad. The citizens and the Caliph of Baghdad are celebrating the peace with Chandra, and they offer a feast to the Sultan of Chandra. Sakurah requests a ship and crew to return to Colossa but the Caliph refuses to jeopardize his countrymen. However, the treacherous magician shrinks the princess and when the desperate Sinbad seeks him out, he tells that he needs to return to Colossa to get the ingredient necessary for the magic potion. But Sinbad has only his friend Harufa to travel with him, and he decides to enlist a doubtful crew in the prison of Baghdad, in the beginning of his dangerous voyage to Colossa to save the princess and avoid the eminent war between Chandra and Baghdad.
Rotten Tomatoes: Sinbad sets out for the mysterious island of Colossa where he hopes to obtain the egg of a Roc, a fierce, giant bird. The egg will help to restore to normal size the Princess Parisa who has been reduced to the size of a man's thumb by the evil magician, Kokurah.
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86% (2) The Crimson Pirate 105 min, Not Rated, [Adventure, Comedy] [Robert Siodmak] [27 Sep 1952]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 73%, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%, External Reviews
Actors: Burt Lancaster, Eva Bartok, Nick Cravat, Torin Thatcher
Writer: Roland Kibbee
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA, UK
Plot: Burt Lancaster plays a pirate with a taste for intrigue and acrobatics who involves himself in the goings on of a revolution in the Caribbean in the late 1700s. A light hearted adventure involving prison breaks, an oddball Scientist, sailing ships, naval fights, and tons of swordplay.
Rotten Tomatoes: Half affectionate parody and half enthusiastic tribute to the swashbuckling pirate epics of the 1930's and 40's, The Crimson Pirate stars Burt Lancaster as Captain Vallo, the smiling leader of a pack of unscrupulous pirates. While on the high seas, Vallo and his men spy a well-stocked merchant ship, and waste no time in relieving it of its contents. One of the passengers on the cargo vessel, Baron Gruda (Leslie E. Bradley), informs Vallo that a political revolt is shaking a island nation in the Caribbean to its foundations. The pirates set their course to the island, hoping to sell the arms they've just stolen to rebel leader Sebastian (Frederick Leister), while planning to later double their profit by turning him in to the Government leaders who are offering a reward for his capture. Vallo's plans change when he meets Sebastian's daughter Consuelo (Eva Bartok) and falls in love, while she teaches the pirate the wisdom of her father's philosophies. Vallo and his faithful sidekick Ojo (Nick Cravat) soon join Sebastian's men, and fight with them in a valiant struggle for freedom. Burt Lancaster and Nick Cravat were once partners in their early days as circus acrobats, and they got to put their skills to good use in this picture; keep an eye peeled for an early performance by future horror movie great Christopher Lee.
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77% (2) Houdini 106 min, APPROVED, [Biography, Drama] [George Marshall] [02 Jul 1953]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 69%, Rotten Tomatoes: 85%, External Reviews
Actors: Angela Clarke, Janet Leigh, Tony Curtis, Torin Thatcher
Writer: Philip Yordan (screenplay), Harold Kellock (book)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: The amazing career of master magician Harry Houdini is presented from his beginnings with a carnival "wild man" act to his emergence as an internationally-acclaimed illusionist, From his dramatic escape from a locked safe under the frozen Detroit River to an even more improbable one from a locked cell in Scotland Yard, he never failed to please and astound his audiences. Although Houdini's tricks are achieved through his marvelous physical dexterity and innate sleight-of-hand, he courted death with the hazardous illusions he performed and his compulsive quest to make contact with the spirit world.
Rotten Tomatoes: This highly fanciful but immensely entertaining biopic stars Tony Curtis as legendary magician/escape-artist Harry Houdini. Janet Leigh, Mrs. Tony Curtis at the time, co-stars as Houdini's wife Bess, while Angela Clarke is seen as Houdini's mother. The film follows Houdini's progress from sideshow entertainer to high-priced prestidigitator, and also touches upon his fascination with the occult--and his efforts to expose phony mediums. Philip Yordan's script (based on a book by Harold Kellock) suggests that virtually every portentous occasion in Houdini's life occurred on Halloween day, including his death from peritonitis in 1926. The facts of Houdini's life seldom get in the way of Yordan's story; while general audiences won't spot too many discrepancies, professional magicians tend to howl with laughter at some of the film's intentional boners. Example: In real life, Houdini's appendix was fatally ruptured by a punch to the stomach; in the film, he injures himself by accidentally bumping into one of his props, the sword-studded "Temple of Benares" trick--which hadn't yet been invented in 1926! Still, it's fun to watch Tony Curtis wriggle his way out of some of Houdini's most baffling escape routines (both Curtis and Janet Leigh were carefully instructed on the set by professional magicians, who swore the stars to secrecy concerning the tricks of the trade). For a more accurate slant on Houdini's life, see the 1976 TV movie The Great Houdinis, starring Paul Michael Glaser and Sally Struthers.
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58% (2) Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing 102 min, Unrated, [Biography, Drama, Romance, War] [Henry King, Otto Lang] [26 Sep 1955]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 66%, Rotten Tomatoes: 50%, External Reviews
Awards: Won 3 Oscars. Another 2 wins & 6 nominations.
Actors: Isobel Elsom, Jennifer Jones, Torin Thatcher, William Holden
Writer: John Patrick (screenplay), Han Suyin (novel)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English, Mandarin Country: USA
Plot: Newsman Mark Elliott is an American war correspondent in Hong Kong, separated from his wife. During the closing days of the Chinese Civil War, he meets and pursues a beautiful Eurasian doctor, the widow of a Nationalist general. But when they begin to fall in love, their friends and her Chinese family pressure them to stop the cross-cultural relationship.
Rotten Tomatoes: Set in Hong Kong during the Korean War, Henry King's drama is an account of the romance between an American journalist (William Holden) and a Eurasian doctor (Jennifer Jones).
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69% (1) Knock on Wood 103 min, PASSED, [Comedy] [Melvin Frank, Norman Panama] [01 Jul 1954]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 69%, External Reviews
Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 2 nominations.
Actors: Danny Kaye, David Burns, Mai Zetterling, Torin Thatcher
Writer: Norman Panama, Melvin Frank
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Ventriloquist Jerry Morgan has to see another love affair fail. The reason: when the relationship reaches the point when it is time to discuss marriage, his doll Clarence becomes mean and jealous. His fiancée Audrey leaves him and Jerry smashes his two dolls, Clarence and Terrence. Morgan's doll maker Papinek is a member of a spy ring who has stolen secret plans to the top secret Lafayette airplane. Since Morgan is leaving for Zurich the same night, Papinek decides to use Morgan's dolls as a mailbox and hides the secret plans in the heads of the dolls. Another secret spy ring also wants to get their hands on Jerry's luggage and they *also* follow him. Eventually, Jerry is chased by both these organizations as well as the police, who suspects him of murder.
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64% (1) Istanbul 84 min, Approved, [Crime, Drama, Film-Noir, Romance, Thriller] [Joseph Pevney] [08 Feb 1957]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 63%, External Reviews
Actors: Cornell Borchers, Errol Flynn, John Bentley, Torin Thatcher
Writer: Barbara Gray, Seton I. Miller (screenplay), Seton I. Miller (story), Richard Alan Simmons
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Adventurer James Brennan returns to Istanbul five years after being ejected under suspicion of diamond smuggling. In flashback, he recalls his last days there, his torrid love affair with Stephanie Bauer, the efforts of shady characters to obtain a strange ornament he received from a friend, and Stephanie's disappearance during a fire. Now that Brennan is back, Stephanie (or her double) reappears, and there's still the question of where the supposedly smuggled diamonds are...
Rotten Tomatoes: In this adventure, a remake of Singapore (1947), a hero finds a bracelet containing 13 precious gems while visiting Istanbul. He soon finds himself pursued by covetous crooks who want those jewels. He is then deported by the Turkish authorities, but not before he has time to hide the bracelet in a hotel. Five years later, the man returns to seek out the stones. Again he is pursued by both authorities and criminals. He must also contend with the reappearance of his wife whom he thought had burned to death on their wedding night. She lived but suffered amnesia. She then remarried. Nat "King" Cole sings "When I Fall in Love".
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