As well as being the first, live-action cinematic outing for Sinbad (after a couple of animations), Sinbad The Sailor is particularly notable as one of the rare stories in the "franchise" that doesn't actually feature monsters or magic.
Sinbad, as portrayed by the dashing Douglas Fairbanks Jnr, has never swashed as many buckles or been more charming and romantic. He is a master raconteur, thief, philosopher and trickster; his enemies call him a "magician" because of the tricks he uses to escape their grasp.
He is also the narrator of this tale, in the sense that the main story is bookended with scenes of Sinbad regaling a gathering of jaded sea-dogs with the tale of his "eighth voyage" - they are all bored of hearing, repeatedly, about his first seven.
While there is talk of djinn, rocs and cyclops, this is the story of Sinbad's discovery that he is actually - maybe - the long-lost son of the ruler of a lost treasure island, Deryabar, where Alexandar The Great is thought to have hidden all his gold and jewels.
However, his plan to return there is thwarted constantly by the Emir of Daibul (Anthony Quinn), who enlists flame-haired beauty Shireen (Maureen O'Hara) to seduce Sinbad into revealing the location of this fabled isle. Sinbad, of course, doesn't know where it is and, in turn, hopes that the Emir knows!
There's also a third party after the treasure, a mysterious and elusive assassin called Jamel (who has his name engraved on all his swords - and presumably written inside his underpants as well!).
Aiding Sinbad is his trusty, comedy sidekick Abbu (George Tobias) - who doesn't turn out to be anywhere near as irritating as the phrase "comedy sidekick" suggests - and the ship's barber and resident sage Milek (Walter Slezak).
To a cynic such as I, watching this through modern eyes, the secret identity of Jamel isn't particularly hard to guess, and there's a bizarre moment when he (or she) reveals himself (or herself) to Sinbad and the Emir and his (or her) face is suddenly lit from below with a green light - for no other reason than to really hammer home the point that Jamel is not a nice person.
John Twist's screenplay is wordy but as smooth as silk, the Technicolour is glorious and Douglas Fairbanks Jnr makes Sinbad a very physical character, constantly gesturing with his arms, moving his body and throwing himself around acrobatically and with the grace of a trained dancer.
At almost two-hours duration, Sinbad The Sailor could seem a bit slow to some contemporary tastes, but the poetic script and outstanding performances - along with the requisite amount of stunt-filled fight scenes, chases, sea battles and even some mushy romance for the ladies - makes this such an engrossing adventure movie that you quickly forget that you're more used to seeing Sinbad fighting off Dynamation monsters!
The film's final act is a great meditation on the nature of real treasure, and although Sinbad does eventually claim his birth right he uses it to drive home the message of the story he has been telling his rapt audience... and obviously the post-war audiences in America and Europe.
Although the trope of the unreliable narrator isn't really played on, the movie does open with text posing the question of who made Sinbad the legend he was, how did he gain this level of immortality?
And the answer is very quickly given: "Who else, O Brother, but - Sinbad the Sailor!"
Thus leaving the audience also with the question that, given he is his own greatest publicist and how fanciful his previous adventures were, how much of what he said this time round was actually true?
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