The 7th Voyage of Sinbad

 The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) directed by Nathan Juran, stars Kerwin Mathews as Sinbad, Kathryn Grant as Princess Parisa, and Torin Thatcher as Sokurah the Sorcerer. Don't forget Richard Eyer as the Genie. After watching the Golden Voyage of Sinbad and The Eye of the Tiger, I knew there was another old Sinbad movie I remembered watching as a kid. I knew there was one with a kid as a genie and a cyclops fighting a dragon - this was it.

Above is the picture of the genie and the princess inside his lamp. The sorcerer did an Alice in Wonderland number on her while she was sleeping, shrinking her to a few inches in height. Sinbad is especially bummed by deal as they were to be married the next day. Conveniently for Sokurah the sorcerer, he knows how to change Parisa back to normal size but he requires a piece of shell from a roc (mythical two-headed bird of the giant variety), which can only be found on the island of the cyclops--and where the magic lamp with the genie is. Sokurah wants the lamp more than a Klondike Bar and there are no ends to which he will not go to obtain it. 

Sinbad finally agrees to take him and Parisa to the island, after Sokurah produces a diagram for a huge crossbow with which to slay the cyclops. All does not go well. Some of Sinbad's sailors have close encounters of the cyclops kind and others get roc-ed to their detriment.

 

Although Parisa becomes restored from fun-size, Sokurah insists on having the lamp. Sinbad has already seen him refuse to help against the cyclops and the roc. The sorcerer responds with a fantasy favorite:

Fortunately, only the one bony swordsman shows for the party and Sinbad eventually defeats him. The princess tosses the lamp into the molten rock (creating the first lava lamp) to free the genie from his servitude, leaving them without supernatural aid for the rest of the escape.

Never fear, Sinbad's resourcefulness lets him loose Sokurah's captive dragon on the cyclops so he and the princess can escape.

The dragon prevails and Sokurah then sics the monster on Sinbad and the remaining sailors. Luckily for Sinbad, they have the huge crossbow Sokurah designed--or maybe it was someone else who designed it, I don't remember--and they load it up just in time for the dragon to come through the tunnel toward it. The shot is successful, and the monster manages to crush Sokurah in its collapse.

Cut to the ship, and the genie, now a regular boy, has become Sinbad's cabin boy. Back at Baghdad, Sinbad and Parisa marry.

That's the nutshell version. It's not bad. Kathryn Grant makes a great little princess. Note that she married Bing Crosby in 1957 and remained married to until his death in 1977. She passed away in 2024. Kerwin Mathews does a passable job as Sinbad, but he wasn't given much to work with. The real stars are the Harryhausen special effects in the form of cyclops, the snake woman, the rocs, the dragon, the skeleton, and probably something else I've forgotten. The tales follows the same format as the other two Sinbad movies. I should say they follow the format set by 7th Voyage, because it predates both of those other two--although, I suspect there's an even older movie tale that I haven't seen.

In ranking it against the other two, 7th Voyage comes in a close third, riding on the charm of Kathryn Grant and the special effects.

You may want to check out: Part III of Forging Unforgettable Stories - Compelling the Reader to Turn the Page.

 

 

The Trauma The Drama and The Dream

 I'm trying something different today.

Today's post can be found on my substack. Check it out.

 

Justice Resurgent

  

I don't know why this book came to mind today. Maybe I've still got the Five Card Stud movie on my mind. I know the theme song comes into my head a couple times per day. Whatever the reason, I opened Justice Resurgent, the sequel to Justice in Season, and reviewed the first chapter. The excerpts below don't do the chapter justice (no pun intended) but I think they do provide a peek at the initial trauma set up for my Trama, Drama, and Dream theory/system for creating memorable stories. Sheriff Upton has gathered a posse to make a surprise visit to our hero, McBride, and the other members of the vigilance committee. Harmony Rivers has discovered the corrupt sheriff's plan and needs to warn McBride.

 Excerpts from Justice Resurgent, Chapter One:

Harmony Rivers, from behind the open door of her balcony overlooking the street, watched them ride out. Although she would not be performing until the evening, she had pulled her red tresses back and had placed a cap with a white feather on her head. Her matching dress of blue and white failed to conceal the figure that sparked fires of desire in the hearts of men. She hurried from her room to the top of the stairs. She looked over the saloon, searching for the right man to carry out the mission she had in mind. Most of The tables were vacant. The men at the bar didn’t seem to have the qualities that she sought—those qualities being pliant yet dependable. Quickly, she decided to place her bet at a table where three officers from the Boise Barracks...

Howard, a local freighter, leaned forward, a shock of brown hair dropping to the edge of his left eye. “I can understand why the Sheriff has his ire up. McBride has ruined several of his enterprises by what I hear. I know for a fact that the sheriff lost some kind of bet with McBride in that horserace that killed Fool’s Gold.” 

“Lost the sheriff a tavern and a carriage is the way I heard it,” put in Jones, the other civilian. Jones, who ran the sutler’s store at the end of Main Street, held a mug of beer in a hand that lacked a ring finger from the first knuckle up. 

Harmony clasped her hands together. “Yes, yes. That’s all true. What are you men going to do about it?” 

...

"Where could we find such a courageous man?” The emphasis of those last two words reached out like an inviting hand. Howard brushed back the shock of hair from beside his eye and he lost himself for a moment in the look of silent supplication Harmony cast his way. “I’ll take that horse, Mr. Quartermaster. Take me to your stable.” 

...

“I guess you could say that.” Howard took the cup of coffee and warmed both hands against the sides of the tin cup. “The sheriff has a bundle of warrants for all of the vigilante committee. He aims to take you all in your beds tonight and figures at least one of you will be killed while resisting.” 

With this last statement he cast a glance at McBride through the lock of hair over his eye. 

“Meaning me, I suppose.” 

“I suppose,” Howard nodded. 

________________

I really like this opening chapter. The trauma, the conflict, and the tension are put in motion. We see (even if we haven't read the first book) that Upton and McBride are going to be at odds in the story. We see that Harmony is an ally persuasive enough to get a man with no dog in the fight to do her bidding to help McBride. The two forces are set in motion like trains heading toward each other on the same track. Will the sheriff take McBride or the other vigilantes, or will McBride be able to stymie the sheriff's nefarious scheme?

Naturally, the drama plays out with lots of adhesive tension and the stakes continue to rise up until the thrilling conclusion punctuated in blood and bullets. There's a reason that this book has more reviews than any other novel I've written. There are plenty of skirmishes leading up the the final showdown, so it's NOT a slow burn story. Detective work, romance, and gun play all combine to escalate and intensify the conflict. 

The characters are memorable; we know on which side of the good versus evil equation they fall. The hats aren't black and white, but the moral character is. I'll have to use them to illustrate my theories on crafting characters in another post.

 

No Lie

 

 "I liked that. I'm not gonna lie. That was pretty fun."

That was the verdict of one of Les Freres Corses after we played the Rescue from the Hangman's Noose scenario from my skirmish game. Of course he had a great time. What's not fun about King's Musketeers and Cardinal's Guards exchanging shots with flintlock pistols, rushing through the clouds of acrid smoke to trade cross words, cross swords, and wound, wound, wound, and slay the enemy? He fired pistols, threw knives, stabbed, slashed, and swashbuckled his team to victory. Two of his musketeers made running leaps to the scaffold just in time to stop the hangman from completing the execution. They overcame superior numbers by superior ability to slay four guardsmen and send the wounded fifth running with his bloody tabard between his legs.

For the record, it looked nothing like the picture above, or this picture below:

 I'm going to label the venture a success, even though I was running the losing side. It was proof that the system is simple and fun. The next step is to include the role-play aspect and do a tavern fight and rescue. Although, he did express an interest in the King George's Bust scenario set during the Revolutionary War. I'll see which he decides to try.

 ________________________________

In the battle that rages (or ebbs and flows) in getting book 6 completed, I've crossed the midpoint, and the path to completion is becoming clear. I had an epiphany regarding a couple characters who need to make an appearance soon for maximum impact at the conclusion of the book. Book 6 will not complete the series, but it does get us closer than we've ever been before.

I finished Jeff Wheeler's Doomsday Match yesterday--in between mowing, trimming, spraying, and motorcycle riding. It's a fun read. I may say more about it later if I remember.

I was up late watching a Star Trek movie marathon. I caught part of The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock, and The Voyage Home. Of course, Wrath is the best of all the ST movies and Galaxy Quest takes second place. Search for Spock may get third, and Voyage is a flawed beauty whose fun factor almost makes one forget the flaws. 

What makes Wrath the best? Mostly it's Khan. I've said it before, Ricardo Montalban is the best Khan. He is Khan. Sure, Dr. Marcus and David are annoying, but it's a small price to pay for the poignant reunion of the main cast after the snooze-fest that was ST The Motion Picture. Wrath begins the trilogy that is pretty decent overall. I should go into greater detail on my thoughts on Wrath, but that will have to wait for another time when I've made an effort to organize my thoughts--perhaps in the the 6 point pattern as set forth in The Tyranny of Public Discourse, which I recently finished. However, (let me ramble a bit) I will mention that the plethora of quotable lines, especially from Khan help. Also, the battle in the Mutara is fantastic. It's the sea battle (and TOS was in many ways a Hornblower adventure in space) from of Hornblower v. El Supremo combined with Ahab's obsession with the whale. The crippled ships fighting it out in low visibility conditions with no shields is the piece de resistance in this magnificent tour de force (and I'm not just stacking foreign phrases for the fun of it). Tension and suspense are key ingredients for a great story and they are plastered all over this baby. The battle, the trading of hits, the maneuvers, crippled Defiant hobbling away with the mere stub of a leg, and Spock's self sacrifice to save the Enterprise and crew in the nick of time as the Genesis wave threatens to engulf them all--and don't forget Khan's venomous invective with a little help from Melville--combine to provide fans with the rich payoff they had waited more than a decade to receive. My three required elements for a great story: the trauma, the drama, and the dream are all there. (I should write about that sometime using Wrath as an example). Don't forget the cost. Spock dies. He's dead, dead, dead--but we who watched it when it was brand new knew about the Genesis thingy--and we hoped.

Search is nestled in between the two that get all the attention--Wrath, because it's outstanding, and Voyage because some people are completely and unreasonably enamored with it--and is thus overlooked or underrated. Search is a celebration of friendship and more. If Wrath brought Kirk's old sins to the surface, Kirk and crew go the extra mile, kellicam, solar system, or galaxy to do the right thing and do the darn near impossible to help redeem Kirk all on the mere chance that it will help bring back their friend. McCoy, addled by Spock's consciousness banging away inside his head, gets some great moments and funny scenes. The way the team pulls together to do the right thing in the face of official resistance and imbecility is inspiring. Sure, the movie makes every other Star Fleet captain look like a supercilious cliche or cowardly idiot in uniform, but Dr. Emmett Brown as the cunning Klingon villain adds another dimension to a simple search and possible rescue story that makes us overlook the problem with the other captains. He is merciless, motivated, and has revenge on his mind when Kirk kills most of his crew. The fight between Kirk and his Klingon adversary in the ships and then on the ground mirrors the Kirk-Khan conflict of Wrath. So what if there's some heavy-handed writing and bothersome statements, mostly from Saavik, which usually begin with, "So like your father..." to make obvious points that should've been left to the viewers to realize on their own or mentioned once and never harped on again. The Klingon's 2nd hand murder of David, and the fabulous sacrifice of the Enterprise (and remember, this was the first time that the true star of the old series had been destroyed--not to be confused with the seemingly mandatory multiple and less impactful destructions of later iterations), all while a planet goes into self-destruct mode, promising to take the resurrected Spock with it, carries us to the payoff confrontation on the wreck and ruin of a surface in the process of internal demolition (again mirroring the clash with Khan but on the ground instead of in space behind the masks of stars ships). That is some good action/adventure--and Kirk can only save Spock by defeating his adversary and tricking Maltz to beam them both to safety. The completion of the Spock's resurrection is the final touch on this hearty and satisfying meal.

I've rambled too long. I'm out of time, so I can't discuss Voyage, but I'm sure there is no shortage of discussion and opinions on the topic. Perhaps another time.

 

 

While scanning through some of the highlighted passages from my reading over the last few years, I assembled these quotes wherein you may find a common theme. Feel free to react like Mr. Wilder here.

"History is not just a tale of men’s making, but is a thing tied to the land. We call a hill by the name of a hero who died there, or name a river after a princess who fled beside its banks, and when the old names vanish, the stories go with them and the new names carry no reminder of the past" -  Bernard Cornwell Excalibur p.123.

"A dragon will set up a complex system of rules and then attempt to impress you with how well he is following them. Of course, the rules are completely arbitrary and fashioned with the sole purpose of making certain the dragon gets what he wants. If you ever happen to catch a dragon violating his own rules, he’ll claim some obscure loophole, and if you back him into a corner, he’ll just modify the rules to accommodate his behavior."    - Robert Kroese - Distopia p. 65.

"When virtue is banished, ambition invades the minds of those who are disposed to receive it, and avarice possesses the whole community." - Montesquieu - The Spirit of Laws

"The Turks entirely understood the arts of suppression and extortion, which they defined as government." - Talbot Mundy

"“Keep a government poor and weak and it’s your servant; let it get rich and powerful and it’s your master." - H. Piper Beam

"There is also decivilization by erosion, and while it’s going on, nobody notices it. Everybody is proud of their civilization, their wealth and culture. But trade is falling off; fewer ships come in each year. So there is boastful talk about planetary self-sufficiency; who needs off-planet trade anyhow? Everybody seems to have money, but the government is always broke. Deficit spending—and always the vital social services for which the government has to spend money. The most vital one, of course, is buying votes to keep the government in power. And it gets harder for the government to get anything done." - H. Piper Beam

______________

On the writing front, both I and the blank page remained largely at a stalemate, entrenched in our respective positions. I was at a conference this week but did manage to scribble out a few words in the solitude of the hotel room. Solitude which included, wafting from the courtyard below my window, the unrestrained strains of guitar strings doing their ill-played best to drown the sound of ill-sung songs. At one point I found a pair of old earbuds and listened to my own music to throttle the nuisance noise. Unfortunately, only one of the earbuds was working properly.

As a result of the disappointing progress that I made against the blank page and its infinite siblings, I decided to read through the novel as it exists so far to scrutinize it for continuity and pacing issues. I'm almost back to the present location and have been pleased with what I've read. However, I can see that the great finale, the zenith of the book, has not been sufficiently foreshadowed. The rising tide of dread with the inexorable approach of the grand climax has been omitted. The various adventures of the characters are great, but I've neglected to make the promise that the gobsmacking wunderclash finale fulfills. An element of my threefold formula--The Trauma, The Drama, and The Dream--has been insufficiently costumed. Alas, the crescendo has no clothes.

In my defense, I've been researching and writing this particular event and a related matter, with the buildup to the resolution in isolation from the rest of the story, and have not yet incorporated it into the novel. So the streams will cross at the appropriate time, and tension will rise on every page until the reader shivers with delight at the promise delivered.

***

 Short story completed!

I say completed, but I've already got some tweaks in mind--move part of a paragraph, smooth a description, add a couple words of meaningful detail. The usual stuff.

Every story is a portal to another world. They don't all lead to Mayberry and Joan Collins, but penetrating that threshold--letting your eyes trace that first line of words--threatens to transport you to another place, another time, another you. Complete the leap, drop into the story, and you may never escape. Some stories remain a part of you forever once you've embraced the trauma, the drama, and the dream.

What are the trauma, the drama, and the dream? Those are my broad terms for the elements required to make the reader love a story. Other writers may call them by different names, but I submit that my terms as expressed at the end of the paragraph above score points for being the most poetic. Aren't great stories poetic at some level? Yes. The answer is yes. They don't have to rhyme or match a certain meter, but they should have an aesthetic or emotional impact.

Let me expound. The character(s) must experience trauma or distress. Something about the situation, setting, or other players upon the stage must cause or threaten injury. The character(s) must face peril. That peril may be physical, emotional, spiritual, financial, etc., depending upon the genre of the story.

A great story requires drama, or conflict. The character must have obstacles to overcome, villains to defeat, disadvantages to heighten the difficulty, and mysteries or problems to solve. The trauma and the drama mesh to create tension and build the reader's interest in the characters. When these are combined correctly, the reader will buy-in and immerse themselves in the story. The reader becomes emotionally invested.

When emotional investment has been achieved, the dream materializes. The dream exists in the reader's imagination, and will differ with every reader. Nevertheless, the way the writer manipulates and resolves the trauma and the drama controls the dream. A dream may be created, only to be destroyed by the writer's departure from or too strict adherence to the genre tropes, or by the writer's mishandling of the story or by poor stylistic choices. The aesthetic or emotional impact, and delivery of the elements determine the power of the dream and whether it lingers with the reader long after the story has ended.

I hadn't intended to touch on the secrets of a great story, but once I brought it up, I felt that I had to give a brief explanation. Each element deserves its own essay, or chapter, but that's not what I do here. What it is exactly that I do here has yet to be determined, but the consensus indicates that it isn't formulating an exegesis on the elements of writing.

____________

The little Wheels where here for dinner this evening. I broke in the new cribbage board by leading most of the way, only to fall behind on the last bend, and pull out a come-from-behind surprise win in a very tight game.