“We only had the location for 24 hours, so I went into that cave in Spain (Las Cuevas de Arta in Majorca), did lots of rehearsing with the sword-master, then he stepped out and they filmed me fighting the air. I had to believe I was looking at the skeleton which was added later by Ray. (Harryhuasen). The hard part was to stop my sword in mid-air as if I were hitting the skeleton’s swords. 24 hours later, I came out of the cave.”
Director Nathan Juran said:
“After we finished the skeleton sequence, I saw that Kerwin’s hand was bloody. We had him use a real and heavy sword to make the scene better. Much of the credit for the success of that fight goes to Kerwin.”
For the storm at sea sequence, Kerwin said:
“The ship we used for the Sinbad’s ship was a replica of Columbus’ ship, The Santa Maria, moored in Barcelona harbor. We took it out into the open sea for several sequences, but it had no keel so we almost capsized.”
Director Juran said:
“The Spanish Commodore in charge of the sailing ordered us back to port and bellowed, ‘This ship will never go to sea again,’ which meant all of the seagoing footage had to be shot with the ship securely moored in the harbor.”
Kerwin said:
“For the storm sequence, the effects crew shot water at me using a hose that was sucking up water next to the pier. I had to clench my teeth because all forms of garbage and rat bits were hitting me in the face. The next day, I became extremely ill and couldn’t move out of bed. That night Nathan asked politely if I could come to the boat and take one shot of me at the wheel. Of course, I said yes and did that scene with a fever and more rats guts flying at me.
"There was no protective cage on the wind machine and a crew member backed into the spinning blades and was knocked down. We all feared the worse, but only his leather jacket was cut. However, he was in shock, so he was sent to the hospital.”
When asked how he felt about the tough Sinbad experience, Kerwin said:
“Ray, Wilkie, Jerry, Charles and all their families were so incredibly kind to me in every way, that I would have done anything for them. Truly, my memories are only of the good things that happened. After 35 years, that is right, I think.”
I have seen the replicas of Columbus's ships and Corpus Christi. They certainly didn't look very large or seaworthy. Filmmakers always had to be creative when it came to action scenes like storms. And actors probably had to endure hardships in order to get the job done. I'm still amazed at how actors these days but on weight or take it off to match a role. Not good for one's health.
Ron
enjoyed the read
Never stop writing
m