American actor (and ex-teacher) Kerwin Mathews was but one of many handsome contract players at Columbia Pictures when, in 1957, he was thrust into the title role in Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. Mathews managed to assert his engaging personality into the proceedings even with the formidable competition of Ray Harryhausen's eye-popping special effects. Mathews went on to star in another Harryhausen opus, Three Worlds of Gulliver (1961), and also headlined the Harryhausen "wannabe" film Jack the Giant Killer (1962). After playing Johann Strauss Jr. in the Disney-produced The Waltz King (1962), Kerwin Mathews had trouble sustaining his stardom; his later films were along the lines of Battle Beneath the Earth (1968) and Nightmare in Blood (1978). Hal