The Golden Voyage of Sinbad

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad is a 1973 fantasy adventure film directed by Gordon Hessler, with stop-motion effects by Ray Harryhausen. Based on the Arabian Nights tales of Sinbad the Sailor, it is the second of three Sinbad films released by Columbia Pictures, the others being The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977). The film stars John Phillip Law, Tom Baker, Takis Emmanuel, and Caroline Munro. It was a worldwide box office hit and won the first Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film.

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
Theatrical release poster by Brian Bysouth
Directed byGordon Hessler
Written byBrian Clemens
Story byBrian Clemens
Ray Harryhausen
Based onSinbad the Sailor from One Thousand and One Nights
Produced byCharles H. Schneer
Ray Harryhausen
StarringJohn Phillip Law
Tom Baker
Takis Emmanuel
Caroline Munro
Douglas Wilmer
Martin Shaw
CinematographyTed Moore
Edited byRoy Watts
Music byMiklós Rózsa
Production
company
Morningside Productions
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release dates
  • 20 December 1973 (1973-12-20)
(London, England)
  • 25 January 1974 (1974-01-25)
(United Kingdom)
  • 5 April 1974 (1974-04-05)
(United States)
Running time
105 minutes
CountriesUnited States
United Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2 million<[1]
Box office$11 million (USA/Canada)
37.5 million tickets (overseas)

Plot

A mysterious flying creature soars over a ship at sea, carrying some shiny object. The ship's crew observe it and fire an arrow. The arrow misses the creature, but causes it to drop the ornate golden sector it held. The crew suggest throwing the object overboard, but Captain Sinbad fastens it around his neck. That night, he dreams about a man dressed in black, repeatedly calling his name, as well as a beautiful girl with an eye tattooed on the palm of her right hand.

A sudden storm throws the ship off course, and Sinbad and his men find themselves near a coastal town in the country of Marabia. Sinbad's visions continue and the man in his dreams appears as a mirage on the shore. Diving from the ship and swimming to shore, he encounters the man from his dream. The man, an evil magician named Koura, demands that he turn over the amulet, which he claims belongs to him. Sinbad narrowly escapes into the city and meets the Grand Vizier of Marabia, who has been acting as regent following the death of the sultan, who had no heir. The Vizier, who wears a golden mask to hide his disfigured face, explains that Sinbad's amulet is but one piece of a puzzle, of which the Vizier has another. The Vizier relates to Sinbad a legend, which claims that the three pieces, when joined together, will reveal a map showing the way to the fabled Fountain of Destiny on the lost continent of Lemuria. He who takes the three pieces to the Fountain will receive "youth, a shield of darkness and a crown of untold riches".

Sinbad agrees to help the Vizier in his quest for the Fountain and they join forces against Koura, who is bent on using the Fountain's gifts to conquer Marabia. Koura had previously locked the Vizier in a room and set it on fire, resulting in the disfiguring of the Vizier's face. The creature that dropped the gold tablet was Koura's minion, a homunculus created by his black magic. Koura uses the creature to spy on Sinbad and the Vizier and learn of their plans. When Sinbad and the Vizier discover and catch the homunculus, it destroys itself.

Shortly afterward, Sinbad meets the woman in his dream, a slave girl named Margiana. Her master hires Sinbad to make a man out of his lazy, no-good son Haroun. Sinbad agrees on the condition that Margiana comes along. Koura hires a ship and a crew of his own and follows Sinbad, using his magic several times to try to stop Sinbad. However, each attempt drains away part of his life force, and he ages noticeably each time.

On his journey, Sinbad encounters numerous perils, including a wooden siren figurehead on his ship, animated by Koura's magic, which manages to steal the map, which enables Koura to locate Lemuria. The wizard uses another homunculus to overhear the Oracle of All Knowledge describe to Sinbad what he will face in his search for the Fountain. Koura seals the men inside the Oracle's cave, but Sinbad uses a makeshift rope to get everyone out. Haroun manages to destroy the homunculus as it attacks Sinbad. After he is captured by hostile natives, Koura animates a six-armed statue of Kali, causing the natives to set him free. Sinbad and his men arrive soon after, fight and defeat Kali. As she falls and breaks apart, they find the final piece of the puzzle within Kali's shattered remains. The natives capture Sinbad and his crew, but after they see the eye tattoo on Margiana's hand, they instead decide to sacrifice her to a one-eyed centaur, the natives' God of the Single Eye and the Fountain's Guardian of Evil.

Koura arrives at the Fountain of Destiny. When he drops the first piece of the tablet into the Fountain, his life force is restored. He then summons the centaur, which fights the Fountain's Guardian of Good, a griffin. Meanwhile, Sinbad and the others escape, rescue Margiana and reach the Fountain. They watch as the centaur kills the griffin with Koura's aid, then Sinbad slays the centaur. Koura drops the second piece into the Fountain, which turns him invisible (the "shield of darkness"), and engages Sinbad in a swordfight. Sinbad is barely able to fend off his invisible foe, until Koura makes a fatal mistake by stepping in the Fountain itself, which reveals his silhouette, enabling Sinbad to kill him. Sinbad then drops in the third piece, and a jewel-encrusted crown rises from the depths. Instead of donning it, Sinbad gives the crown to the Vizier. When the Vizier dons the crown, his mask dissolves, revealing his restored, unscarred face.

Their quest completed, Sinbad and his crew journey back to Marabia. When Margiana asks him why he did not take the crown himself, Sinbad explains that he enjoys his freedom more than kinghood. With Margiana as his wife, and Haroun as a new member of his crew, they sail into the sunset.

Cast

Production
Black and white photograph
Producer Charles Schneer and actress Caroline Munro in Amsterdam for the premiere of The Golden Voyage of Sinbad.

Producer Charles Schneer said he and Harryhausen chose to do another Sinbad movie as they "felt it was time to go back to the Arabian Nights, since no one else has been dealing with it and we had a great success with it in the late fifties. We felt there was a new audience that was ready for it. We knew of no other producers who were considering this type of material, largely because they probably didn't know how to handle it on a basis where it became economically viable".[3] Harryhausen did a dozen master sketches which, Schneer said, they "felt would be intriguing and interesting and characteristic of the period." They then hired Brian Clemens to do a screenplay based on the sketches. Harryhausen was given a co-producer credit in this film to reflect his greater involvement in the writing, editing, and casting process.[3]

Schneer said Law was cast at the suggestion of Columbia: "He wasn't very athletic, and he didn't handle a sword as well as Kerwin did. Frankly, he was kind of flat-footed, but he did the best he could. He used a Middle Eastern accent that I wasn't altogether pleased about, either."[4]

Caroline Munro was given the female lead. Schneer said: "We wanted her to project that sex appeal, because that was what was happening at the time in the film business. But we were still making a G-rated picture, so we went for G-rated sex appeal."[4]

Producers Charles Schneer and Ray Harryhausen based their production in Spain (Madrid as well as the island of Majorca) to take advantage of the local rugged scenery. At one point, they considered filming some scenes at the landmark Alhambra palace in Granada, but decided against it after the rental fees demanded by the local authorities proved prohibitive. Eventually the company was able to film at the Royal Palace of La Almudaina. Other scenes were done in the Caves of Artà (the temple of the Oracle) and the Torrent de Pareis[5]

The film was shot from June to August in 1972.

An early charcoal/pencil illustration showed the one-eyed centaur battling a giant Neanderthal-like creature, who was later ultimately replaced by a griffin in the final version. The idea of the Neanderthal was later featured in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977).[6]

Adaptations

Home media

The film was released in the United Kingdom on VHS in 1991.

Blu-ray ALL America - Twilight Time - The Limited Edition Series[8]

Reception

Critical

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad received favorable reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes has given it a rating of 75% from 16 critics with an average rating of 5.6/10.[10]

Box Office

In the United States and Canada, the film was a box office success with a total revenue of $11,000,000, including $5,000,000 in rentals, bringing its total gross to $16,000,000—the equivalent of $78,227,342 in 2016 dollars.[11] The film was completed for $982,351, a small sum, even for a film in the early 1970s.

Overseas, the film sold 37 million tickets in the Soviet Union[12] and 527,437 tickets in France,[13] for a combined total of at least 37,527,437 tickets sold overseas.

Columbia did not enjoy the spoils of the film's success as they had sold off all their interest in its 1974 slate to Bright-Persky Associates.[4]

On 25 February 2018, filmmaker John Walsh, a trustee of the Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation, gave a talk at the historic Regent Street Cinema for a special 45th anniversary screening of a restored version of The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, along with Caroline Munro.[14]

References
  1. Scapperotti & Bartholomew 1974, p. 45.
  2. Doctor Who the Handbook: The Fourth Doctor Doctor Who Books, 1992, pg 43.
  3. Scapperotti & Bartholomew 1974, p. 42.
  4. Swires, Steve (March 1990). "Merchant of the Magicks Part Three". Starlog. p. 67.
  5. "Home".
  6. Dalton, Tony. The Art of Ray Harryhuasen. London: Aurum, 2005, pg 178.
  7. Buttery, Jarrod (April 2014). "Ready for the Spotlight". Back Issue!. Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing (#71): 8.
  8. "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad Blu-ray Release Date December 10, 2013" – via www.blu-ray.com.
  9. Coffel, Chris (6 August 2015). "'The Fantastic Films of Ray Harryhausen' Making Australian Blu-ray Debut".
  10. The Golden Voyage of Sinbad Rotten Tomatoes
  11. "All-time Film Rental Champs", Variety, 7 January 1976 p 48
  12. "«Золотое путешествие Синдбада» (The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, 1973)". Kinopoisk (in Russian). Retrieved 27 March 2022.
  13. "The Golden Voyage of Sindbad". JP's Box-Office (in French). Retrieved 27 March 2022.
  14. "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad - Regent Street Cinema". www.regentstreetcinema.com. Archived from the original on 10 February 2018.

Sources
  • Scapperotti, Dan R; Bartholomew, David (1974). "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad". Cinefantastique. Vol. 3, no. 2. pp. 4–5, 42–45 – via Internet Archive.
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