Starring John Phillip Law Sinbad Caroline Munro Margiana Tom Baker (I) Koura Douglas Wilmer Vizier Martin Shaw Rachid Grégoire Aslan Hakim Kurt Christian Haroun Takis Emmanuel Achmed David Garfield (I) Abdul Ferdinando Poggi Aldo Sambrell Omar Directed by: Gordon Hessler Visual Effects Ray Harryhausen
Sinbad battles the creatures of legend in the miracle of Dynarama!
From one of my favourite film genres The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad is an very enjoyable fantasy film.
The master of this type of work, stop motion expert Ray Harryhausen again creates wondrous elusions of fantasy. From the very first Homunculus creature, flying over Sinbad's (John Philip Law) ship to the fight between Cyclops centaur and a winged griffin, in-between the six armed goddess, and figurehead from the ship.
The story starts with Sinbad and his crew at sea, when a mysterious creature is sighted by the crew, an arrow is fired although missing the creature, it drops what it is carrying, a golden amulet which Sinbad picks-up. A crew member Rachid (Martin Shaw) tells Sinbad to throw it overboard, for it will bring bad luck.
Sinbad sees an apparition of a dancing girl holding out her hand, on which is the image of an eye. Later while Sinbad is sleeping he again sees the girl, also an evil looking man. Awakening to find a violent storm has started. This is just the start of Sinbad's adventures.
As the ship approaches a city, Sinbad sees something on the beach and swims ashore. resting on a rock a shadow comes over him, although he doesn't know yet its the evil Koura come to claim the amulet.
Escaping to the city Sinbad meets the Vizier, who shows him a second part to the amulet, and tells of treasures, a crown of untold riches, youthfulness all on an uncharted island. The amulet fits together and when held in front of a fire casts a shadow on the wall to make a chart. An Homunculus is seen and destroyed, but too late Prince Koura has heard everything.
Time is now of the essence, on his way back to the ship. Sinbad is followed by two men, a short fight starts but does not last. Achmed wants Sinbad to take his son Hakim and offers him 200 gold pieces, about to leave a beautiful slave girl Margiana (Caroline Munro) brings in refreshments, on her hand is the single eye. Sinbad takes Achmed's offer of 400 gold the slave and son.
Setting sail Sinbad along with the Vizier, Margiana, and Hakim hope to beat Koura, but laying off the coast is Koura's ship, which follows them. The lookout spots the lights of Koura's ship and Sinbad sails into a fog bank to lose them.
The captain of the other ship stops, and Koura starts an incantation which brings to life the figurehead on Sinbad's ship. After a fight the figurehead, having taken the chart crashes overboard sinking, only to be raised by Koura who now follows them again. The side effect of Koura's black magic is that after every spell he ages, one of the reasons for him to find the fountain of youth.
Arriving on the island Sinbad's party journeys to a temple, where they learn that a third amulet is needed. Once again Koura sends a spy and hears every word. Koura using his alchemy skills blows up the entrance to the temple trapping them inside.
Escaping from the temple Sinbad follows Koura to the temple of Kali. Koura having already found favour with Kali's worshipers by bring their Goddess to life, is searching for the third amulet, when Sinbad and his band of followers arrive. Wishing to end the evil Koura, Sinbad throws a sword to him so they can fight, but the evil Koura does not fight, instead he passes the sword to Kali the six armed goddess, who magically turns one sword into six. Now Sinbad and crew must do battle with a six-armed figure of Kali brandishing a sword in each hand. This is I think the most memorable scene in the entire film, a fine example of Ray's painstaking work in the art of stop-motion animation. An exciting fight, but again the evil Koura thwarts the adventurers.
About to be sacrificed, Margiana holding out her hand stops the sacrifice of Sinbad, only to be lowered into the lair of the Centaur, who carries her off to the caverns. The rest of them after getting free from their captors follow.
After rescuing Margiana they continue through the caverns finally arriving at the Fountain Of Untold Riches, were Koura has already started to abuse the preasures gifts. Koura summons the Centaur, while they fight a winged griffin arrives So starts a battle between good and evil. The Griffin appears to be wining, but the treacherous Koura slashes the back leg of the Griffin, resulting in its death. The Centaur then starts to fight Sinbad and his men again, Sinbad jumping on the back of the Centaur repeatedly stabs it thrown off, but leaving a knife stuck in the Centaur. Sinbad is the winner.
Only Koura is left and Sinbad finally fights also most face to face, but Koura having used the fountain now has the power of invisibility. Koura seems to be playing with Sinbad before killing him, but making one mistake in moving behind the fountain he becomes visible in the water, which gives Sinbad the opportunity to kill him. The water of the fountain turning red, eventually clears to reveal Sinbad's refection dressed in the cloths of a King, clearing again a crown is revealed, the 'crown of untold riches' Sinbad takes the crown and places it upon the head of the Vizier. The Vizier who had been badly burnt by a fireball sent by Koura, is transformed into the true King. Sinbad who gave up the crown continues to sail the seven seas and find other adventures for himself, Margiana and the crew.
Released in 1974 the film's production values are quite good, and of course the Ray Harryhausen effects are as beautiful as ever. The set design (especially for the scenes inside the cavern) is striking and inventive, and there's Miklós Rózsa's score gracing the soundtrack. It's worth owning just to see the fluid, complex movements of the animated Kali flailing away at six men with her swords. And of course, Caroline Munro's cleavage never looked better as the slave girl Margiana.
A good cast John Philip Law as Sinbad is in my opinion the best actor to play Sinbad in the Harryhausen films. But it is Tom Baker (later to be Dr. Who) who steals the show as evil sorcerer Koura, playing him as sinister and cold-blooded as possible. Caroline Munro is as sexy as ever.
The stop-motion work is as usual excellent. The creatures all seem to have a part to play in the story and don't take over the film at the expense of cast and story, unlike modern films where the effects have to be there at the cost of a good story. The cast reacting to nothing but a storyboard I suppose? do a good job too.
Stop-motion work is a real skill unlike the CGI of today.
Trust in Allah, but tie up your camel!
This review is based on a 16mm copy in my collection. The print ranges from excellent to very good, due to been assembled from more than one copy. The sound is excellent.
This film was also a one time available for hire only from Columbia/Warner's super 8mm library, the print was excellent. Columbia had a abridged version for sale consisting of 4x200ft reels. Released by Mountain Films in the UK, the quality was on my copy very poor in both picture and sound.
Review by David Ollerearnshaw.
PictureSound
Content
Review of Promotional Trailer
You
can own a DVD copy of the film.
Visit The Reel Image
Shop
This page was last updated 02 Dec 2002
