''The Golden Voyage of Sinbad'' is a 1973

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

adventure film The adventure film is a broad genre of film. Some early genre studies found it no different than the Western film or argued that adventure could encompass all Hollywood genres. Commonality was found among historians Brian Taves and Ian Cameron in ...

directed by Gordon Hessler, featuring

stop-motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animation, animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appe ...

effects by

Ray Harryhausen Raymond Frederick Harryhausen (June 29, 1920 – May 7, 2013) was an American-British animator and special effects creator who is regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of both fields. In a career spanning more than 40 ...

. The film stars John Phillip Law,

Tom Baker Thomas Stewart Baker (born 20 January 1934) is an English actor and writer. He is best known for having played the Fourth Doctor, fourth and longest-serving incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor in the science fiction television ...

, Takis Emmanuel, and Caroline Munro. Based on the ''

Arabian Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' (, ), is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights'', from the first English-language edition () ...

'' tales of

Sinbad the Sailor Sinbad the Sailor (; or Sindbad) is a fictional mariner and the hero of a Literary cycle, story-cycle. He is described as hailing from Baghdad during the early Abbasid Caliphate (8th and 9th centuries A.D.). In the course of seven voyages thr ...

, it is the second of three Sinbad films released by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...

, following '' The 7th Voyage of Sinbad'' (1958) and preceding '' Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger'' (1977). The film follows the story of Captain Sinbad (Law) as he embarks on a dangerous quest to find the Fountain of Destiny after discovering a magical golden amulet. Joined by a vizier and a slave girl (Munro), he must battle the evil sorcerer Koura (Baker) and mythical creatures to unlock the amulet's powers before Koura can use them for evil. ''The Golden Voyage of Sinbad'' premiered on 25 December 1973 and received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its stop-motion effects and fantastical adventure elements; however, some critics noted flaws in the storyline and character development. Commercially, the film emerged as a box-office success, grossing over $11 million worldwide against a budget of approximately $982,351. Moreover, it also won the first Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film.

Plot

A mysterious flying creature soars over a ship at sea, clutching a shiny object. A crewman shoots an arrow at it, which causes the creature to drop the golden amulet. The crew wants to throw the object overboard, but when Sinbad, the captain, examines it, he sees a vision of a mysterious woman with an eye tattooed on the palm of her right hand. He fastens the amulet around his neck. That night, he dreams of a man dressed in black, repeatedly calling his name, along with the woman. A sudden storm drives Sinbad's ship near a coastal town in the country of Marabia. The man from Sinbad's dream appears as a mirage on the shore. Sinbad swims ashore. The man, an evil magician named Koura, demands the amulet, claiming it is his. Sinbad narrowly escapes into the city and meets the Grand

Vizier A vizier (; ; ) is a high-ranking political advisor or Minister (government), minister in the Near East. The Abbasids, Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was at first merely a help ...

of Marabia, who has been ruling as regent since the

sultan Sultan (; ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be use ...

's death, as there was no heir. The Vizier, who wears a golden mask to hide his disfigured face, explains that Sinbad's amulet is one piece of a larger puzzle; the Vizier possesses another. He tells Sinbad of a legend: the three pieces are the key to finding the fabled Fountain of Destiny on the lost continent of

Lemuria Lemuria (), or Limuria, was a continent proposed in 1864 by zoologist Philip Sclater, theorized to have sunk beneath the Indian Ocean, later appropriated by occultists in supposed accounts of human origins. The theory was discredited with the dis ...

. Whoever brings the pieces to the Fountain will gain "youth, a shield of darkness, and a crown of untold riches." Sinbad realizes that the two pieces fit together to form a nautical chart. Sinbad joins the Vizier on his quest to find the Fountain. Koura, who also desires the Fountain's gifts, caused the Vizier's disfigurement. The creature that dropped the amulet was Koura's minion, a magical

homunculus A homunculus ( , , ; "little person", : homunculi , , ) is a small human being. Popularized in 16th-century alchemy and 19th-century fiction, it has historically referred to the creation of a miniature, fully formed human. The concept has root ...

, which spies on Sinbad and the Vizier. When they catch it, the creature destroys itself. Soon after, Sinbad meets the woman from his dream, a slave girl named Margiana. Seeing Sinbad's interest in the girl, her master offers Sinbad 400 coins and Margiana in exchange for taking his lazy son Haroun on the journey to make a man out of him. Sinbad reluctantly agrees. Meanwhile, Koura hires a ship and crew to follow Sinbad, using his magic to try to stop him. However, each spell drains part of Koura's life force, causing him to age visibly with each attempt. On their journey, Sinbad and his crew face numerous dangers, including the wooden siren figurehead of their ship, which Koura animates with magic to steal the map, allowing him to locate Lemuria. Koura sends another homunculus to spy on Sinbad, overhearing the

Oracle An oracle is a person or thing considered to provide insight, wise counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. If done through occultic means, it is a form of divination. Descript ...

of All Knowledge describe the perils Sinbad will face. Koura seals Sinbad and his men inside the Oracle's cave, but they escape using a makeshift rope. Haroun destroys the homunculus as it attacks Sinbad. Captured by hostile natives, Koura animates a six-armed statue of

Kali Kali (; , ), also called Kalika, is a major goddess in Hinduism, primarily associated with time, death and destruction. Kali is also connected with transcendental knowledge and is the first of the ten Mahavidyas, a group of goddesses who p ...

, which cows the natives. Sinbad and his men arrive shortly after and fight the statue. Haroun pushes the statue from behind, causing it to fall and shatter. They find the final piece of the puzzle among Kali's remains. The natives capture Sinbad and his crew, but upon seeing the eye tattoo on Margiana's hand, they decide to sacrifice her to a one-eyed

centaur A centaur ( ; ; ), occasionally hippocentaur, also called Ixionidae (), is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse that was said to live in the mountains of Thessaly. In one version o ...

, their God of the Single Eye and the Fountain's Guardian of Evil. Koura reaches the Fountain of Destiny and drops one piece of the amulet into the water, restoring his life force. He summons the centaur, which battles the Guardian of Good, a

griffin The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (; Classical Latin: ''gryps'' or ''grypus''; Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk ...

. Sinbad and his crew arrive as the centaur, with Koura's help, kills the griffin. After Sinbad slays the centaur, Koura drops the second piece into the Fountain, which turns him invisible (the "shield of darkness"). Koura engages Sinbad in a sword fight, but when he steps into the Fountain, he becomes visible in silhouette, enabling Sinbad to fatally stab him. When Sinbad drops the third piece into the Fountain, a crown rises from the depths. Sinbad presents it to the Vizier, whose mask dissolves as he puts it on, revealing his restored face. When Margiana asks why Sinbad did not take the crown for himself, he replies that he values his freedom more.

Cast

* John Phillip Law as Sinbad, the protagonist *

as Prince Koura, the main antagonist of the film. His role helped him land the part of the Fourth Doctor in the TV series ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

''; the show's producer,

Barry Letts Barry Leopold Letts (26 March 1925 – 9 October 2009) was an English actor, television director, writer and producer, best known for being the producer of ''Doctor Who'' from 1969 to 1974. Born in Leicester, he worked as an actor in theatre, ...

, was impressed with his performance. * Takis Emmanuel as Achmed (Emmanuel was dubbed by

Robert Rietti Robert Rietti, (born Lucio Herbert Rietti; sometimes Rietty, 8 February 1923 – 3 April 2015) was an English actor, translator, playwright, and Dubbing, dubbing director. With over 200 credits to his name, he had a highly prolific career in t ...

) * Caroline Munro as Margiana *

Grégoire Aslan Grégoire Aslan (born Krikor Kaloust Aslanian (); 28 March 1908 – 8 January 1982) was a Swiss-Armenian actor and musician. Early life He was born to an Armenian family in Switzerland or in Constantinople, according to different sources. He m ...

as Hakim (as Gregoire Aslan) * David Garfield as Abdul (as John D. Garfield) * Kurt Christian as Haroun * Martin Shaw as Rachid * Aldo Sambrell as Omar * Robert Shaw as The Oracle of All Knowledge * Douglas Wilmer as The Grand Vizier of Marabia

Production

Producer Charles Schneer explained that he and Ray Harryhausen decided to make another Sinbad movie because they "felt it was time to return to the Arabian Nights," as no one else was exploring this material, and they had previously experienced great success with it in the late 1950s. Schneer believed there was a new audience ready for such a film and noted that other producers likely avoided this genre because they did not know how to make it economically viable. Harryhausen created a dozen master sketches that Schneer described as "intriguing, interesting, and characteristic of the period." These sketches served as the basis for the screenplay, which was written by Brian Clemens. To reflect Harryhausen's increased involvement in the writing, editing, and casting process, he was given a co-producer credit. Schneer mentioned that John Phillip Law was cast in the lead role at Columbia's suggestion. He noted that Law "wasn't very athletic" and "didn't handle a sword as well as Kerwin did," referring to Kerwin Mathews, who had played Sinbad in ''The 7th Voyage of Sinbad''. Schneer also remarked that Law was "kind of flat-footed" but did his best in the role. Additionally, Schneer was not entirely satisfied with Law's decision to use a Middle Eastern accent in the film. Caroline Munro was cast in the female lead role because, as Schneer explained, "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." Schneer and Harryhausen decided to base their production in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, specifically in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

and on the island of

Majorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...

, to take advantage of the region's rugged scenery. At one point, they considered filming some scenes at the famous

Alhambra The Alhambra (, ; ) is a palace and fortress complex located in Granada, Spain. It is one of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and one of the best-preserved palaces of the historic Muslim world, Islamic world. Additionally, the ...

palace in

Granada Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...

, but the rental fees demanded by the local authorities were too high. Instead, they filmed at the Royal Palace of La Almudaina in Palma, Majorca. Additional scenes were shot in the Caves of

Artà Artà () is one of the 53 independent municipalities on the Spain, Spanish Balearic Islands, Balearic island of Majorca. The small town of the same name is the administrative seat of this municipality in the region (''Comarca'') of Llevant. Pop ...

(used as the temple of the Oracle) and the Torrent de Pareis. The film was shot between June and August 1972. An early charcoal/pencil illustration depicted a one-eyed

battling a giant

Neanderthal Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinction, extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle Pleistocene, Middle to Late Plei ...

-like creature. However, this creature was eventually replaced by a

in the final version of the film. The idea of the Neanderthal was later used in Sinbad and the '' Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger'' (1977).

Reception

Critical reception

''The Golden Voyage of Sinbad'' received generally favorable reviews from critics. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, it holds a rating of 75% based on 16 reviews, with an average rating of 5.6/10.

Box office

In the United States and Canada, ''The Golden Voyage of Sinbad'' emerged as a commercial success at the box-office, earning 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. The film was produced on a modest budget of $982,351, a small sum even for a film in the early 1970s. Overseas, it sold 37 million tickets in the Soviet Union and 527,437 tickets in France, for a combined total of at least 37,527,437 tickets sold internationally. However, Columbia Pictures did not fully benefit from the film's success, as they had sold off all their interest in its 1974 slate to Bright-Persky Associates.

Recent events

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 in London during a special 45th anniversary screening of a restored version of ''The Golden Voyage of Sinbad'', alongside Caroline Munro.

Comic book adaptation

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

published a two-issue adaptation of ''The Golden Voyage of Sinbad'' in '' Worlds Unknown'' #7–8 (June & August 1974). Titled ''The Golden Voyage of Sinbad: Land of the Lost'', it was scripted by

Len Wein Leonard Norman Wein (; June 12, 1948 – September 10, 2017) was an American comic book writer and editor best known for co-creating DC Comics' Swamp Thing and Marvel Comics' Wolverine (character), Wolverine, and for helping revive the Marvel sup ...

, penciled by George Tuska, and inked by Vince Colletta.

Home media

''The Golden Voyage of Sinbad'' was released in the United Kingdom on VHS in 1991. It has been released in

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

, in a limited edition of 3000 and in the series ''The Fantastic Films of Ray Harryhausen'' (along with '' The 7th Voyage of Sinbad'', '' Jason and the Argonauts'' and '' Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger'').

References

Bibliography

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Golden Voyage of Sinbad, The 1973 films 1970s fantasy adventure films 1970s monster movies American epic films American fantasy adventure films American monster movies British epic films British fantasy adventure films British monster movies 1970s English-language films Columbia Pictures films Epic fantasy films Films adapted into comics Films based on Sinbad the Sailor Films directed by Gordon Hessler Films scored by Miklós Rózsa Films set in 8th-century Abbasid Caliphate Films set in Lemuria Films shot in Mallorca Films shot in Madrid Films using stop-motion animation Films produced by Ray Harryhausen Films with screenplays by Ray Harryhausen Films produced by Charles H. Schneer Saturn Award–winning films 1970s American films 1970s British films 1974 science fiction films English-language fantasy adventure films