- The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
Infobox Film
caption =film poster byBrian Bysouth
name = The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
director =Gordon Hessler
producer =Charles H. Schneer Ray Harryhausen
writers =Brian Clemens Ray Harryhausen
starring =John Phillip Law Tom Baker Takis Emmanuel Caroline Munro Douglas Wilmer Martin Shaw
music =Miklós Rózsa
cinematography =Ted Moore , BSC
editing =Roy Watts
released =April 5 ,1974
distributor =Columbia Pictures
runtime = 105 min.
imdb_id = 0071569
amg_id = 1:20209
country = United Kingdom
language = English
budget =
preceded_by = "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad "
followed_by = "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger ""The Golden Voyage of Sinbad" is a
fantasy film released in 1974 and starringJohn Phillip Law asSinbad . It includes a score by composerMiklós Rózsa and is noted for thestop-motion effects byRay Harryhausen . The film is the second installment of Harryhausen's "Sinbad trilogy", the others being "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad " (1958) and "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger " (1977).Plot
While
sailing , Sinbad comes across a golden tablet dropped by a mysterious flying creature. He wears the tablet as an amulet around his neck. That night, Sinbad has a strange dream in which he sees a man dressed in black, repeatedly calling Sinbad's name. Sinbad also sees a mysterious girl with an eye tattooed on her right palm. The next day, a mysterious force brings his ship to a coastal town in the country of Marabia.Sinbad encounters the Grand
Vizier of Marabia (Douglas Wilmer ) outside his palace. The Vizier, who wears a golden mask to hide his disfigured face, says that Sinbad's amulet is actually one piece of a puzzle; the Vizier has another. The Vizier relates to Sinbad a legend that the three pieces, when joined together, will reveal a map showing the way to the Fountain of Destiny, hidden somewhere on the lost continent of Lemuria. The legend tells that he who bears the three pieces of the puzzle to the fountain will receive "youth, a shield of darkness, and a crown of untold riches."Sinbad agrees to help the Vizier find the fountain. They join forces against Koura (
Tom Baker ), an evil magician who wishes to conquer Marabia. Koura had locked the Vizier in a room and set it on fire, horribly burning his face. The creature that dropped the gold tablet was one of Koura's minions, ahomunculus created by his black magic.Shortly afterward, Sinbad meets the girl he saw in his dream, Margiana (
Caroline Munro ). She, her master's son Haroun (Kurt Christian) and the Vizier board Sinbad's ship. Koura hires a ship and crew of his own and follows Sinbad, using his black magic several times to try to stop Sinbad. However, each attempt drains part of his life force and he ages noticeably.Sinbad fights the one-eyed
centaur , an animated statue ofKali , and his ship's own woodenfigurehead , animated by Koura's magic, on his journey. Once they reach the fountain, Koura obtains the puzzle and drops it in the fountain. His health is restored and he becomes invisible (the "cloak of darkness"). However, he is slain in a sword duel by Sinbad, who then takes the "crown of untold riches" and gives it to the Grand Vizier. Sinbad explains to Margiana that he values freedom more, and a king is never really free. The crown's magic powers causes the Vizer's mask to dissolve, and heals his face.Cast
*
John Phillip Law as Sinbad
*Tom Baker as Koura.Christopher Lee was a front-runner for the role. Baker's performance helped him get the lead role in the TV series "Doctor Who ".
*Takis Emmanuel as Achmed. Emmanuel was dubbed byRobert Rietty .
*Caroline Munro as Margiana
*Douglas Wilmer as The Vizier
*Martin Shaw as Rachid
*Robert Shaw as the Oracle of All Knowledge (uncredited). Shaw desperately wanted the role of Sinbad. His face was heavily swathed in make-up and his voice electronically altered by a sound engineer.Production
The entire film was completed for $982,351, a remarkably small sum even for a film in the early 1970s.
Originally, they wanted to use the
Alhambra palace for some of the shots, but the authorities asked for a huge rental fee. Eventually, they found the Palace Generalife,Palma ,Majorca . Other scenes were film in the Caves ofArta (the temple of the Oracle) and theTorrente de Pareis .The miniature set for the Fountain of Destiny was huge. The monoliths were 32 inches high and the fountain was constantly maintained at a height of 51 inches. The rock background was over 15 feet high and the whole thing was built on a wooden platform 32 inches from the ground.
Ray Harryhausen confessed that when he was animating the centaur, he had in mind an opera tenor in his final death throes. The actual model of the centaur was about 13 inches high and had ocelot fur on its legs and a small doll's eye in its forehead.
During production, Harryhausen was also producing a film called "King of the Geniis", which was to include
Sinbad and dinosaurs. Harryhausen made a poster and three key drawings, but it never was produced because of the box-office failure of "The Valley of Gwangi ". Leftover ideas became "Golden Voyage".An early charcoal/pencil illustration showed the one-eyed centaur battling a giant
Neanderthal man, who was later replaced by agriffin in the final version. The giant Neanderthal was later used in "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger " (1977).When Sinbad drives his sword into the centaur's neck, a process called
Shadow Boxing was used. Law played out the scene by himself, pin-pointing where the sword would stop and then the centaur's "neck" was added at that particular spot. Fernando Poggi provided his valuable expertise for the swordfight sequences. Poggi strapped two of his stuntmen together with a very large belt to help simulate the six arms of the living statue ofKali , giving the actors at least four arms to practice against.A "Valley of the Vipers" sequence was deleted.
The captioner for the movie had some fun with Koura's lines. When he is mumbling "foreign words" to cast a spell, the captions are backwards lines from
Cocoa Puffs andTrix breakfast cereal commercials.Adaptations
*
Marvel Comics published a two-issue adaptation in "Worlds Unknown " #7-8 (June & Aug. 1974). Titled "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad: Land Of The Lost," it was by writerLen Wein and artistsGeorge Tuska andVince Colletta .ee also
*
List of stop-motion films External links
*imdb title|id=0071569
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