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Golden Voyage of Sinbad
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by Sony Pictures
Sales Rank: 27763
Price: $14.95
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John Phillip Law stars as the legendary sailor this time around as he finds a talisman and sets sail with his crew for an uncharted island. With a beautiful slave girl (Caroline Munro) in tow, Sinbad takes on the evil sorcerer Koura (Tom Baker), who wants Sinbad's golden talisman to complete a spell. En route to the island, Koura brings the ship's figurehead to life to wreak havoc on the ship and crew. Once there, Sinbad and crew must do battle with a six-armed figure of Kali brandishing a sword in each hand, as well as an enraged Cyclops centaur and a winged griffin, and also deal with the treacherous Koura.<p> This 1974 entry in the Sinbad franchise is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, 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. On the other hand, the story definitely tends to drag a bit, and Law's indeterminate accent often wavers toward a weird Slavic inflection. Pointing to the film's age, Law and company often tend to look like poncey rock stars with their long hair, beards, and harem pants. That's all nitpicking, though; the action segments, though they're fewer and farther between than in other Sinbad films, redeem the movie with Harryhausen's incredible artistry. 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, scream queen Caroline Munro never looked better as the slave girl Margiana. This is rich, well-crafted fantasy fare that the entire family can enjoy. <I>--Jerry Renshaw</I>
Viewer Reviews
6/5. Definitely the best of the three. The story is coherent (well, almost) for a start. The dialogue and the writing generally are much better than the other two. Clemens was/is actually a good writer. The acting by the blue-eyed Arabs was better: Baker and Law were almost convincing. You felt a bit sorry for Baker, and Sinbad was very noble, and knew how to treat a lady. Good accents: I suppose when they were speaking Arabic they had English accents. The monsters were all great, as usual, and I felt real sympathy for the poor little homunculus. Everything was put together well. We had the gold mask of Agamemnon, the dhows of either the Persian Gulf, or the Suez Canal, Allah was with us, Hindu temples exploded, Buddha smiled, and Kali (actually she looked more like Siva, Lord of the Dance) danced and flashed a lot of scimitars. Finally we ended up at the Fountain of Youth (straight out of Rider Haggard's "She"), which, blow me down, was in fact centred in the middle of Stonehenge, which in turn was in Aladdin's Cave, populated by fairly small green men, as well as a combination Greek cyclopic centaur. Sinbad got around. There were some good lines. I actually laughed when the idle merchant's son got the shock of his life when he was told he had to work. Through the entire tale there was an extremely tense undercurrent of suspense: was Caroline going to fall out of her bodice before the end, or was she not? No spoilers here. The only bit I didn't understand was how the villainous Tom Baker failed to win the battle when he was both invisible and had regained his youth. Still, there has to be a bit of mystery in this genre.
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Golden Voyage of Sinbad
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