- Directed by Gordon Hessler
- Written by Brian Clemens
- Starring
- John Phillip Law
- Caroline Munro
- Tom Baker
- Douglas Wilmer
- Produced by Ray Harryhausen and Charles H. Schneer
To ratchet us into the plot, one of Sinbad’s sailors shoots an arrow at a bat-winged Harryhausen creature flying above the ship, which drops a strange gold medallion. Sinbad ties it around his neck and begins having strange dreams of an evil man in black, and a dancing girl with her face in shadow and an eye tattooed on her palm.
He goes ashore in Marabia and encounters Koura, the sinister man in black from his dream, played by Tom Baker (yes, THAT Tom Baker — I missed his name in the opening credits, so I spent the entire movie saying, “Who is that under the diabolical goatee and why is he so familiar?”). Naturally, Sinbad doesn’t give him the medallion; instead he escapes into the city where Koura dares not go, and meets the Vizier, a man badly burned by Koura’s magic and thus given to wearing a full-head gold mask. The Vizier has another gold piece that fits into Sinbad’s, leaving room for one more; the Vizier tells Sinbad of the legend surrounding the medallions, that the person who takes all three and throws them in a magical fountain on a far-off island will be given phenomenal blessings.
After running into a merchant who pays Sinbad to take his wastrel son on board and teach him a trade (and sweetens the deal by throwing in a slavegirl — Caroline Munro with an eye tattooed on her palm!), Sinbad and the Vizier sail off to find the island, with Koura in close pursuit.
Now, the real reason I got this was so my kid could enjoy the Harryhausen effects, and they were great: two bat-winged homonculi, the carved prow of a ship brought to life, the famous sword-fighting six-armed statue of Kali, a cyclops-centaur, and a griffin. Aside from that, there really wasn’t much to write home about. Both the wastrel son and the slave girl were wasted (the latter really bothered me, since Sinbad had dreamed of her and all, and she really didn’t do anything!). Tom Baker was very evil, but he was evil “just cuz”: No motivation other than just being the heavy.
And it was a Sinbad movie, so everyone spoke in stilted English and spouted proverbs about Allah (the most-repeated one being, “Trust in Allah, but tie up your camel”).
All in all, not too painful to watch if you bring it home for your kids (better than trying to sit through, say, a Power Rangers movie), but decidedly lackluster for adult viewing.
