Sinbad and his crew arrive with their ship at a port and meet the Vizier, a man who is wearing a golden mask ever since he was disfigured by the evil wizard Koura. Vizier persuades Sinbad to try to find the magic fountain on the lost island of Lemuria in order to get magic powers before Koura, who wants to use it for evil. Sinbad is joined by slave girl Margiana and the clumsy Achmed. They arrive at Lemuria, but Koura uses his magic to bring a statue with six arms to life to attack Sinbad. In a duel, Sinbad kills Koura, while the fountain rejuvenates Vizier's face and makes him the king. Sinbad ends up in love with Margiana.
The 2nd Sinbad film for which Ray Harryhausen delivered his visual effects, "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad" is not as scary as "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad", but instead tries to tell a decent story and put more focus on the characters, though, ironically, many of them were left rather unmemorable. Caroline Munro is excellent as the heroine Margiana and steals the show, easily overshadowing everybody else, but is sadly underused, showing that the director Gordon Hessler was not able to recognize all his potentials and use them to elevate the film. The concept in which Sinbad and the evil wizard are rushing at who will get to the magic fountain first is fairly standard, predictable and bland, yet Harryhausen's surreal stop-motion effects conjured up five creatures that graced the screen and secured the film cult status, and the two most memorable are the sequence where a wooden 10ft tall statue comes to life and attacks the crew on the ship, as well as the bizarre centaur cyclops who attacks Sinbad.
Grade:++
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