The Magic Voyage of Sinbad
About The Magic Voyage of Sinbad
In Novgorod the merchants laugh when the gusli player Sadko says he can bring back a bird of happiness. The daughter of the Sea Tsar, who loves his singing, helps him leave. He searches through India and Egypt, fails to catch the bird, and comes home convinced he does not need a better country than his own. The 1962 English-language version renames him Sinbad and the city Copasand.
Cast & crew
More about The Magic Voyage of Sinbad
Aleksandr Ptushko directed. Konstantin Isayev adapted Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Sadko, itself drawn from the bylina. Fyodor Provorov photographed it. Vissarion Shebalin arranged the Rimsky-Korsakov score. Mosfilm released it on 5 January 1953. Artkino issued an English-subtitled print in the United States later that year.
Themes
Background
A 1953 Mosfilm fantasy from a Rimsky-Korsakov opera, retitled for American release nine years later.
Making
The American dub changes names so the Russian story reads as a Sinbad picture. Novgorod becomes Copasand, and the cast list is anglicized.
Look
Fyodor Provorov shot the Novgorod feast and the voyages to India and Egypt.
Music
The score is Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's, arranged by Vissarion Shebalin. The 1962 dub cuts most of the songs.
Preservation
The Soviet version runs 85 minutes. The 1962 English dub runs 79.
Notes
- Sergei Stolyarov plays Sadko. Alla Larionova plays Lyubava. Ninel Myshkova plays the Princess of Lake Ilmen.
- Roger Corman's Filmgroup released the English dub in 1962 as The Magic Voyage of Sinbad. Francis Ford Coppola is the uncredited script adaptor.
- The dub runs 79 minutes, drops most of the songs, keeps one song in English, and adds narration.
- It won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1953.
Awards
- Silver Lion, Venice Film Festival (1953)
Scenes
- The merchants mock Sadko's claim about the bird.
- The Sea Tsar's daughter sends him on the voyage.
- He comes back to Novgorod without the bird.
Influenced by
- Sadko (opera)
- Sadko (bylina)
