The Magic Voyage Of Sinbad (aka Sadko) (1953/1962)

Sinbad (Sergei Stolyarov) returns to his homeland only to find the wealthy merchants have become richer and exploited the poor peasants. He decides to go on a journey to find the bird of happiness to bring joy to his downfallen people. A Russian film that was based on a Rimsky-Korsakov opera and lauded in its day (it won the Silver Lion award at the 1953 Venice film festival), in 1962 it was dubbed into English and the lead character given the name of Sinbad to cash in on the 1958 Ray Harryhausen classic. The narrative remains essentially the same though the Russian version had songs that were eliminated although one remains in the dubbed movie. Reputedly a very young Francis Coppola was involved in the dubbed version. Also, the print I saw was dreadful looking so I suppose it's not fair to judge a film's value under such conditions. It is what it is and I can say the dubbed version is a bore and rather silly. I'm more than willing to see the original Russian SADKO in a superior transfer. Directed by Aleksandr Ptushko.