Idea & Info: 'The Golden Voyage of Sinbad' - laserdisc preservation

After some research, it seems that there are 2 laserdisc releases for The Golden Voyage of Sinbad – one by Pioneer and another by RCA/Columbia.  It seems that the Pioneer one is the best.

The Pioneer Special Edition laserdisc has an isolated music track and possibly a stereo mix (whereas the DVD only has mono).

( Catalog Number PSE91-20 ) (1.33:1) (3 Sides) (CLV+CAV) (CC) (NTSC)

It would be nice to have this preserved as the later Columbia DVD releases also have some digital editing.

Sony censored the scene mentioned in the following link.  Did TT restore it?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071569/alternateversions?ref_=tt_ql_trv_5

Actually that scene is not censored, it is an alternate different take.

barhar said:

Actually that scene is not censored, it is an alternate different take.

Are you sure about this?  I have never came across this bit before.  I have detailed books on Harryhausen and conversations with an expert, which none  revealed the alternative shot.  It'll be great if you can provide more info about this.

The first pic is from the full screen dvd, the second from a german satelite TV recording. Note the different positions of the boat.

barhar said:

The first pic is from the full screen dvd, the second from a german satelite TV recording. Note the different positions of the boat.

Thanks a lot for providing the screenshots!  This is quite interesting.  I'll see if I can find out more about this.

I sent the following privately to barhar, but never heard back.  Now I am opening it up to a wider audience.

I communicated with Ernest Farino, the publisher of Ray Harryhausen: Master of Majicks books (http://archive-editions.com/), who had a 16mm of the film at one point.  He said that the DVD is the original take, not the German satellite TV.  He also believed that the "reveal" occurs in the original take.  I am not so sure even from looking at the recent BD release.

Ernest Farino wrote, "The comment on the IMDb is incorrect-- the hair falling down is her real hair. At the time that Sinbad is carrying her, her hair has been swept up around her neck by the wind. When he sets her down and she stands and straightens up, that strand of hair simply falls down over her chest in a normal fashion. There's no digital enhancement. The hair happens to fall right over her breast, so it's easy to assume that it's a digital "add on" for coverup purposes. But it's not. The hair falling down is exactly how it was in the 16mm print I owned back in the late 1970s."

Anyway, he is busy trying to publish the 2nd edition of the Majicks set and is unable to research this further.  Is there anyway to obtain a copy of the German satellite TV version?  I am curious if there are other differences.  I will follow up Ernest afterwards.

Thanks.

I own the japanese laserdisc from RCA/Columbia, which is identical to the DVD version.

Is anyone able to provide the german TV version. I’m really interested in doing a comparison to see if there are other differences.

Thanks for letting us know about the RCA/Columbia LD. Unfortunately, I never heard back about the German version.

The complete remastered soundtrack has been released by Intrada records; it’s both the original soundtrack as released back in 1974 and the complete soundtrack of the film, as found on ‘recently discovered masters in Italy’. Might come in handy for any future fan fix/mixes 😃

http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.10121/.f

Been meaning to pick up the new 2CD release. Thanks for reminding me with the link.

It seems like Sky Cinema Nostalgie of Germany will be broadcasting Sindbads gefährliche Abenteuer (the German version of The Golden Voyage of Sinbad) Monday, September 11th at 14:20 - 16:05:
https://www.tvdigital.de/tv-sendung/sindbads-gefaehrliche-abenteuer/

Are there any German members out there that might be able to record this?

I’m hoping it’ll have the alternative angle pointed out by barhar earlier.

barhar said:

The first pic is from the full screen dvd, the second from a german satelite TV recording. Note the different positions of the boat.

I checked a german free TV recording from the end of last year. Sadly it’s the new version.

So it seems the german TV stations already changed their master…

I uploaded the german TV version VHSrip to uloz.

Sinbads Gefährliche Abenteuer (Golden Voyage of Sinbad) german TV broadcast.VOB

Thanks Kiba for the update and barhar for the preservation.

Finally (almost one year later) I had the time to compare the TV broadcast (Pro7) provided by barhar with a more recent TV broadcast (mdr).

The (german) title card is different. It seems it was newly crated for the mdr broadcast. The end credits are also shortened a bit on the Pro7 version.

At the beginnen when Koura returns to Achmed a few seconds are missing in the Pro7 broadcast, which might be related to a longer jump cut or something went wrong during the recording.

The only other difference is the scene in which Sinbad is helping Margiana getting out of the boat. The rest of the movie is the same (except of a few short framcuts).

My guess would be that the Pro7 broadcast was taken from a cinema print, where the original scene was intact. There are markings when a roll changs takes place and also a few frames got lost. For all other releases (VHS, LD, DVD, BD) the version with the alternate scene was used, where Munros breast is covered by her hair.

Thanks to barhar for providing this rare version, which proofs that there was no digital alteration done, but instead an alternate scene used.

Thanks for comparing the Pro7 vs mdr broadcasts, Kiba.

I’ll have to check out the Koura returning to Achmed scene vs. the official BD. Do you know what time on the Pro7 this occurs at?

According to Ernest Farino, the Pro7 Margiana boat scene is an alternate take. I’m wondering if this alternate take was used in the European prints and that most home video releases are using the US one. I remember reading online that the British VHS had the alternate take as well.

It happens around the 11 minute mark, but I’m pretty sure it is in the BD, because it’s a quite obvious cut.

So it might be worth tracking down the UK VHS…

I found one reference where I read it from:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071569/alternateversions?ref_=tttrv_ql_5
It doesn’t specifically say British version.

I remember there was another reference elsewhere. I’ll post it if I come across it.

Didn’t Indicator also release this movie in the UK on Blu-ray disc?