For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

As Good As It Gets

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Those of you who know me know that the musical is one of my favorite film genres. I bought the obscure film The French Line sight unseen because I'd heard one cute song from it, and once I watched Guys and Dolls twice in a week. I don't know why it took me so long to finally watch the film version of Kismet, but I only saw it for the first time a few months ago. Howard Keel, in the lead role as a glib poet able to talk-or sing-his way out of any predicament, is really incredible. He performs the show-stopping number "Gesticulate" as only he could: stylized, over-the-top but still accessible, and with charm but without conceit. He carries the movie, outclassing his costars by head and shoulders, but since he's in so much of the film, it doesn't really matter that the scenes he's not in drag a little. The romantic leads, Ann Blyth and Vic Damone, aren't particularly interesting, and they don't sparkle with chemistry the way Howard Keel and Dolores Gray do. If your favorite songs in Kismet are the ballads "Stranger in Paradise" and "This Is My Beloved," you'll be severely disappointed in this movie. If you don't really care about two young kids in love and prefer more upbeat tunes, you'll be fine.Don't laugh, but my favorite song in the show was Dolores Gray's dazzling number "Not Since Nineveh". The reason this musical isn't watched or performed anymore is because you just can't give rousing applause to a song that starts with the line "Baghdad! Don't under-estimate Baghad!" However, if you're able to put foreign affairs aside-which is essential if you're going to sit down and watch Kismet-Dolores's song is fantastic. She's beautiful and has a stunning figure, clad in inventive costumes by Tony Duquette, and she has a very nice alto voice that sells a song beautifully. Between her and Howard, it's easy to forget anyone else is even in the movie!For musical aficionados, you should probably check out Kismet if you haven't already. You'll hear some beautiful singing-not by Vic Damone, though-and watch some incredible dancing by Reiko Sato, Patricia Dunn, and Wonci Lui. Plus, the story is very fast-paced, clever, and entertaining, a feature not always included in a musical comedy. Even without the songs, it would still be an interesting movie.

Apparently some of the disgust a handful of readers have been feeling about this movie is due to the fact that they have the old VHS version. The new DVD version restores the original theatrical ratio, and the result is simply stunning: the movie is much clearer that it was in the full screen form, and restores the more lavish numbers to their full glory - there are more extras in there than anyone who has seen the original VHS version realizes; it's not a very small cast at all! True, the original finale is replaced by Howard Keel's version of "The Sands Of Time," the song that opened and closed the original Broadway musical, but that hardly matters. I have seen scenes from the VHS version on GOOGLE Video, and they are faded and grainy, while the DVD version is bright and colorful - you MUST watch it.

The late, great, conductor Sir Thomas Beecham always demanded of a piece of music that it has melody. This work fully meets that demand in using the enchanting melodies of Alexander Borodin in its songs. This listener was both moved and entertained by them and their memorable lyrics. Examples such as "Baubles, Bangles and Beads" and "Stranger in Paradise" are amongst the songs which have become "classics".Add to this the the visual feast of the wonderful sets and costumes. Colour films of the fifties were just that, colourful! Many think that the colours are "over the top" but this viewer found them enchanting to the eye and sadly missing from some of today's films where they might be appropriate. Actors Howard Keel and Ann Blyth and ever skillful direction by Vincente Minelli make this another MGM Musical success. I recommend this movie without reservation. Enjoy!

KISMET was originally a play by Edward Knobloch written about 1910, and used as a vehicle for many years by the popular Broadway character actor Otis Skinner, playing the role of Hajj, the philosophical thief who saves the Caliph of Baghdad. Skinner even did a silent film version of the play. Two years after his death in 1942 a sound version of the film (in color) was made starring Ronald Colman, Marlene Dietrich, and Edward Arnold. The movie was a success, but nobody realized it would shortly become extremely successful in a new way. A song writing team (Bob Wright and Chet Forrest) constructed a score for KISMET based on the melodies of Alexander Borodin. The score contained such songs that became standards as STRANGER IN PARADISE (from the "Polevetsian Dances" in the opera PRINCE IGOR), BAUBLES, BANGLES, and BEADS, THIS IS MY BELOVED, THIS WAS THE NIGHT OF MY LIFE, and others. Wright and Forrest would do this several times on Broadway (they composed reset themes by Heitor Villa Lobos in another musical, for example) but KISMET was their joint masterpiece. So successful were they at rejuvenating the old Knobloch play, it was eventually revived again in the late 1990s in a new form as TIMBUCTOO (reset from the Califate of Baghdad to the great African trade city).Eventually the musical came to the attention to the Freed unit at MGM, and Vincent Minelli was chosen to direct this 1955 version. The musical expanded on the play a little. Howard Keel (as Hajj - the name was restored to the original one, not Hafiz as Ronald Colman was named in the 1944 version) is involved at the beginning with Jay C. Flippen as a violent bandit leader who is seeking his son, and whom Hajj suggests will be found in Baghdad. We see Flippen from time to time looking for his missing son. In the end he does find the son (who lives up or down to Flippen's own reputation). Keel had the right voice for Hajj, as did Dolores Gray as Lalume, the Vizier's bored wife (Dietrich in the 1944 film). Ann Blyth played Hajj's daughter Marsinah (who falls for the Caliph, Vic Damone). The evil vizier was played by Sebastian Cabot, and his rival government figure Omar (played by Harry Davenport in the 1944 film) is now played by Monty Wooley, in his final major movie part. Actually the musical is livelier than it's critical history suggests. The old creaky play may turn off many critics, but it had some color, and the Borodin-inspired melodies raised it. But like BRIGADOON, Minelli could not shoot the film on location as it would have been incredibly expensive. Possibly the studio sets may have effected how the film was received by the critics. But it is entertaining, and (because of the music) very memorable. If some numbers were cut most of the big numbers were saved. Besides, I'd rather hear Keel sing A FOOL SAT BENEATH AN OLIVE TREE than hear Cabot (a questionable singing talent) try WAS I VIZIR. I don't think Sebastian Cabot even tried to sing once on FAMILY AFFAIR...his was a distinguished speaking voice, not a singing one.