Too much of everything

How sad is this?

Excellent adaptation.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Credit has to go to the makers of this movie to step away from tradition and not make this retelling of the classic Aladdin story not totally serious, years before the Disney animated movie decided to more or less do the same. The tongue in cheek attitude does achieve some good results, the biggest and best being the casting of Phil Silvers as Aladdin's sidekick. He's a lot of fun, acting pretty goofy in most of his screen time. In fact, I kind of wished that Silvers had played the lead role rather than Cornel Wilde. I'm not saying that Wilde was a bad actor - he did show his talents in other movies - but in this particular adventure, he's made to come across as a kind of bland and generic Arabian Knights kind of hero. There's not much memorable about his character. Another problem with the movie is that there is not much in the way of action or special effects, something you've probably come to expect from movies of this kind. I'll admit the movie is never boring, it looks colorful and expensive, and with the humor the movie does manage to be kind of fun. But at the same time, you'll see hints of a movie whose full potential was not quite realized.

Bespectacled comedian Phil Silvers and flirtatious genie Evelyn Keyes steal the show in the Alfred E. Green romantic, tongue-in-cheek,Arabian fantasy "A Thousand and One Nights," a gorgeous Technicolored Columbia Pictures release that teems with anachronisms galore. Basically, the Phil Silvers character wears the right clothes but his dialogue bristles with 1940s slang, such as the use of the word groovy. Green, who helmed "The Green Goddess" as well as the Barbara Stanwyck classic "Baby Face," keeps the action breezing along and the atmosphere light-hearted. The leading man, Aladdin of Cathay (youthful, Hungarian-born Cornel Wilde of "High Sierra"), spots a caravan entering the city with an elegant litter and steals within the contraption to feast his eyes upon the lovely daughter of the Kamar Al-Kir, Princess Armina (Adele Jergens of "Armored Car Robbery"), and he falls in love with her. Not surprisingly, she shares his affections. Later, Aladdin and his wise-cracking, pick-pocket thief sidekick, Abdullah (Phil Silvers of "All Through the Night"), are dispatched to find a lantern in a cave by a sorcerer who tries to cheat them out of it. Aladdin discovers that when he rubs the lantern, a genie named Babs (Evelyn Keyes of GONE WITH THE WIND) appears to grant him a wish. The circumstances under which Aladdin makes this discovery is when he refuses to give the sorcerer the lantern after he has trapped them in a cave. Early, our heroes had to elude Meanwhile, the villainous twin brother of the Sultan, Prince Hadji (Denis Hoey of "Uncertain Glory"), persuades the Grand Wazir AbuHassan (Philip Van Zandt of "House of Frankenstein") to join him and remain mum about his masquerade. They imprison the real Sultan in another of his palaces far away.but the evil twin brother overlooks a wound that brother acquired later that he did not know about. When they catch Aladdin flirting with Princess Armina, they imprison him, but Abdullah and he manage to escape through the intervention of the hand-maiden of the princess who slips them the keys to their cell while the guards are playing gin rummy. Aladdin persuades Babs to transform him into a noble man because Arminia is not allowed to marry below her station in life. Mind you, all this time Babs has a terrific crush on Aladdin and does everything that she can to dissuade him from marrying the princess. Eventually, Babs pulls a prank that robs Aladdin of her and he loses everything and is exposed. The fake Sultan orders both of them hanged, but Arminia promises to marry the Grand Wizir in exchange for him turning them loose. This prompts Aladdin to warble a misogynist song in the equivalent of an Arabian saloon while Abdullah contrives his own song where he describes all the women that he loves, including gay women. Clearly, gay in this instance did not refer to lesbians or the repressive Production Code Adminstration would have forced Columbia to remove it from the screenplay. Aladdin gets to swash and buckle in the last half-hour with the fake Sultan as they have a sword fight. For the record, Wilde was a member of the 1936 U.S. Olympic fencing team so he knew how to handle foils. The ending is a slick trick and the writing is above-average, except in one instance where are hero is sent on a wild goose chase to get the lantern after it is thrown out the window.Scenarists Richard English, Jack Henley and Wilfred H. Petitt penned the lively screenplay that stipulates that anybody who uses the genie must retain the lantern if they want to maintain the changes in their respective lifestyle. If you lose the lantern, you loose everything that you received from the genie. Further, only the individual who rubs the lamp can see the genie. The genie, who likes to be called Babs, not only creates an army for the impostor but also makes him a man high enough in status so that he is allowed to see her. Lots of fun, especially Rex Ingram as a giant who menaces the heroes during their initial search for the lantern.

Although the Arabian Nights Technicolor fantasies of the 1940s and 1950s were mainly the domain of Universal Studios, the other Hollywood majors understandably jumped on the Oriental band wagon while it was big box-office, and this endearingly modernistic revamp of the mythical tale of Aladdin was Columbia's contribution to that WWII craze. Having first (and only) read about this one on Leonard Maltin's Film Guide and never encountering it on Italian TV in my childhood, I leapt at the chance of acquiring it on DivX but, as is becoming increasingly (and frustratingly) regular with this format, there were lip-synch problems which, thankfully, were corrected via conversion to DVD. But, enough of this techno-babble… Aladdin is played by Columbia's star Cornel Wilde – he had just been Oscar-nominated for A SONG TO REMEMBER (1945) – who is curiously fourth-billed here; he even gets to sing several times (a talent of his that I had previously been unaware of…if that was indeed his voice on the soundtrack); incidentally, I should be acquiring another somewhat obscure Wilde costumer very soon called STAR OF India (1954) which I intend to watch over the Christmas week. As I said in my introduction (and perhaps to differentiate itself from the rival Universal product), the film-makers also engaged the services of another currently hot commodity in bespectacled comedian Phil Silvers as Aladdin's pickpocketing sidekick. At first, I balked at his modern-day savvy personality (with in-jokes towards The Lone Ranger, liberal use of hip words like "groovy", etc.) but was eventually won over by his gauche schtick culminating in his hilarious Frank Sinatra transformation at the film's very end. Another asset to the film is the delightful (if belated) presence – as a mischievous female genie of the proverbial lamp – of the late (she died earlier this year aged 91!) Evelyn Keyes; naturally, she falls in love with her master Aladdin but, losing him to Princess Adele Jergens, she creates her own clone!Speaking of the Universal rivalry, I was surprised to see Dennis Hoey (best-known as the bumbling Inspector Lestrade of Universal's ongoing Sherlock Holmes series with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce) in a dual rule as the villain, not to mention Rex Ingram reprising (albeit too briefly) his celebrated giant characterization from THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (1940)! Like its prototype ARABIAN NIGHTS (1942), this film was also looked on favorably by Academy Award voters in the technical categories: art direction-set decoration and special effects (mostly having to do with Silvers being unable to see Keyes and Wilde's transformation into a dog – another nod, I suppose, to that afore-mentioned Alexander Korda production).

I love old color movies from the forties,especially Arabian tales and adventure movies.Maria Montez comes to mind also.The genie was wonderfully cast in this movie.Evelyn Keyes plays a hip genie who dresses even sharper.Adele Jergens was miscast as the princess and should of been replaced by her handmaiden dusty anderson,a promising actress who was reduced to mostly uncredited roles.The costumes are spectacular in the film,and the sets are also dazzling.Charming and rather humble by todays mega-standards, I enjoy these movies more because of their charm.The array of colors in this movie is dazzling,especially the clothes.Andy dick could of played aladdin's sidekick and lindsay lohan the genie if this movie was to ever be remade.