Der rote Falke von Bagdad

I totally disagree with some previous comments. It seems as though everyone wants message films, or biting dialog for a picture to be great. Whatever happened to films being made strictly for entertainment sake. If you are looking for academy award performances forget it, but for a rainy afternoon and you just want some simple escapism then this is just the thing. The interesting thing about the whole movie was how Lucille Ball foiled all of the bigwigs who tried to put the screws to her by offering her this movie to fulfill her contract obligation. they all thought she would turn them down but she fooled them and accepted and as soon as the film wrapped she was gone.

Harry Cohn making use of those sets he constructed for Cornel Wilde and A Thousand And One Nights made this B film The Magic Carpet that starred John Agar, Lucille Ball, and Patricia Medina. It looks like it should have come from Universal which specialized in these Middle Easterns in post World War II America churning them out by the dozen for its young contract stars, Jeff Chandler, Tony Curtis, and Rock Hudson.

But John Agar never attained the stature of these guys and doesn't quite cut it in sword, sandal, and camel. Poor Lucille Ball she was just waiting for I Love Lucy to start and just running out her contract. Lucy especially put all the emoting of George Raft into her role as the usurper princess. Of course her red hair looked as out of place in these films as Maureen O'Hara did.

As this story opens the Caliph of Bagdad is proclaiming his infant son his heir when he's struck down in a palace coup. Before the revolt is finished the Queen is also killed, but not before she dispatches the infant like Moses not in a waterproof basket, but on the family flying carpet, set on autopilot and to the home of William Fawcett a physician who brings up the kid in his profession never revealing to the kid who grows up to be John Agar his true identity. Fawcett even keeps the carpet which proves of immense help.

Patricia Medina who appeared in more than one of these kind of films has the proper spirit playing the girl who Agar really likes. But I sure can't believe she's George Tobias's sister. Raymond Burr who appeared in some great films and some not so great like this one is always good, here as the villainous vizier of the false Caliph who discovers who Agar is and tries to destroy him.

The Magic Carpet is a mediocre sand and scandal story with leads who just can't really summon up any conviction.

Lucille Ball didn't have to do THE MAGIC CARPET and chose to make it just to finish off her contract with Columbia and move onto her planned new TV show, and we all know the result of THAT. Columbia did not believe that Ball would accept the role in this film, but she outfoxed them all and played the villainess in this Arabian Nights-type fun film. I saw it initially when it was first released, and I LOVE LUCY was already a smash hit on the tube. It was the second half of a double bill, and the audience enjoyed every minute. It was an unintentional(??) riot to see Ball so out of the character that we had come to expect already from LUCY. The SRO audience hooted, laughed, giggled, and had a great time. I don't even recall what the main feature was.... But THE MAGIC CARPET is still remembered, and I would love to find a copy.

Considering "The Magic Carpet" is a costume drama starring John Agar, this film isn't nearly as bad as it could have been.

After the Caliph is murdered, his son (baby Agar) is placed on a magic carpet that spirits him away. It lands in an alley, where the baby and carpet are picked up by the guy who played Pete on the TV series "Fury." The grown boy (adult Agar) is now a physician's assistant. He pulls out a tongue depressor and tells one of his patients to open his mouth and say "Ali Baba." (I kid you not.) Meanwhile, the new Caliph, played by Gregory Gaye, aided by Raymond Burr as the Vizier, is taxing the populace to death.

It's time for a hero. Agar becomes (drum roll) the Scarlet Falcon!!

I must admit, Agar looks simply stunning in red. Apparently, he is the only clean-shaven man in the Middle East. He also displays feats of derring-do, with some nifty sword fighting and a few wrestling moves (he takes out a few dudes with a monkey flip and hip toss). Agar may have had a career doing some action flicks, instead of the 1950s-60s sci-fi crap in which he was saddled.

Agar manages to infiltrate the Caliph's lair by curing the old geezer's hiccups. We get a gratuitous shot of Agar in Arabian bathing trunks. Fortunately, the producer (Sam Katzman, who else?) spared us the sight of Burr in similar garb.

George Tobias is on hand for some comic relief. Patricia Medina plays Tobias' sister, and she has eyes for Agar. She also dances for the guys. She's pretty.

Did I mention Lucille Ball is in this? She plays the evil Caliph's sister. She discovers Agar is really the Scarlet Falcon, so it is off to the chopping block for Agar.

Can the Magic Carpet save him? Will Agar take his rightful place on the throne? Will Agar and Medina get to do a little nookie-nookie on the Magic Carpet?

Arabian Nights romps are popular around the house especially during this time of year for their exotic flavor, fantasy elements, action outbursts and general mindlessness. This film is best-known, if at all, for the presence of Lucille Ball; interestingly, she does not play the heroine but rather a sultry semi-villainess (the ambitious sister of the current Caliph, naturally a usurper). Equally predictably, the true heir to the throne (blandly played by John Agar) has survived an attack upon his life as an infant and, unaware of his heritage, has taken to living a life of poverty as a physician. The heroine, then, is a feisty (but who effortlessly works her feminine charms when the need arises) Patricia Medina – a regular in this type of film – who not only gets off with Agar on the wrong foot (by wanting to join the all-male band of rebels he secretly and all-too-suddenly finds himself leading under the guise of "The Scarlet Falcon"!), resents Ball (obviously over her attentions to Agar, eventually in the Caliph's employ when he cures a case of hiccups he had brought about in the first place) but has a brother of her own (Agar's sidekick and the film's obligatory supplier of comedy relief, George Tobias). As for the chief villain, we get no less than Raymond Burr: needless to say, he craves Ball's favors but she only has eyes for the dashing hero. The titular fabric comes in handy many a time during the course of the film, usually to allow Agar to make a nick-of-time escape or to meet up with his rabble and give them the low-down on the Caliph's movements so that they can finally storm the palace, rid the country of a tyrant and put Agar himself in his rightful place. As can be expected, the film is instantly forgettable and hardly great cinema but certainly makes for colorful fare and fun viewing to boot i.e. it provides perfect relaxation after a hard day at work.