El canto de Sherezada

I was an Australian Israeli doing 31 days reserve army duty in the Israel Defence Forces during the 1968-69 War of Attrition along the Suez Canal. My duty at this time was driving a Dodge truck with a young army movie projectionist, a movie projector and a portable screen. We were given just the one movie, 'Song of Scherezade' with Yvonne De Carlo, and we were ordered to show this film as entertainment - even though sometimes we were under fire from the enemy - to the guys in all our heavy gun positions along the Canal. I had no choice but to sit in the sand and watch this movie 31 times, and I ended up knowing the dialogue off pat. It was a funny experience, but it also got a bit hairy at times, and to top it off, I was wounded on the 31st day which was my last day of service. I have nearly finished writing a story about this crazy experience, but it all happened 37 years ago and, being 74 years old now, unfortunately, there's no way can I remember any of the dialogue. I desperately need to get hold of a video or DVD to help me out with this problem. So far I haven't had any luck and this is why I am sending this email to you. It would be great if maybe you could tell me where I could pick up a copy of the movie.

This is great fun - Hollywood history at its tongue-in-cheek best, with Jean-Pierre Aumont's Rimsky-Korsakov writing Scheherazade for Yvonne deCarlo's dancer. Added attractions include the wonderful Eve Arden and Brian Donlevy.

Biography films are an odd genre; composer films are in a class by themselves. Facts are brushed aside blithely in this film. Korsakov was in the navy and wrote some music while aboard ship. That is the total agreement with history of this film. Add to this the vision of poor Yvonne De Carlo's out-takes of nearly falling over while dancing and you have one of the lamest composer movies ever. So why is this movie so much fun? I think it's the Viennese operetta feel of the piece: logic should never intrude on fun. And Eve Arden's dry delivery doesn't hurt either.

They don't make films like this any more, they really don't. A Russian training-ship wafts round the Mediterranean under the command of cigarette-swallowing martinet-with-a-heart-of-gold Vladimir Gregorovitch, who stalks the deck in bare chest and tight trousers closely inspecting his motley crew of sea cadets, among them wicked whip-wielding aristo Prince Mischetsky and opera hopeful Nikolas 'Nicky' Rimsky-Korsakov. Nicky and shipmate Klin the Singing Doctor rush ashore at every port in search of a piano. But in the Moroccan villa of the impoverished de Talaveras they get more than a heat-warped keyboard: they get a resourceful scheming mother and café-dancer-in-disguise daughter. The stage is set for a hugely enjoyable extravaganza of romantic melodrama, costumes as camp as they come, luscious set design, overripe orchestrations and homo-erotic undercurrents strong enough to sweep an aircraft-carrier on to the rocks (how did it all get past the censors!). Brian Donlevy (the captain) and Eve Arden (the mother) are incomparably wonderful; Jean-Pierre Aumont makes Nicky an engaging hero, and Yvonne De Carlo (daughter) earns the film its full 10 points by gamely battling through some of the worst choreography and hilariously bad makeup ever put on screen. It takes a real trouper to triumph as a convincing love-interest after having to make her first appearance looking and dancing like a duck in boot-polish (Hollywood's idea of a gypsy femme fatale...)

This is a surprisingly unknown treasure from classic cinema, containing a soundtrack entirely comprised of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's stunning music. Obviously the storyline is a highly dramatized version of Rimsky-Korsakov for entertainment purposes, but the film is still enchanting for what it is. A must-watch for lovers of golden age Hollywood!