El Hijo de Alí Babá

Ali Baba films in its day were always enjoyable, with a good adventure built in. The son of Ali Baba is not in the same mould, even with the lead played by Tony Curtis. Nevertheless it's still a sword buckling event and nice to view in 2020, thinking of Those were the Days . . .

Tony Curtis was still on the rising way to the top during this early fifties period, under contract at Universal Studios for any kind of lead roles: westerns, adventure, crime thrillers, medieval, all kinds. He was full of charm of course but his real talent was not shown yet. It was too soon. And Universal studios was a great provider of such good quality films, above the Columbia Pictures Sam Katzman's productions. This naive and predictable tale won't bring nothing new but only an agreeable pleasure for the old timers seeking nostalgia of their childhood, no matter the true facts, authentic details related to the production design or the historical facts. Universal also gave us George Sherman's VEILS OF BAGDAD and Nathan Juran's THE GOLDEN BLADE, speaking more or less the same kind of stories, One Thousand Nights like tales.

Yet another colorful Arabian Nights romp, a follow-up to the same studio (Universal) and stars' (Tony Curtis, Piper Laurie) THE PRINCE WHO WAS A THIEF (1951); though I also own the latter, I decided to check this one out on the strength of Columbia's Cornel Wilde vehicle THE BANDIT OF SHERWOOD FOREST (1946) which dealt with the offspring of another legendary figure, Robin Hood. Anyway, the film turned out to be nowhere near as good as the latter (not that I expected it to be: read my comments about that one elsewhere) and, from what I can recollect of THIEF, the earlier title – or, for that matter, the similar Universal/Laurie effort with Rock Hudson i.e. THE GOLDEN BLADE (1953) which I watched around this same time last year – was more readily enjoyable. Incidentally, Curtis' famous mispronounced line "Yonda lies the castle of my fodda" (Bronx accent intact) – attributed to THE BLACK SHIELD OF FALWORTH (1954), perhaps his best outing in this juvenile vein – actually derives from the film under review! The result is too often silly (with Laurie a royal disguised as a waif, while Curtis has every female pining for him) and rather tedious for this type of undemanding fare. The supporting cast, at least, is decent: Victor Jory as the evil Caliph, Hugh O'Brian as his equally despicable son, Morris Ankrum as the now elderly Ali Baba and Gerald Mohr as an official of Bagdad's military academy (in which Curtis and O'Brian are rival cadets!) and even a youthful Harry Guardino as a fellow trainee. Likewise, the elaborate sets, costumes and occasional action bout do a lot in belying the minuscule budget probably afforded this strictly assembly-line product (which runs a mere 72 minutes).

In medieval Persia, Kashma Baba is a military cadet by day and a roisterer by night. The morning after a rowdy banquet, Kiki, an escaped slave, takes shelter under Kashma's roof. Word comes that the wicked Caliph is looking for her; but Kashma, by this time in love, flees with her to his father's palace. Alas, there's more to Kiki than meets the eye. Will the evil schemers succeed? The sons of the Forty Thieves to the rescue! ..

Tony Curtis stars as Kashma Baba, the son of Ali Baba, and he's quite good in his role. His Bostonian accent isn't as strong - probably made an effort to reduce it when he sprouts the usual Orientalist version of Arabic English - and he wields a fare sword in some nifty action scenes. The plot is fast moving, unravels the story like a turban's thread, and has some good villainy in Victor Jory and Hugh O Brian. There's excellent photography, set-designs, costumes. Piper Laurie is beautiful as the love interest, but it's Susan Cabot who really steals the scene as an archer and friend of Kashma. It's a fun film.

Looking back on his career Tony Curtis in his memoirs ruefully acknowledged the ribbing he took for that never to be forgotten line from his Arabian epic, "Yonda lies da castle of my fadduh" who by the title we know is Ali Baba leader of that gang of outlaws, the Jesse James of his day. Apparently this early in his career the speech coachs hadn't got the Bronx out of his speech pattern.

Ali Baba is played by Morris Ankrum who for services rendered to the shah of Persia kept all his ill gained loot and has himself a nice palace and his gang made out good with plots of land. The envious Caliph of Bagdad Victor Jory and his son Hugh O'Brian wants that wealth and will stop at nothing to get it.

As for Tony Curtis, dad's sent him to the Bagdad equivalent of West Point, but Tony's learning to carouse as well as fight. But those skills are needed both to win the hand of the fair blond Arab princess Piper Laurie looking as ridiculous as redheaded Maureen O'Hara did in these kinds of films. Why he was so hung up on the blond is beyond me since there was also Susan Cabot whose skill with weapons matches any of the men and she's crushing out on the Bronx Arab big time.

In his memoirs Curtis got defensive about the ribbing he took for this film and similar early work. He asked why the public accepts British actors saying all kinds of dialog as all kinds of nationalities while they jump on him for the speech patterns he grew up with.

Fortunately Tony Curtis was destined for better parts and better films. Still Son Of Ali Baba is amusing in a camp sort of way.