Siren of Bagdad

"I realise they have't been invented yet, but do you have a match?". Ha! The spirit of Phil Silvers and Bob Hope are alive and well in this surprisingly decent little Arabian adventure. No, it's not especially original but it's tongue is firmly in it's cheek, the production is really quite decent and there are plenty of adventurous antics to pass an hour and a half easily. Things all kick off when travelling magician "Kazah" (Paul Henreid) is violently relieved of his dancing girls and so has to travel to Bagdad with his factotum "Ben Ali" (Hans Conreid) to fetch them back from the clutches of the grand vizier "Soradin" (George Keymas) who successfully pulls the chains of the Sultan and rules with a rod of iron. It isn't long before our reluctant hero discovers that that the real sultan was deposed and lives in the cellars of the city with his feisty daughter "Zendi" (Patricia Medina) so they have to gang up on the malevolent usurper and it will hopefully all end happily ever after. Add to the mix some rabbits from hats; a very deep-voiced belly dancer and you might even get your name up in candles! This is quite an entertaining feature that I did enjoy.

Siren Of Bagdad is a rather broad satire from Columbia of all those Arabian Knights Maria Montez films from Universal. Even after Maria died young those sets got a good dozen years use over at Universal International for such people as Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis, and Jeff Chandler.

Playing the title role is Patricia Medina the beautiful daughter of the deposed sultan. Against her charms the witty and sophisticated Paul Henreid, magician and head of a traveling entertainment troupe doesn't have a chance. His troupe of dancing girls plus his assistant Hans Conreid get involved in the politics of Bagdad as they help Medina kick out the usurper. That magician's magic box meant to entertain never saw quite the service it saw in this film. Came in quite handy.

Also coming in handy are those dancing girls. As usurper Charles Lang is seeking to replenish his harem the girls provide a wonderful entrée into intrigue.

This is a decent enough satire, don't try to take it seriously, just relax and enjoy.

I stumbled across this movie on TMC by accident, and I'm glad I did. Filmed in a time when movies steered towards the dramatic, seeing Paul Henreid in this role was refreshing, and probably something he wanted to do to spice up his versatility as an actor. As soon as I saw Hans Conreid as his sidekick Ben Ali I knew this movie would be great fun, and I stayed for the duration. Very campy but this is the kind of movie to enjoy and not take seriously (despite my jealousy over those beautiful dancing girls). Of all the sand and sandal movies I have seen, this one is definitely my favorite. I highly recommend it to all, but right now I have to catch my crosstown camel!

Kazah the Great (Paul Henreid), a magician heads a troupe of girls and acrobats traveling in Arabia. The girls are stolen by Sultan El Malid Charles Lung), and Kazak joins forces with Zendi (Patricia Medina), the daughter of the rightful sultan that was deposed by Malid to get the girls back and rid Bagdad of the evil Soradin and Malid

Paul Henreid plays a magician who loses his dancing girls and he's quite breezier than usual which matches the strong tongue-in-cheek-cheek tone prelavent. It's a comedy adventure with some funny lines, lots of beautiful girls, the most idiotic sultan and a pantomime villain played by George Keymas. Patricia Medina adds some extra beauty as the former sultan's daughter. It's silly, has self aware campy humour, the plot is thin, but it's quite amusing.

While many have panned this film, the dancing and theatrics were excellent entertainment.

Costuming and sets were well done and while the plot lacked a lot of depth, the mirth and special effects were interesting and ahead of other offerings from the mid 1950's.

Casting was done with relative unknowns that worked diligently at coming across as middle eastern while obviously actually being from Mexico or South America...(distinct Spanish dialect in the accents).

Dancing and magic was fun and believable. Sit back and enjoy, but don't expect any surprises...