La spada di Damasco

Arabian Nights adventures were staples on Italian TV in my childhood; this (acquired fairly recently on DVD as part of Universal's "Rock Hudson: Screen Legend" set) was one of them, though I'd practically forgotten all about it in the interim. Not that it's in any way a memorable entry in the genre, and certainly not original – since this is basically the Excalibur legend transposed to ancient Bagdad – but a pleasant diversion nonetheless.

Having watched two of the star's 'oaters' back-to-back (the other was SEA DEVILS [1953]), I can say that he was rather more at ease as an Englishman than an Arab (though he does well enough by the action required here, involving a handful of swordfights and even a jousting[!] contest – which he loses – for the hand of leading lady Piper Laurie). The latter – petite and vivacious – lends some freshness to the mostly familiar proceedings; a similar outing of hers I'd like to revisit someday is THE PRINCE WHO WAS A THIEF (1951) featuring Tony Curtis, another then-rising Universal star who dabbled in actioners (read: potboilers) of every kind during this period.

Anyway, the rest of the cast here is equally creditable: George Macready as the (typically conniving) Grand Vizier, who's eventually revealed to have also ordered the decimation of neighboring Basra (from where Hudson emanates); Samuel Fuller regular Gene Evans as Macready's incompetent son(!) – the old man wants him to marry princess Laurie in order to secure the throne for themselves, but he actually loves her subordinate; Steven Geray as the merchant who first comes into possession of The Golden Blade, and subsequently steers Hudson into fulfilling its destiny (that is, apart from supplying the film's comedy relief); and Edgar Barrier as the reigning Caliph (I've watched him recently in two other exotic ventures for the same studio, namely ARABIAN NIGHTS [1942] and COBRA WOMAN [1944]).

The climax of this compact swashbuckler – running a mere 80 minutes – incorporates a bit of magic (and campiness) as the blade becomes entrenched in the walls of the palace; consequently, a host of muscle-men, inventors and sorcerers are recruited so as to try and dislodge it…but only the dashing hero is able to, the direct result of which is to have the column in question crumble and bury the two villains underneath it! By the way, director Juran would later helm two other (and far more notable) mythical adventures – THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1958) and JACK THE GIANT KILLER (1962), both of which had the added appeal of stop-motion animated monsters.

Rock Hudson in his pre-Douglas Sirk days (the director who provided him with his best works, along with Frankenheimer's "seconds") and Iin a movie obviously aimed at the children's market .

The screenplay may look like a poor man's "one and thousand nights" leftover ,but the colors are glistening ,Hudson is handsome as Harun, an oriental destitute prince in search of his father's murderer (the whodunnit is predictable and is not pivotal in the plot ); Piper Laurie has plenty of go as a feminist Sheherazade who mingles with the people,dressed up as a commoner or as a young man ("your skin is as smooth as that of a girl", says Harun);he even goes as far as to suggest they pick up girls for dinner!

The ending borrows from king Arthur 's story,complete with sword in the stone,and the old scholar as Merlin. And the tournament looks like those of European Middle-Ages. The baddie uses a watermelon as the world, aping Chaplin in "the dictator ".

But it was pleasant entertaining stuff for the kids of yore ; today's brats might be more demanding ....

A bizarre cross between the Thousand and One Nights and the legend of KIng Arthur and the sword in the stone ,this is routine exotic story,saved by the two leads ,Rock Hudson and Piper Laurie.The latter portrays an outspoken princess who often leaves her palace to see what's going on in the town of Baghdad ,while a vicious VIP is doing very bad things against her noble father .Meanwhile,Hudson is searching the man who killed his also noble father .Both will discover they have things in common.Action-packed movie,nice colors,heroes , villains and a Greek merchant whose shop is full of bargains and of course a golden blade .

This is a tale that comes straight from the "Arabian Nights" compendium. The son "Harum" (Rock Hudson) out to avenge his father murdered at the hands of the evil "Jafar" (George Macready). He must travel to Baghdad where he encounters a feisty young woman "Khairuzan" (Piper Laurie) who is secretly the daughter of the city's caliph - a man also in danger from the menacing ambitions of "Jafar". Luckily, she has a magical golden sword that she gives him to wield. He is invincible! Well he is until someone hits on the idea of swapping his sword for a less effective fake - and soon "Harum" is in a dungeon! Can he escape and save the Caliph and get the girl? Rock Hudson never really cut it for me. Easy enough on the eye, but his characterisations rarely differed from role to role and here he just doesn't really gel with the more charismatic Laurie at all. Plaudits do go to Macready, though - he hams up perfectly as the silken-clad, megalomanic, tyrant. There's plenty of lavish costumes, colour, sword-fighting and at times it's actually quite an entertaining adventure that I did quite enjoy.

When Universal Pictures made those Arabian Nights films with Jon Hall, Sabu, and Maria Montez in the Forties a lot of expensive period sets were built on that lot. The rule is get use of them, so even after Universal became Universal-International in the Fifties with a crop of new leading men like Jeff Chandler, Tony Curtis, and Rock Hudson they still kept cranking out those old tales set in the Caliphate of Old Bagdad.

This film is a reworking of the Christian Sword and the Stone legend into the Arabian Nights. Haroun of Basra played by Rock Hudson comes upon his dying father in an ambushed caravan and he's given a mission to find the murderer who is also trying to stir up trouble between Basra and Bagdad.

While on the mission he comes upon a magic sword in a marketplace and discovers he's invincible with it. He also comes upon the Caliph's daughter the blond Piper Laurie who likes to roam the streets of Bagdad incognito to sample public opinion and get a taste of adventure to the annoyance of her father Edgar Barrier.

But there's treason afoot in the palace with Grand Vizier George MacReady and son Gene Evans who want the throne for themselves. Evans wants to marry for it which bothers his mistress Kathleen Hughes a lot.

During the course of the film the magic sword is stolen from Hudson and later when Evans was trying to use it, he rammed it into the palace wall and no one can get it from the stone foundation. I'll give you one guess who can.

The Golden Blade is the average Universal Arabian Nights epic with a lot of gaudy color cinematography, with a bigger budget you'd think it was a DeMille film. No better or worse than some of what Universal was putting out in those years. I'm sure Piper Laurie felt the same as Maureen O'Hara did in these kind of films, Maureen in her memoirs realized how ridiculous a redhead was in the Middle East.

George Macready was one of the best movie villains ever in just about any kind of genre be it western, noir, sand and sandal, you name it. He does a wonderful job mouthing some lines that were quite frankly ridiculous with earnest conviction.

By the way if you were to make a golden blade it would not be much use to you if it weren't enchanted. As any geologist will tell you, gold is the softest and most malleable of metals, remember in the days of gold coin people would bite into it to see if it was genuine and if the coin had teeth marks, you knew it was good.

The Golden Blade is entertaining enough and not to be taken too seriously.