As Mil e uma Noites

...with an unpretentious appeal to the child in many of us. In ancient times, the caliph of Baghdad, Haroun-Al-Raschid (Jon Hall), has his throne taken from him by his treacherous brother Kamar (Leif Erickson). The caliph is a fugitive marked for death, but he's rescued by acrobatic performer Ali Ben Ali (Sabu) who introduces the former leader to beautiful dancing girl Sherazade (Maria Montez). All three team up to win back the caliph's throne.

This goofy distraction was a big hit with wartime audiences looking to escape the horrors and worries of the time. And this is certainly "leave your brain at the door" entertainment, has little in common with the source stories, and is targeted at the least discerning of viewers. It fails to live up to the overheated camp heights of the noted Montez-Hall team-up Cobra Woman, though, and that lack of kitsch makes this a more tedious slog. Maria Montez may have been, to put it kindly, limited as an actress. But she had an exotic appeal that made her perfect for these kinds of cheesy sand-and-sex costume adventures churned out by Universal during the war.

Billy Gilbert's performance, in which he seems to scream most of his dialogue, also becomes nails-on-a-chalkboard irritating. As ridiculous as the movie is, it earned 4 Oscar nominations, for Best Score, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, and Best Art Direction.

I had long wanted to revisit this one since my one and only viewing of it had occurred long ago (back in the mid-1980s) and given that I am partial to Arabian Nights extravaganzas. Frankly, I was very disappointed that Universal decided to issue this one on DVD by itself a couple of years ago instead of releasing a Franchise Collection comprising several of its equally colorful follow-ups from the same studio; in the end, I didn't pick the disc up but, in view of the problematic copy I eventually ended up with, it would perhaps had been wiser if I did! In fact, when I first acquired it on DivX, there were severe lip-synch problems; this was remedied when I eventually converted it onto DVD-R but then there was intermittent jerkiness to the picture. Furthermore, when I played it on my Pioneer model, the picture froze with a loud buzz…thankfully, this was not repeated when I placed it into my cheaper DVD player and even the jitters were less conspicuous!

Anyway, this movie has a lot to answer for: it was the ideal form of cinematic escapism for WWII picturegoers and reaped big box office returns for Universal which ensured that they went back to the desert of Arabia for many more times thereafter in the next decade or so. Despite the generic title, the film isn't actually a filmic depiction of one of the classic stories but rather Universal's own concoction with every known ingredient thrown into the mix for added value: so it is that historical figures (Haroun-Al-Raschid) rub shoulders with mythical ones (Sinbad, Aladdin, Scheherazade) and are subverted or sanitized into the process. Dashing hero Jon Hall plays Haroun-Al-Raschid as a deposed Caliph seeking to regain his throne usurped by his villainous and seemingly love-crazed brother (Leif Ericson); the object of his unrequited affections is Scheherazade – which is actually misspelled in the credits! – played by the iconic "Queen of Technicolor" Maria Montez. Sinbad and Aladdin, then, are incongruously but humorously portrayed as amiable buffoons by familiar character actors John Qualen and Shemp Howard respectively; the latter is always on the point of spinning one of his seafaring yarns yet again before being shut up by his ill-tempered circus employer Billy Gilbert! The third lead role is taken by exotic Indian star Sabu who had already visited this territory in the quintessential Arabian Nights tale (and definitive film), the magnificent Alexander Korda production of THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (1940); what the film under review lacks in comparison to the latter is the omission of wizardry and special effects.

As I said, this formula proved so successful that Universal reunited variations of the star combo several times afterwards – WHITE SAVAGE (1943), ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES (1944), COBRA WOMAN (1944; see above), GYPSY WILDCAT (1944), SUDAN (1945; also helmed by Rawlins) and TANGIER (1946). Another measure of its being welcome at the time of release is the fact that ARABIAN NIGHTS was nominated for 4 Academy Awards in these categories: art direction-set decoration, cinematography (this was Universal's first three-strip Technicolor production and, over 60 years later, the colors still leap off the screen), music (Frank Skinner's score is appropriately rousing) and sound recording. In this context, the choice of John Rawlins as director – best known for the rather weak SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE VOICE OF TERROR (1942) – was a curious one but, in hindsight, he conducted the proceedings very capably.

Provided you really don't know or want to know the real tale of Scheherazade, then you'll no doubt enjoy this film. The actual book, "The Arabian Nights" (also known as "The Book of One Thousand and One Nights"), was supposedly written by Princess Scheherazade and consists of many short stories she supposedly invented each night in order to save her life from her crazy husband. In this movie there is no reference to this and apart from some of the names of characters from the book (such as Sinbad and Ali Baba), there isn't much similarity between them. Additionally, if you think too much and question the silliness of it all, you'll probably hate the film since it is purely an escapist style film--not too much unlike a movie serial condensed into 90 minutes. As for me, I enjoyed the silly escapism and learned to ignore all the mistakes in the film and the rather limp love affair between Maria Montez and Jon Hall . It was nearly non-stop action and fun--complete with perhaps a bit too much slapstick provided by the very large stomach of Billy Gilbert. However, I did enjoy the references to Sinbad and Ali Baba--especially because over and over, Ali (John Qualen) would grab every lamp he found and rubbed it furiously hoping for a genie. Also, it was nice to see Shemp Howard in one of his many appearances before going on to replace his brother, Curley, as a Stooge.

If you liked this silly adventure film, try watching Hall and Montez in COBRA WOMAN or Sabu in THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD--both of which are better than ARABIAN NIGHTS.

Since I've recently written an article on MARIA MONTEZ, let me quote directly from it to describe this Maria Montez/Jon Hall/Sabu outing:

"The fact that she couldn't sing or dance seemed to be no obstacle to Maria since she was brimming with confidence--although aside from voice dubbing, it was later revealed that a dance double was used to perform parts of her routine.

With Walter Wanger in charge of its lavish production, she was given "Arabian Nights" ('42), a classic fantasy tale that--fortunately--no one was expected to take seriously. As if to make sure of that, the trio of stars were supported by one of The Three Stooges (Shemp Howard) as Sinbad. Another supporting player in the cast was Turhan Bey who would eventually be promoted to co-starring roles with Montez. The boyish Sabu, no longer under contract to Alexander Korda, proved to be one of the most charming ingredients of the film and played a huge role in the story which had Montez captured by an evil caliph and rescued by Sabu who rides through the desert sands to rescue her.

With Montez in filmy silks, gaudy baubles and turbaned headdress looking like a fairy-tale princess and muscular Jon Hall sharing the romantic interludes, audience response was enthusiastic. The lavish production values, exotic settings and personable trio made the tale satisfying for patrons seeking easy-on-the-eye entertainment. Lee Mortimer of the N.Y. Daily Mirror noted: 'After her performance in this opus, Maria Montez climbs several steps in everybody's estimation.'

And apparently, the public agreed because it was a huge hit."

For pure escapism, you couldn't beat these Maria Montez-Jon Hall films with the accent on adventure and romance in exotic settings and all designed to showcase her Latin beauty. More discriminating viewers noted that the acting was on a grade school level despite the big budget of most of the technicolor films she appeared in.

By the way, the article will appear in an upcoming issue of CLASSIC IMAGES.

Arabian Nights is one of the best early Technicolor efforts out of Hollywood and it really shows. It is great fun with a little something for everyone. The DVD is an excellent transfer and the color is beautiful on my new plasma HD TV. For the kids, its a simple action film with good good caliphs and bad caliphs. For the men, there's the gorgeous Maria Montez (OK, so the boys will enjoy her too.) For the ladies, the costuming will simply amaze you. This film can be watched by everyone except small children (a couple of killings - non graphic and 1 torture scene - also non graphic). Highly recommend for families with children 8 and over yrs old. Us older folks will enjoy it too. You can watch this many times. It won't get old.