A Princesa de Damasco

Before Roger Corman there were the B movie departments. At Warner Brothers they had Bryan Foy, at Paramount they had the Dollar Bills and at Columbia, which was a B movie Studio for 90% of their productions anyway, they had Sam Katzman.

This means, for this flick, occasional A movie intellectual support Paul Henreid, looking as depressed as he did in NOW VOYAGER or CASABLANCA, as an action hero, horror lead Lon Chaney Jr. in support for marquee value.... and the rest of the movie, for some reason, strikes me as having been cast out of a Brooklyn burlesque house: girls from the stage, extras from the audience. Director Will Jason came out of short subjects and directs the whole thing with not too serious an air. The set design looks like the designer went into the prop storehouse, had everyone grab everything they could carry and heaped it all together.

The net effect is ridiculous rather than funny, depressing rather than dramatic. Unless you want to see the hordes of the Middle East riding over landscape like American cowboys -- I've no idea who was directing the second unit, but it's clearly cowboys in those pointed helmets, wielding scimitars -- give this one a miss.

1952's "Thief of Damascus" was a Columbia potboiler from producer Sam Katzman, scripted tongue in cheek with quotable lines aplenty. Evil conqueror Khalid (John Sutton) demands the arrest of his best general, Abu Amdar (Paul Henreid), simply for negotiating a treaty of surrender from the Sultan of Damascus, without his consent. With sword fights carefully sped up for the benefit of Henreid's stuntman, we get almost every character associated with the Arabian Nights- Robert Clary as Aladdin (minus lamp), Philip Van Zandt as Ali Baba, Jeff Donnell as the fetching Sheherazade, and Lon Chaney as Sinbad. Add Elena Verdugo as Neela and Helen Gilbert as Princess Zafir, all the girls provide quite a visual treat in color, but in all fairness, Howard Hughes didn't scrimp on the pulchritude when he cast so many beautiful wannabe starlets in his own "Son of Sinbad," casting Vincent Price as Omar Khayyam! (he later confided that it was indeed a very happy set). Speaking of Sinbad, 45 year old Lon Chaney looks both strong and healthy, hugely enjoying his comic sparring with Robert Clary, later on HOGAN'S HEROES, and it's nice to see him again alongside luscious Elena Verdugo, his old co-star from "House of Frankenstein" and "The Frozen Ghost" (her hair almost as long as Patricia Morison's). 'Miss Jeff Donnell,' as she was billed opposite Boris Karloff in her second film, 1942's "The Boogie Man Will Get You," was a longtime mainstay at Columbia, appearing in "The Power of the Whistler," "The Phantom Thief" (Boston Blackie), and "The Unknown" (I LOVE A MYSTERY); still only 29, she's as sexy a Sheherazade as any man could ask for. Too bad Khalid failed to ask.

Round up the usual suspects! This Columbia Film Saturday Matinée "B" Sand and Sandle flick features Sinbad (Lon Chaney Jr.), Aladdin (Robert Clary), and Ali Baba (Phillip Zandt) as a supporting cast to a very miscast Paul Henreid. While the film was for the most part entertaining it lacked the ingredients of some of it's more formidable predecessors that featured the likes of Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Sabu, Jon Hall and various other Saturday Matinée icons of a much forgotten "B" "movies are better than ever past". This film was made after Lon Chaney Jr. grew tired of making "Wolfman" movies and demanded more versatile roles from Universal Studios. Consequently, he was released from his contract and wound up in a lot of these Columbia Technicolor wonders. On a personal basis, I had a lot of difficulty in accepting Paul Henreid as a "swashbuckling or sand and sandals" type of hero. I couldn't help the constant interruption of thinking of him as Victor Laszlo in the film "Casablanca", and the stunt double in the action scenes didn't look a bit like him. Another disrupting thought during the viewing was the fact that I kept thinking that many of the outdoor scenes seemed to be filmed at either the old Iverson Ranch or Corraganville (B Western Film Sets). The film uses all the wonderful gimmicks such as the magic door that opens when you say "Open Sessame!", complete with the 40 thieves and glorious Technicolor that make this film palatable. Give it a look for a pleasant visit to a "once upon a time" at the Saturday Matinée.

634 A. D.:Though General Amdar is able to win the Siege of Damascus for his ruler Khalid, he is made an enemy of the State. Amdar escapes and steals a scimitar made of Damascus steel. He leads an alliance of Sinbad without his ship, Aladdin without his lamp, Sheherazade, and Ali Baba and his 40 thieves to depose Khalid and win the heart of Princess Zafir.

He might not look like Jon Hall, but Paul Henreid is good as the hero, energetically waving off the bad guys with his scimitar and wooing the princess who thinks he's "faking" his clash with the villain of the piece - Khalid. You know the score, it's typical Arabian adventure, and has all the Arabian Nights characters like Sinbad and Aladdin. A bit hokey, fast-paced and action-packed. Enough to keep you watching, especially if you're fan of these kind of films. I particularly liked Jeff Donnell as Sheherazade - loved her quips.

If only for the cave with the sliding door, I remember this mildly entertaining fantasy adventure from my childhood. It all follows the usual path of a hero who falls in love with the princess to the chagrin of his boss who also has designs on her! In this case it's the princess "Zafir" (Helen Gilbert) who is the object of everyone's desir; "Amdar" (Paul Henreid) the man she loves and "Khalid" (John Sutton) the malevolent usurper who would have her father's kingdom and his daughter. Fortunately for them, and us, she has the assistance of the wily "Sheherazade" (Jeff Donnell) and there's the occupier of the magic cave, too. He is, of course, "Ali Baba" (Philip Van Zandt) and he might just be persuaded to help out. Oh, right, and there's also "Sinbad" (Lon Chaney Jr.) just to keep the "Arabian Nights" theme fully exploited throughout. With a public execution looming, it is going to fall to the heroic men to save the sultan and his daughter from the scimitar, but will they manage to overcome the city walls and the overwhelming number of royal guards in time? Nothing remotely original, no, but I did quite enjoy this theatrically delivered costume romp, especially the lively effort from Donnell who clearly thinks she's more than a match for any man (character or actor). There's plenty of action to stop the romance getting too cheesy and though Henreid is as wooden as a cedar tree, his talents mix well with the rest of the mediocrity on offer here to present us with a perfectly watchable adventure film.