Arabian Nights (1942)

hyped garbage

As Good As It Gets

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

With the U.S.A. having just entered WWII, the people were desperately searching for something to take their minds off of the horrors of war. "Arabian Nights" served that purpose. It was successful enough to spawn a number of similar films throughout the 1940s. Most were shot in the spectacular three-strip Technicolor process and had similar plots and casts..Make no mistake about it, "Arabian Nights" is nothing more than a "B" adventure film dressed up in Technicolor with daring heroes, beautiful women and slap stick comedy. The film could have done with out the ridiculous prologue (and epilogue) where a comedic looking sheik or something reads the story to a bunch of giggling members of a harem.The plot is simple. Caliph Haroun-Al Raschid (Jon Hall) has put down a revolt by his brother Kamar (Leif Ericson) and has him being tortured in the public square. Just as he is about to show his brother mercy, the brother's supporters attack and free him. Al-Raschid and his followers flee and he is wounded near a troupe of entertainers. He is found by Ali Ben Ali (Sabu) who protects his true identity. With Al-Raschid believed dead, Kamar assumes the throne.Within the entertainment group is the beautiful dancer Sherazade (Maria Montez) whom Ahmad loves and with whom Al-Raschid also falls in love. Sherazade on the other hand seeks power by becoming the wife of the Caliph. Al-Raschid is forced to conceal his identity until he can overthrow his brother. That's basically it.With Billy Gilbert (Ahmad), Shemp Howard (Sinbad) and John Qualen (Aladdin) around to provide the slapstick type humor, the story becomes a little more than a Three Stooges comedy.The real villain of the piece is Edgar Barrier as Nadan the scheming "trusted" assistant to Kamar. He is ready to double cross anyone to achieve his goal of becoming Caliph himself. Turhan Bey plays a Captain of the guard who is equally treacherous. A thin Thomas Gomez stands out as the evil slave trader Hakim who tries to sell off the lovely Sherazade as a slave.Sabu made a career out of this sort of role as the friend of the hero who manages to slip in and out of trouble in a likable manner. Hall, Montez and Bey would go on to make similar such sand and sandal adventure films in the future.

With mediocre acting, sets that appeared to be made out of cardboard and very corny dialogue, I don't see how anyone could recommend this movie. While the story of 1001 Nights (or otherwise called, Arabian Nights) is usually fascinating, this retelling, or rather gross distortion, is totally unbelievable and sometimes even boring. While some of the characters had the same names as some of those from the book or other movies, their resemblance to anyone in the original story is virtually non-existent. There were a couple plot parallels that helped the story, but even those could not save this movie. It's very had to believe this movie was nominated for several Academy Awards. Save your money and get the book or at least another retelling, called Arabian Nights, with Mili Avital, John Leguizamo and Jason Scott Lee.

This takes place in ancient Arabia. Something about a handsome man (Jon Hall) and his brother both in love with beautiful Scheherazade (Maria Montez). One is rich and powerful and the other one is poor but really loves her. Who will she choose? The plot isn't really important here. This was made to entertain audiences and giving them colorful mindless escapism...and it does that! It's shot in absolutely beautiful Techicolor--every single frame looks gorgeous. The picture never stops moving, there's plenty of action and a loud pounding score driving things along. As for the acting it's not that great. Hall and Montez are incredibly beautiful to look at but neither of them were good actors. Sabu pops up here and there helping things along. He can't act either but he's so full of energy and youth he's hard not to like. But worst of all is Shemp Howard (late one of the Three Stooges!) playing Sinbad!!!! To say he's miscast is an understatement. Still this is colorful and fast-moving--lots of fun! I give it an 8.

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.