Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Mabel Munoz Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

morrison-dylan-fan Since having recently seen Vincent Price's fun Fantasy Adventure flick Bagdad,I've been in the mood of seeing a similar film.Taking a look at a fellow IMDbers posts,I noticed them praise an Adventure Fantasy title starring Phil Silvers,which led to me getting ready to stay up for 1000 and 1 nights.The plot:Running away with Abdullah after his friend has been caught pick pocketing, Aladdin decides to enter a passing litter that Princess Armina is being taken around the city in.After hearing about Armina's mythical beauty for years,Aladdin finds Armina to be more beautiful than he has ever imagined.Ignoring Abdullah advice,Aladdin decides after successfully escaping,that he will visit Armina later that night in her castle.Getting captured, Aladdin and Abdullah are set to be killed,until Armina uses her charismatic skills to steal the jail key and free Aladdin & Abdullah.Hiding in a cave,the pals run into a sorcerer called Kofir,who gets Aladdin and Abdullah to go deep into the cave,in order to retrieve a lamp.Whilst wondering about why Kofi wants an old,rusting lamp,Aladdin rubs the object,which leads to a gene called Babs coming out of the lamp.Being told that every wish of his will be granted,Aladdin sets his sights on meeting Armina once again.View on the film:Whilst his role in the film is surprisingly not that prominent, Phil Silvers gives a wonderful performance as Abdullah,thanks to Silvers pushing the Fantasy elements aside to scatter Screwball Comedy moments across the screen,and also cleverly using Abdullah's pick pocketing skills for some quick-witted slap-stick Comedy set pieces. Supplying the movie with some likable songs, Cornel Wilde gives a very good performance as Aladdin,with Wilde balancing Aladdin's heart on his sleeve smile,with a charismatic swagger over seeing Princess Armina (played by a cute Adele Jergens) once again.Showing the guys that she can't be pushed around,the elegant Evelyn Keyes gives a great performance as Babs the genie,as Keyes rips apart Aladdin's dizzy love with hilariously sharp one-liners.Covering the title in rich silk,director Alfred E. Green and cinematographer Ray Rennahan glide the film along a warm mystical atmosphere,by crossing the traditional Fantasy elements of genies and princesses with a modern Comedy take.Green joyfully takes the title from swooning song homages to the genie in distress outwitting all of the men.For their take on an Arabian Nights tale,the screenplay by Wilfred H. Petitt/Richard English and Jack Henley attempts to cross Screwball Comedy over with Fantasy Adventure.For the magical Screwball Comedy moments the writers keep the film speeding along via clever 4th wall breaking gags that go from a desperation for the gun to be invented,to a proto-"TV" stone,which are all kept rooted by the sweet-natured friendship between Aladdin & Abdullah.Although the writers display a clear amount of energy in the comedic moments,the title is sadly never able to give the Fantasy Adventure sections the same sense of excitement,due to Aladdin & Princess Armina's dry relationship not being allowed to progress into a blossoming fairy tale.

bkoganbing Harry Cohn must have gotten a little jealous at all the money Universal was raking in with those Maria Montez/Jon Hall Arabian Nights films that they were grinding out. Cohn decided Columbia deserved a bit of that market itself.What Cohn was smart in doing was playing this one tongue firmly in cheek for his sand and sandal epic. Cornel Wilde, fresh from his Oscar nominated role as Fredric Chopin at Cohn's studio, cuts a romantic and dashing figure, playing Aladdin of Cathay for laughs in a way that more serious swashbuckling rivals like Tyrone Power and Errol Flynn would never have done. Wilde's in love with the forbidden blonde Arabian princess Adele Jergens, but it is forbidden for him to rise above his station. Cornel's going to need some supernatural help and he finds it in the person of the genie with a lamp, in this case not Barbara Eden, but the one who must have been her inspiration, Evelyn Keyes.Though she's crushing out on Wilde big time, Keyes does help him in his romantic quest and coincidentally works against plot by the dastardly twin brother of the sultan to usurp the throne. That would be Dennis Hoey who is clearly enjoying hamming up, both roles. Phil Silvers is around as well as the jive talking Abdullah who rumor hath it was born some 600 years ahead of his time. Part homage to The Thief of Bagdad and part Road to Morocco as well, A Thousand and One Nights is enjoyable enough because it doesn't take itself too seriously even as satire.But what about hard working Evelyn, what's her reward. Think The Palm Beach Story and remember she does have a magic lamp.

Neil Doyle Escapist fare was always welcome during the troubled '40s-era, especially just after World War II when movie fans were clamoring for entertainment to take their minds off their woes. So Columbia jumped onto the bandwagon with a fluffy Arabian Nights sort of adventure starring their hot new box-office star, CORNEL WILDE as Aladdin in A THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS, teaming him with up and coming EVELYN KEYES and wise-cracking PHIL SILVERS for comedy relief.And with eye-popping Technicolor added to the mix, it's a pleasure to report that it succeeds as escapist fare on its own terms--with Silvers largely stealing the show with his array of anachronistic gags that help whenever the action gets dull.But that's not too often. CORNEL WILDE was an ideal choice to play the adventure hero Columbia assigned him to after his success as the pallid Chopin in A SONG TO REMEMBER. He's at home among the plush fairy-tale settings and shares some charming on screen chemistry with co-star EVELYN KEYES, but only has one chance (at the finale) to indulge in a swashbuckling duel with Hoey. Wilde turned down a chance for the Olympic championships in dueling to start his film career instead.DENNIS HOEY plays the Sultan and his villainous twin brother with energetic relish. Wilde's romantic interest is ADELE JERGENS as the Sultan's beauteous daughter. The story, of course, is a tongue-in-cheek variation on Aladdin's use of the magic lamp with the help of Genie (Keyes) instead of the genie we all saw in THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD (Rex Ingram), who makes an appearance in the film as a token gesture.It's all complete nonsense, with typical humor from Silvers ("I wish I had a gun. What am I sayin'? Guns haven't even been invented yet!"). He's turned into a crooning Sinatra after Genie Keyes decides to do him a final favor with a rub of the lamp. She gets her wish too--a clone of Cornel Wilde so that she doesn't end up alone.Pure escapist fun, totally unsophisticated and clearly aimed at a youthful audience of the '40s crowd. Whether you like it or not, depends on your sense of humor and nostalgia for this sort of thing.

vandino1 Columbia Pictures may not have had the stars to populate this film like MGM or Warners would have, but they knew how to have some fun with what they had. Sure, it's splashed with expensive Technicolor and has lots of costumes and effects (the effects winning an Academy Award for Lawrence W. Butler), but its feeble cast features Evelyn Keyes, Cornel Wilde and Phil Silvers. Not exactly box-office, although Wilde was one of the hot new stars of 1945. But it's Keyes and Silvers who make this film enjoyable, even if their lack of star value keeps this film from being noticed today.It's the umpteenth variation of the 'Aladdin and the Lamp' story, but this one is hoked up with plenty of anachronisms, chiefly in the form of Phil Silvers who plays Aladdin's thief buddy as an All-American wiseguy complete with the latest 40's slang and a pair of modern eyeglasses. And when Aladdin gets hold of the famous lamp (after a scene wherein he and Silvers dodge a giant played by Rex Ingram, who virtually reprises his character from 1940's 'Thief of Baghdad') out pops the genie played by Evelyn Keyes. And she's a sassy sprite who likes to be called "Babs." Since she's invisible to all but the owner of the lamp, she gets to mess around with others and sling wisecracks and warnings at Aladdin, to his discomfort. Sandwiched between Silvers and Keyes, poor Wilde is nothing more than a handsome grinning prop. At least his fencing skills come into play in a climactic duel.The story includes the requisite villain, in this case played by Dennis Hoey (most famous as Inspector Lestrade in the Sherlock Homes series) in a duel role as a Sultan and his scheming twin-brother Prince. Adele Jergens plays the Sultan's daughter who naturally falls for Aladdin because he's so gorgeous and sings love songs to her (Wilde's singing voice dubbed). Jergens is not very interesting (looking like a pale imitation of Virginia Mayo) and to be honest, in my estimation, is strangely overshadowed by the striking looks of her chief maid played by Dusty Anderson. Neither of them became movie stars, but Anderson's looks and voice are so much more impressive than Jergens that it distracts from Wilde's pursuit of the Princess. In my view, why take a chance on being executed for trying to possess a moderately pretty Princess when the maid is a knockout, and likable too? (One small note: Shelley Winters plays a fellow handmaiden in this film, but good luck finding her. I think I spotted her in the back row of a group of maidens in a scene near the end of the film).Interesting line: Phil Silvers looks into a sorcerer's crystal ball and sees himself robbing someone. He quips to Wilde re: the Sorceror: "This guy has run into television and don't know it." Since no pretense is made that this is anything other than a silly romp, Silvers gets to gag it up with plenty of other current references, including the absurd ending wherein he croons a Sinatra tune ("All or Nothing at All" and using the actual Sinatra recording) to handmaidens in bobbysoxer footwear. Needless to say, this a fun movie, easy to like.