The Wonders of Aladdin (1961)

‘That nice, naked, half-tortured girl I had hanging right here, what happened to her?’

Intrigues at court threaten the life of the Prince of Baghdad while streetwise scoundrel Aladdin has troubles of his own. Attempting to return a cheap lamp that his mother has bought him at the local market, he is chased by a mob of cutthroats. Luckily, he rubs the lamp by mistake and releases the genie trapped inside…

Lightweight ‘Arabian Nights’ fluff that aims for a charm offensive but lacks the necessary quality to be anything but a forgettable star vehicle for American actor Donald O’Connor. The subject seems old hat too; cinema’s golden age of genies and flying carpets already having breathed its last by the mid-1950s; by which time it had been mostly relegated to cheap b-pictures anyway.

O’Connor is Aladdin, the typical sassy, daydreaming layabout who prowls the streets of Baghdad by night looking for easy money. His long-suffering mother buys him a lamp at the bazaar and, by accident, he finds out about the genie (Vittorio De Sica) inside. Travelling to Basora to witness the Prince’s upcoming nuptials, he becomes entangled in the schemes of the Grand Vizier (Fausto Tozzi) who has his eyes on the throne. Can O’Connor rescue his beautiful girlfriend Djalma (Noëlle Adam) and foil the villain’s evil schemes?

‘Oi, Buster! Don’t you know, this is supposed to be a kids movie?’

This fantasy adventure aimed at children retains some mildly entertaining aspects for a modern, older audience. Unfortunately, a lot of its appeal is diluted by Luther Davis’ highly predictable script, which recycles many of the familiar tropes of the genre and comes up with nothing creative or new. Although seven(!) other writers are credited with contributing to the original story, it’s just a trip through the usual string of clichés that ‘The Thief of Baghdad’ (1939), and others, did a hundred times better. Often it seems like the filmmakers are just flogging a dead camel. I mean, why does every single cinematic Sultan have to employ a Grand Vizier? They always turn out to be the bad guy.

It’s also fair to say that time has not been kind to this film in many ways. There’s a jaw-dropping moment early on when O’Connor smiles at a group of women passing him on the street. One of the girls looks back at him very invitingly. And that’s odd when you consider that the girls are all chained together and being sold into slavery. Human trafficking has never been so amusing. O’Connor also acquires his own personal slave, Omar (Milton Reid), whose entire function is to make O’Connor’s character look smart and funny. What’s worse is that the ponderous tones of the musical score have to underline everything that appears on the screen, just in case we weren’t sure what was happening.

‘Has the costume budget run out already?’

On the bright side, O’Connor does bring his usual cheeky charm and natural athleticism to the party, but he was 35 at the time of filming and far too old for the role. The rest of the cast ticks all the usual boxes: gorgeous brunette Adam is sassy and fun as O’Connor’s love interest, and Tozzi has all the best lines as the villain. It’s also good to see legendary Italian comic actor Terence Hill (born Mario Girotti) in an early role. What’s not so great is the procession of identikit girls from Central Casting who fill most of the minor female parts. Some of them provide what must be the most unconvincing tribe of Amazons you could probably imagine.

What is probably most surprising here is that this was an MGM release, filmed in both Cinemascope and Technicolor and directed by Henry Levin, only a year after he did duty on big hit ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’ (1959). All that would seem to suggest a significant budget, but this was an international co-production, most likely brought to MGM by producer Joseph E Levine. So perhaps resources were not as plentiful as might be assumed.

There is a significant scale to the picture in terms of the sets, the number of extras and the action scenes, but there are other moments that look threadbare indeed. This is particularly true of the SFX, which are very variable and, at times, downright tatty, even when considering the vintage of the picture. Unfortunately, at least in part, these were probably the work of the Master of Horror, Mario Bava. He was still marking time before the release of ‘The Mark of Satan/Black Sunday’ (1960) which would alter the course of his career for the better. Bava actually gets credit with directing the Italian release of this film, but this was almost certainly done to fulfil the ‘quota’ agreement made by the Hollywood studios and the Italian government. As Tonino Delli Colli is listed as the director of photography, Bava’s principal work on the picture was likely with the SFX.

‘Sure, I had a few glasses of wine last night, but this is ridiculous!’

Cinematographer Colli went on to receive international acclaim for his work with Sergio Leone on pictures like ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ (1966), ‘Once Upon A Time In The West’ (1968) and ‘Once Upon A Time In America’ (1984). Other significant projects included ‘In The Name of The Rose’ (1986), ‘Death and the Maiden’ (1984) and ‘Life is Beautiful’ (1997). Genie De Sica had an almost 60-year career as an actor, and was Oscar-nominated for his supporting role in ‘A Farewell To Arms’ (1957), but is best remembered as a director. He helmed four films that won the Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language film: ‘Shoeshine’ (1946), ‘Bicycle Thieves’ (1948), ‘Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow’ (1963) and ‘The Garden of the Finzi-Continis’ (1972). He was also behind the megaphone for ‘Two Women’ (1960), for which Sophia Loren won her Best Actress Oscar. What was he doing appearing in this film? Paying the bills, I guess.

O’Connor tries hard to inject some life into this tired trip into the land of the mystic East, and the final results just about get by. But only just.