Hot Picks

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- Thirst 2023

- 10/31 Part 3 2022

- Bigfoot Unleashed, Part VII 2023

- The Island of Lost Girls 2022

- Everybody Dies by the End 2022

- Little Heroes 2023

- The City of Dunwich 2023

- Static Codes 2023

- Ariel: Back to Buenos Aires 2022

- Lights Over Montgomery County 2023

- Trauma Therapy Psychosis 2023

- Showdown in Yesteryear 2022

- Failure! 2023

- Million to One 2023

- American: An Odyssey to 1947 2022

- Fck'n Nuts 2023

- What I Meant to Say Was... 2020

- The Curse of Willow Song 2020

- Ex Tentorium Lux 2023

- Psychic Vampire 2022

- Ghost 2023

- The House 2023

- That's a Wrap 2023

- Night of the Caregiver 2023

- Girl Gone Bad 2022

- Clean Up Duty 2023

- Megalomaniac 2022

- Live and Die in East LA 2023

- Insidious Inferno 2023

- On the Trail of Bigfoot: Land of the Missing 2023

- #ChadGets-TheAxe 2022

- Subject 2023

- Zombie Rage 2023

- Into the Spotlight 2023

- I Am Rage 2023

- In Its Wake 2023

- The Finale 2023

- H.I.M 2017

- Stronghold 2023

- Ouija Witch 2023

- Reveille 2023

- Window Seat 2023

- After 2023

- Wolfkin 2022

- Trace Part 2 2021

- Summoning the Spirit 2023

- Garthwaite: A Film by Ben Kurns 2023

- Waking Nightmare 2023

- August Underground 2001

- Lumberjack: The Son Says Hello 2023

- The Coffee Table 2022

- Pareidolia 2023

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

Arabian Nights

USA 1942
produced by
Walter Wanger for Universal
directed by John Rawlins
starring Sabu, Jon Hall, Maria Montez, Leif Erickson, Billy Gilbert, Edgar Barrier, Richard Lane, Turhan Bey, John Qualen, Shemp Howard, William 'Wee Willie' Davis, Thomas Gomez, Jeni Le Gon, Rogert Greig, Charles Coleman, Adia Kuznetzoff, Emory Parnell, Harry Cording, Robin Raymond, Carmen D'Antonio, Acquanetta
written by Michael Hogan, additional dialogue by True Boardman, music by Frank Skinner

Maria Montez & Jon Hall

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

Available on DVD !

To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat

Always make sure of DVD-compatibility !!!


The rightful caliph Haroun al Rashid (Jon Hall) is overthrown by his evil brother Kamar (Leif Erickson), whose men hunt him down with the order to kill him - and he's only saved by an acrobat, Ali ben Ali (Sabu), who manages to fake Haroun's death and have him join his circus troupe, led by Ahmad (Billy Gilbert), without anybod recognizing him - especially after he has shaved off Haroun's beard.

The star of the circus troupe is Scheherezade (Maria Montez), a dancing girl, who incidently has caught the attention of Kamar, who intended to marry her - but she wanted to marry no one else but a caliph. Though she doesn't know Haroun is the rightful caliph, she falls in love with him anyways (and he with her) - but when she learns that Kamar has now taken over from his brother, she is determined to marry him, her love notwithstanding. Haroun meanwhile falls prey to Kamar's grand vizier who wants to usurp Kamar's throne and is almost killed by his henchmen, but ultimately, he can only just prevent the marriage between Kamar and Scheherezade and with his men whom Ali ben Ali has fetched from Allah-knows-where retake his throne. And as a reward for his efforts, he in the end gets the girl too.

 

The first film that brings together the popular wartime-escapist-romantic-adventure couple Jon Hall and Maria Montez - and though all the elements of their films are tidily in place, it's not a particularly good movie: The main attraction of this film seems to be Technicolor - it was the first film produced by Universal shot in that process -, and even watching this films decades after it was made, one can't but admit that its colours all fit the narration perfectly ... but apart from that, the film's shortcomings are more obvious than its merits: The story is way too convoluted and way too naive at the same time, it lacks the fairy tale elements that make your typical Arabian Nights-story so great (there is not one fantasy element in the whole film), and the adventure aspects of the film are constantly offset by its basic romantic plot - so much so that the role of young Sabu lacks any character motivation and he's little more than a cupid in human form.

Yet, despite this criticism, Arabian Nights caught on extremely well with the audiences, so much so that Universal produced five more Technicolor adventures starring Jon Hall and Maria Montez before the war's end, two of which also star Sabu ...

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky ?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results ?

The links below
will take you
just there !!!

Find Arabian Nights
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports ?
Find Arabian Nights here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai

Something naughty ?
(Must be over 18 to go there !)

x-rated  find Arabian Nights at adultvideouniverse.com


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!

 

 

 

On the same day
a Burglar wants to kill you
and your Ex wants
to make up ...
... and for the life of it,
you can't decide
WHICH IS WORSE!!!

 

A Killer Conversation

produced by and starring
Melanie Denholme
directed by
David V.G. Davies
written by
Michael Haberfelner
starring
Ryan Hunter and
Rudy Barrow

out now on DVD