A Thousand and One Nights (1945)

Comedy and Musical can safely be added to the "Adventure/Romance" genre.
The film is by no means meant to be taken seriously, it is tongue-in-cheek, and the anachronisms are intentional.
Phil Silvers (with glasses!) can fully let loose with his one-liners, and also participates in two of the four songs featured.
Unlike Wilde, who was dubbed, he sings himself in one of them, and that is hilarious.

The action is sporadic, something you wouldn't expect in a Hollywood spectacle of this kind.
It is a bit of a shame, though, because Cornel Wilde was an Olympic-class fencer, and he only gets one scene in which he can demonstrate that.
On the other hand, he has more singing scenes than I would like (and probably more for himself).
I have always considered him a strong actor, but in this story he doesn't really shine, even though that is the fault of the script.

Adele Jergens is (especially in this makeup) almost indistinguishable from contemporary actress Virginia Mayo.
Not only in terms of appearance, but also her voice and acting style are virtually identical.

There is also some "Dutch" contribution.
The role of Grand Vizier Abdu Hassan was assigned to Amsterdam native Philip Van Zandt, and Nina Foch, originally from Leiden, can be seen as one of the harem girls.

The whole is drenched in exuberant Technicolor colors, which make the many beautiful actresses and extras stand out to their advantage (the redheads predominate).

The sets are impressive.
This must have cost quite a bit.

The end of the film is hilarious again, Phil Silvers as Frank Sinatra "sings", dubbed by the real Sinatra, to a swooning crowd of beauties.

Unpretentious Hollywood entertainment, for which there was a great need in those years.

Translated from Dutch · View original

With a Bix, this was a reasonably amusing version of the Aladdin story, in which the genie is actually a beauty for a change and is secretly—or perhaps not so secretly—quite a bit in love with her master (in *I Dream of Jeannie* that provided a lot of fun interaction), but here, unfortunately, almost nothing is really done with that.

Translated from Dutch · View original