The Magic Carpet (1951)

i must have seen a different film!!

Absolutely Brilliant!

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Harry Cohn making use of those sets he constructed for Cornel Wilde and A Thousand And One Nights made this B film The Magic Carpet that starred John Agar, Lucille Ball, and Patricia Medina. It looks like it should have come from Universal which specialized in these Middle Easterns in post World War II America churning them out by the dozen for its young contract stars, Jeff Chandler, Tony Curtis, and Rock Hudson.But John Agar never attained the stature of these guys and doesn't quite cut it in sword, sandal, and camel. Poor Lucille Ball she was just waiting for I Love Lucy to start and just running out her contract. Lucy especially put all the emoting of George Raft into her role as the usurper princess. Of course her red hair looked as out of place in these films as Maureen O'Hara did.As this story opens the Caliph of Bagdad is proclaiming his infant son his heir when he's struck down in a palace coup. Before the revolt is finished the Queen is also killed, but not before she dispatches the infant like Moses not in a waterproof basket, but on the family flying carpet, set on autopilot and to the home of William Fawcett a physician who brings up the kid in his profession never revealing to the kid who grows up to be John Agar his true identity. Fawcett even keeps the carpet which proves of immense help.Patricia Medina who appeared in more than one of these kind of films has the proper spirit playing the girl who Agar really likes. But I sure can't believe she's George Tobias's sister. Raymond Burr who appeared in some great films and some not so great like this one is always good, here as the villainous vizier of the false Caliph who discovers who Agar is and tries to destroy him. The Magic Carpet is a mediocre sand and scandal story with leads who just can't really summon up any conviction.

MGM's slogan was "More stars than there are in heaven." Columbia's might have been "More crap than there is in a chicken coop". Columbia produced some fine films, but its percentage of gobblers is notably higher than that of 20th, MGM, Paramount, Warner, etc. This is one of the turkeys.The story is the usual Arabian nights hokum. The dialog (some of which sounds as if it was lifted from Westerns) is written so as not to confuse a five-year-old, leading to terminal boredom for adults. The film is so uninvolving that the composer fills virtually every second with music, to make the viewer think something of interest is happening. The fight scenes, in particular, are notable non-events. (They look as if the actors choreographed them on the fly.)The acting is strictly amateur, with only Raymond Burr working up enough energy to sound convincing -- and that only occasionally. John Agar's performance is among his worst -- perhaps //the// worst. One gets an inkling of why his marriage to The Queen of Cute ended.The sets and costumes are lavishly cheap, and the color is the weirdly hued Super Cinecolor, a couple of notches inferior to the more-expensive Technicolor. The only things that show any taste or talent are several beautiful glass paintings.This is the sort of film that ought to have been skewered on MST3K, but wasn't. A shame, really.

Okay, this movie is a cheap Saturday matinée type film from the 1950's, but heck, that is all it is meant to be. It is one of those silly Arabian nights movies that is fun to watch. I wish it were released on DVD, as I would gladly buy it. As a child, I liked this movie when I saw in on television, and just recently saw it again and still like it. Runs in the family as those 1950 Universal Studio Tony Curtis "Son Of Ali Baba" type films and "Son Of Sinbad" with Vincent Price. These movies may not be great in any sense of the word, but they sure are fun to watch one right after the other when there is nothing else to do!! And besides, like my summary said, where else can you find a film that has Lucy Ricardo, Perry Mason and Abner Kravitz in it??

This low budget adventure stars John Agar, Raymond Burr of TV's Perry Mason, and a very pregnant Lucille Ball The poor production values used to make this movie give it the look of a Technicolor, Three Stooges episode. It's really too bad I would have enjoyed a good Arabian Adventure, starring Lucille Ball!