Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937)

Overrated

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

From my favorite movies..

Best movie ever!

Eddie Cantor made some wonderful films. My favorite, by far, is "Forty Little Mothers". The movie is sweet and charming...and well worth seeing as are many of his other films ("Thanks Your Lucky Stars"). But he also made a few that are very, very dated and when you see them today they lack an important quality of his better films....they aren't funny. This is definitely the case with "Ali Baba Goes to Town"...a rather unfunny comedy which, inexplicably, has an overall score of 8.1. Why? I have no idea as it's dated and many of the jokes fall very flat.When the film begins, Al (Cantor) is a hobo traveling by rail to Hollywood. Once there he gets a job as a movie extra on an Ali Baba-like movie. But when he takes too many pain killers, he awakens in ancient Baghdad and everyone thinks he's Ali Baba. He soon becomes buddies with the Sultan (Roland Young) and convinces the guy to enact a lot of American and New Deal reforms which end up backfiring badly. And, as a result, Ali (Cantor) must run or lose his head.This is a great example of a film that played well in the day but is terribly dated today. All of Cantor's remarks about politics and the Roosevelt administration were fine in 1937 but today they just seem unfunny. And, speaking of unfunny, Cantor's black-face routine is also unfortunately in this picture and is cringe-worthy. And, while some folks absolutely love it (you can only assume this with an 8.1 rating), I thought it among Cantor's worst. Unfunny and dated...badly. About the only part I liked was at the movie premier at the end...when Al AND Eddie Cantor appeared. That was cute....but otherwise...meh.

ALI BABA GOES TO TOWN (1937) is an interesting historical curiosity for classic movie buffs. It stars famed entertainer Eddie Cantor in one of his rare movie roles. The cast includes such familiar faces as Roland Young, John Carradine, Douglass Dumbrille, and Charles Lane, but also features burlesque queen Gypsy Rose Lee (a.k.a. Louise Hovick) at the outset of her ill-fated film career. "Looney Tunes" fans and music enthusiasts are also in for a treat seeing Raymond Scott and His Quintet dressed as Arabs and "performing" their eccentric jazz ("Twilight in Turkey") on primitive instruments.Old movies from Hollywood's Golden Age often serve as time capsules for their era, and that is true with ALI BABA. Meant to be shown for a few weeks in theaters before stepping aside for new features from Hollywood's movie-churning machine, films set out to entertain the audience of their time, never dreaming of being resurrected in the age of home video and TCM. Jokes are often topical, reflecting the political climate or world news of the day. Dance sequences capture an era in music history and small cultural references may be lost on modern viewers.ALI BABA GOES TO TOWN borrows its premise from Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", inserting a modern man (through a dream) into an old and foreign setting. This time, star-struck autograph seeker Al Babson (Cantor) visits the set of a Hollywood "Arabian Nights" movie, dozes off, and imagines he is in ancient Bagdad, where Roland Young is the real sultan and Douglass Dumbrille is the scheming prince. Cantor reforms Bagdad, introducing American principles of democracy and economics. He shapes Arab society in the image of New Deal America, with amusing (if absurd) modern touches (camel filling stations?) and plenty of cracks at Franklin Roosevelt and 1930s politics.Eddie Cantor was an entertainer on stage, radio, and screen. He was famous in part, like Al Jolson, for his blackface routines, and there's one in ALI BABA. When the sultan is unable to grab the attention of his tribal African servants, Cantor speaks some Cab Calloway jive and gets them on their feet. Rubbing on his minstrel face paint, Cantor leads the Africans in an extended musical number ("Swing Is Here To Stay"), which earned an Oscar nod for dance direction. The scene was an innocuous inclusion in 1937, but can be a bit uncomfortable for modern viewers in this age of racial sensitivity.Another great time capsule scene is at the close of the film, where the movie-within-the-movie has its glitzy premiere. It's a look back at the red carpet Hollywood premieres of yesteryear, where stars would be announced as they arrived by an emcee at a microphone. Footage from an authentic movie premiere provides cameos from Hollywood icons like Douglas Fairbanks, Shirley Temple, Tyrone Power, Victor McLaglen, Sonja Henie, Cesar Romero, and Dolores del Rio, as well as other stars of the day whose names haven't stood the test of time.This Eddie Cantor vehicle is a dated comedy in many ways, but is valuable from a historical perspective. With its political satire and its glimpse of vintage Hollywood, the movie is intriguing. Some of the gags are fun, and it's a rare film that shows John Carradine (in an Arabian get-up, no less) doing a silly little dance. The flying carpet effects are relatively primitive, but fairly effective. I'd never seen Eddie Cantor on film before, and I must say I found his eye-rolling shtick tiresome. But that's probably his trademark and he did know his way around a witty line of dialogue.Check out ALI BABA GOES TO TOWN if you're a fan of old-time Hollywood. (It helps if you're familiar with the 1930s and recognize names like Eddie Cantor, Gypsy Rose Lee, Roland Young, John Carradine, and Raymond Scott.) It's mildly entertaining, but it's certainly a neat curiosity. Keep an eye out for it.

If I could give this film two different ratings, I would. If I were watching this in 1937 I'd rate it highly because the script is really quite clever. But, for someone watching this today, if they don't have a decent knowledge base about the politics and life of the Great Depression, many of the jokes will go right over their heads. So, my 1937 rating is a 7. My 2011 rating is a 5.As another reviewer here put it very well, "Eddie Cantor is in Iraq...to bring the New Deal to the old caliphate." That's why understanding jokes about FDR and the Republicans at that time is essential in watching this film.Aside from Cantor, the performances here are rather meek. Tony Martin unimpressively plays a good guy on the side of freedom. Bland Roland Young all too calmly plays the sultan. Though her performance is tenuous, it's interesting seeing Gypsy Rose Lee (with all her clothes on) playing a member of the royal family.I watched this on a retrospective TCM was doing about how Arabs have been treated poorly on the silver screen. While I admit that they weren't portrayed positively in this film, my impression is that it wasn't done with any malice at all. The royals and locals here were treated much the same as Bing Crosby treated the royals and locals in "A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court"...and they were all White.The average person today probably wouldn't enjoy this film. But Eddie Cantor is a show business legend, and this performance is in his heyday, and is worth watching for that reason. So, I'll give the film its rating for 1937 -- a 7.

Awful film. It is so inane, even with the talents of Tony Martin, Roland Young and others.Made in 1937, Eddie Cantor finds himself in old Iraq, filled with intrigue and plots, the major plotter being the usual Douglass Dumbrille.It's funny how the Cantor role wishes to introduce democracy to the country with the New Deal Programs. Even Happy Days are Here Again is played. Tony Martin has little to do; besides, the lyrics of the songs he songs are as ridiculous as the movie itself.The best part consists of 3 African-American ladies singing a song twice about the coming of spring.Nice to see the cameo appearances of stars at film's end. Even they probably couldn't wait for this nonsense to end.