The Wizard of Baghdad (1960)

Director:

George Sherman

Writers:

Jesse Lasky Jr. (writer)
Samuel Newman (writer)

Release Date:

December 1960 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

ENTER A WORLD OF 1001 THRILLS! (original ad - all caps)

Plot:

A genie turned mortal after his many failures is sent to Baghdad. As his last chance to prove himself he must help a prince and princess fulfill a prophecy. |

Plot Keywords:

Genie

Cast

Dick Shawn	...	Genii-Ali Mahmud
Diane Baker	...	Princess Yasmin
Barry Coe	...	Prince Husan
John Van Dreelen	...	Jullnar, Sultan of Cario
Robert F. Simon	...	Shamadin (Yasmin's father)
Vaughn Taylor	...	Norodeen (Husan's father)
Michael David	...	Chieftain Meroki
Stanley Adams	...	Warden Kvetch
William Edmonson	...	Asmodeus (king of the genies)

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:U (original rating) | Finland:K-12

Company:

Clover Productions

Trivia:

Movie debut of Bill Mumy.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When the magic carpet is flying, you can see the wires holding it up.

Soundtrack:

The Wizard of Baghdad (Eni Meni Geni)

The Wizard should have made this disappear

Cheap, shoddy, lamebrained Sam Katzman production (now there's a redundancy) with Dick Shawn a genie assigned to unite two lovers and help them overthrow the usurper who now rules Baghdad. Shawn is an acquired taste, and you won't acquire it by watching him in this. He hams it up to the extreme with his hipster routine (it worked a few years later when he did it in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and "The Producers" but it doesn't work here at all) and opens the film doing a painfully embarrassing and flat-out stupid song-and-dance number called "Eenie Meenie Genie," and further embarrasses himself later on in an even more idiotic number where he sings, jumps and pirouettes in front of the assembled court. The performances by such usually reliable character actors as John Van Dreelen, Vaughn Taylor and Don Beddoe reflect their apparent embarrassment at being stuck in this picture (if you've noticed the word "embarrassed" being used a lot in this review, it's intentional), the direction by the usually competent George Sherman is almost nonexistent, the sets appear to be made of cardboard, the "action" scenes are laughable . . . in other words, the entire picture is a dud. Avoid it.