KINO STUDIO CLASSIC BLU RAY : 'ARABIAN ADVENTURE' : FIRST TIME ON BLU RAY!

IT'S LAMP RUBBING : CARPETS FLYING : GENIES THREATENING AND VILLAINS PLOTTING WITH A CAST THAT'S MAGIC IN OL' DOWN-TOWN BAGDAD-VILLE ! 

Kino Lorber Studio Classics has just rolled out the global debut on Blu-ray of the 1979 movie, 'Arabian Adventure' : this film was previously only available in the U.K. as a dire DVD video transfer released in 2007. Kino Lorber's new blu-ray, licensed from Studio Canal, is good news and especially welcomed by collectors of the genre and Cushing / Lee fans alike. With FOUR MILLION budget, that was never going to stretch to the needs, Alan Hume's cinematography is never less than beautiful to look at, as you would expect!

VISUALLY MANY OF THE SCENES look great, very colourful, bright and quite new, even though the advance and progress in cinema visual effects does date some of what may have already been 'from another era' even at the time of its release, you aren't fooled by what you see. Special effects chief, George Gibbs, gives you a lot to look at and knows the market had changed, but cuts the cloth with what he has. Back in the day of Saturday family and kids matinees, that really didn't matter. 'There is something of a charm to watching some effects here that really do go back to the art of silent movies, smoke mirrors, forced perspectives and strings!' You don't feel cheated, you get the feeling of 'you along with the characters, are along for the ride, on those magic carpets and all' 😉😊 

PRODUCTION DESIGNER, Elliot Scott dressers the film beautifully and uses lots of tricks and techniques he would later go on to use in classics like 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' (1988), Labyrinth (1986) and two of the Indiana movies, 'Tempe of Doom' and 'Last Crusade' (84 and 89), but with more than the share he got from this four million budget. It is perhaps worth mentioning and keeping in mind that much like Connor's Amicus film 'At The Earth's Core' and some of his 'Edgar Rice Burroughs' films, 'The Land That Time Forgot' (1975) 'The People That Time Forgot' (1977)... THIS is for the KIDS and there is much in the style and look of this film that reminds one of 'Jabberwocky' (1977) and 'The Adventures of Baron Munchausen' (1988)... but made with pennies rather than mega-bucks!  

EVEN THOUGH this was post 1977 'Star Wars', it was I am sure, when produced neither chasing that newly hatched sci-fi audience or hoping to compete. Maybe the producers should have told the publicity and press office that point though . .

VISUALLY:
THE WHOLE FILM  has been opened up to 1.78:1 from its native 1.85:1. Many of the street scenes and in the market really do shine, so much so there is a little sign of bits and dots in the motion, but not distracting. Scenes shot in a semi light in caves and at night, fare much better, as the texture and grain of the visuals can be a little different scene to scene. As I mentioned about this film using traditional cinematic visual effects, the use of matts. Very much like the blu rays of Cushing's 'Dr Who and the Daleks' (1965) and sequel 'Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD' strings are visible and matts that would have passed in the theatrical release don't hold out in their blending with live footage, once cleaned and presented on what can be at times a double edge and 'reveal all' of blu ray presentation.

AUDIO:

Kino supplies a DTS-HD Master Audio Dual Mono (1557 kbps, 16-bit) as THE sound track, without frills. The pitch levels do vary from one scene to another. If you too are a headphone wearer, you will notice. Mixing seems to have been a problem, any scene with dialogue and background crowds, sees that dialogue buried. Composer Ken Thorne's quite fab score is a great accompaniment to the action scenes, and while it's there everything sounds impressive.

• A NEW Audio Commentary by Director Kevin Connor, Moderated by Screenwriter and Novelist C. Courtney Joyner - If there is one thing you can say about director's Kevin Connor's pride in this film, is his comments on the design and look of the film. I get the feeling that Joyner maybe hasn't sat and watched the film in sometime. Many of his questions, give Connor little to work with in his answers, which is a real shame. For an 82 year old Connor is still very sharp, but the questions sometimes leaves him sounding as if he doesn't know the answer or can't remember! Experience should have told Joyner, you need to prompt and connect with your subject, it's been a LONG time!
• Theatrical Trailer (2:54, 480i) - Not restored, but a window-boxed and slightly cropped original trailer for EMI's Arabian Adventure.

SO TO SUM UP:
IF YOU SAW THIS FILM  when it was first released, like all of Connor's similar films, it can only bring back memories of simpler times. It should also bring with it some warm smiles when cast members like Christopher Lee, Milo O'Shea, Milton Reid and Peter Cushing appear. Emma Samms and Oliver Tobias
are a good match and a young and talented Puneet Sira, is very entertaining and unknowingly well set for his future as a major Bollywood director in the years to come. 

MICKEY ROONEY still stands as a bit of surprise casting! As a family adventure film, this one has ALL the ingredients, severed up as the complete package of a great and sparky adventure tale, produced ten years before this one was made. Now decades later, there is no shame in that. This is an above average transfer, even if in it's audio it would have benefited a little more care. A negative mind you, that will go quite unnoticed by the majority of those who have come along for the ride... on a carpet of course!

STAR WARS WITH MAGIC CARPETS ALONG WITH CHRISTOPHER LEE, EMMA SAMMS AND PC!

PETER CUSHING as the brief but interesting WAZIR AL WAZARA in ARABIAN ADVENTURE in 1979. Often see as another AMICUS film, the film was in fact produced in April 1978 EMI Films announced they would make the film as part of a series of films they wanted to produce with the newly formed Orion Pictures. Granted both the partnership of the Amicus Kevin Francis and John Dark were on board, and both Christopher Lee and Cushing were starring and almost, guest starring, but Amicus it aint. The budget was much more than what Dark and Connor ever had to tackle their Land that Time Forgot, At The Earth's Core or Warlords of Atlantis, but it wasn't as successful. The promo strap line of 'Star Wars with Magic Carpets!' promised much, but fell well short of anything close to the new benchmark of children and family entertainment on the big screen. 

OUR PCASUK FEATURE AND GALLERY ON ARABIAN ADVENTURE HERE!

WHEN CUSHING does finally arrive, his appearance as the cell trapped Wuzara, it is a bit of shock. Sporting what looks like 15 years over growth on the handle-bar moustache he wore as Dr Naramrov in Hammer films, The Gorgon, his character is dusty, grubby and broken. Cushing gave the role, however short, his full attention and commitment and the facial hair he grew and wore, for the role of  Commissioner Potts in the truly weird and way off, A Touch Of The Sun with Oliver Reed, remained. Work on TOUCH on location in Zamiba had only wrapped two weeks, so what little of Cushing's face we could see was, certainly sun kissed for the Arabian climate!

THE REASON WHY this film is being included in our usual COMIC TURNS and MAGAZINE themed WEDNESDAY, is because the press office for the movie managed to pull two quite interesting stunts in the drive for publicity. ONE was the fabulous FULL COLOUR photo that graced the cover of an EARLY issue of blood splat and gore effects screamarama, that is now FANGORIA magazine. Granted this was only issue three, and the magazine would soon being making off in a completely different direction, but brownie points to the press office. SECOND was the wave of alternative cinema and press design posters that were drawn up and produced on the release of the film. One poster carried a selection of COMIC STRIP panels on a full colour cinema quad poster. Rarely does this kind of artwork feature on a cinema poster, but the well intended move to capture the attention of the target audience kiddies, was still much more impressed and still dizzy from the hi tech visuals, of 'A GALAXY FAR FAR AWAY'. Magic carpets were for this crowd, were seen as thread bare and dated. It would be a long time far far in the distance, before those impressive visuals would stop tinting any fantasy adventure on the big screen. . .

A FACE YOU WILL SURELY KNOW! Ever wondered whatever happened to ACTOR MILTON REID. FIND OUT : RIGHT HERE!

FIND MORE and DAILY with LOTS of opportunity to comment and share your opinions and thoughts at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE!

CHRISTOPHER LEE : MONSTER MONDAY : EMMA SAMMS AND FLYING CARPETS!

THIS WEEK'S ‪#‎MONSTERMONDAY‬ candidate comes from Joe Arnold who makes an interesting suggestion... a film that many forget about when listing the films in which Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee have both appeared in..alas not together, but it was great to have the treat of seeing those names in the cast credit.

COSTUME DESIGNER, Rosemary Burrows attends to Peter Cushing's costume during the making of ARABIAN ADVENTURE (1979) , pretty much the  same way she did on countless Hammer films,  over the past twenty years!

ALWAYS up for a giggle... Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing on the set of 'Arabian Adventure' (1979)

PETER CUSHING'S time may have been brief on the set on 'Arabian Adventure' ...but he managed to fit in a meeting with friend, Christopher Lee.

CHRISTOPHER LEE, OLIVER TOBIAS AND PETER CUSHING... 'I was working on a live tv programme in Bristol, way back in 1984 on which Oliver Tobias was a guest. He was really charming, made time afterwards to chat and had only good things to say about his memories of the few scenes he shot with Peter on Arabian Adventure...he mentioned the glove, which funny enough, is in the photograph of him with Peter and Christopher Lee on set'... - Marcus Brooks

A YOUNG EMMA SAMMS as Princess Zuleira  in Arabian Adventure in 1979, her very first film!

SO, 'ARABIAN ADVENTURE... Star Wars with Magic Carpets...the poster campaign claimed. Well, maybe not quite...but fun, just the same. The highlight is of course Lee's evil, Caliph Alquazar ...who banishes, Cushing's Wazir Al Wuzara to the dungeons... I wont give away anything else, as this is one many have not seen . But remember, 'It's for the KIDS!' No blood, no gore...nothing too disturbing, but with Emma Samms, Mickey Rooney and Oliver Tobias, it's worth a view and Lee's Caliph Alquazar , a MONSTER and a Tyrant.??..You decide ...

JUST ONE LAST behind the scenes photograph from 'ARABIAN ADVENTURE'   this time with director, Kevin Conner joining the photo op. Lee making this film marked the first time he had returned to a British studio to work for over two years,  'Arabian Adventure' also gave him his first 'baddie' role in almost eleven years! I chose this pic more so though, for that look on Peter Cushing's face....

You can find MORE on the cast and the film 'ARABIAN ADVENTURE' in our FEATURE and GALLERY elsewhere on our website, here is a quick link! HERE

LOTS OF PHOTOGRAPHS, FEATURES AND LINKS on the PETER CUSHING SHERLOCK HOLMES CONNECTION : EVERY MONDAY here at the website and our FACEBOOK FAN PAGE

PETER CUSHING CHRISTOPHER LEE FLYING CARPETS AND EMMA SAMMS!

SYNOPSIS:

Set in the Arabian city of Jadur in mystical times past. The three principal characters in this adventure are the evil magician Caliph Alquazar who lives in the palace; Majeed, a poor young Arab boy who arrives in the city looking for water; and Prince Hasan of Baghdad who comes to the city hoping to meet the beautiful Princess Zuleira who lives in the palace. Majeed and the Prince briefly meet up and exchange kindnesses before going their separate ways.

Alquazar is Princess Zuleira's stepfather who has become corrupted by evil and made the once benevolently ruled city a harsh place to live. Alquazar has a secret chamber in which he keeps a magic mirror which enables him to remotely view any location. Alquazar's aspiration is to possess the fabled Rose of Ilil, a talisman so powerful it will enable him to rule the world - but because of his evil he cannot fetch it for himself, it must be delivered to him by someone noble of purpose.

The mirror alerts him that the very person has arrived in the city and shows him an image of Prince Hasan in the company of a young Arab boy. Alquazar sends his guards to capture the Prince - not an easy task because the Prince is a valiant fighter, but eventually he is apprehended. Alquazar says he will permit Hasan to marry Zuleira if he first goes on a quest to bring back the Rose of Ilil. Hasan agrees and Alquazar sends him away on a magic carpet. Along the way Hasan is unexpectedly joined by Majeed who is transported to the carpet by his guardian angel genie Vahishta as a way of evading some city ruffians.

The carpet delivers them to the island of Ilil where there are a number of dangers to overcome as they encounter various protectors of the Rose. Eventually they find the magical Rose but it turns out to be young Majeed who was the noble one that the mirror was showing as able to pluck the glowing crystalline Rose.

The travellers return to Jadur but it soon becomes clear that evil Alquazar is not intending to honour his bargain and is planning to kill them once the Rose is handed over. Majeed works out what to do to defeat the wizard and throws the Rose of Ilil into Alquazar's magic mirror which sucks the evil one inside and reverses all his evil spells.

The kingdom is restored to its previous happy glory and the deposed former ruler is released from the dungeons to reign again. Prince Hasan and Princess Zuleira are married.

COMMENTARY:

This is a movie about the classic 1001 Nights. It was very much overlooked at the time it came out and still is, I guess. For a British low-budget movie it had a big cast: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Capucine, Mickey Rooney, Milo O'Shea, Emma Sams, Oliver Tobias (well, some of them are or were big). Most of all, this is a tribute from Christopher Lee to Conrad Veidt in The Thief of Bagdad (1940). And he does a marvelous job, clad in black and looking as sinister as in his best Dracula- or Fu Manchu-movies.

Peter Cushing could be called mostly waisted in a small cameo-part, but that was his choice to sign up for a part in it anyway I guess; Mickey Rooney does his usual buffoonery but not totally out-of-place in this movie. The special effects vary from shoddy to amazing. The mechanical fire-breathing monsters don't look too convincing.

The flying carpet-scenes on the other hand are very well executed, in some moments even breath-taking (considering this movie was made in 1979, 2 years after Star Wars and clearly some of the flying carpet-scenes were executed with the knowledge they had already learned from Star Wars). If one compares this movie with the original The Thief of Bagdad from 1940, of course the special effects in An Arabian Adventure are better, even on a small budget. It is a children's-movie, for most parts. Or a family-movie. Not a masterpiece, but very entertaining in its own right.