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!

PETER CUSHING AND HIS LOVE OF LADY TOBACCO.

PETER CUSHING AND HIS LOVE FOR LADY TOBACCO: It's no secret that Peter Cushing was quite a smoker. Both on and off screen, he could give those 'coffin nails' quite a hammering! Of course, Peter came from a time when the awareness of smoking and health related illnesses was not what it is today.

Along with bits and bobs, props and business, he managed to work puffing into an art form. He played a whole string of characters, who too, were no strangers to a pack of twenty unfiltered tipped. Though pipe smoking was never his thing, as Sherlock Holmes on both film and television, Cushing gagged with the strength of the tobacco, always keeping a glass of milk just out of shot to keep the wrenching at bay. In some ways this is strange because Peter's personal preference for many years was John Player unfiltered cigarettes, in packs of twenty. Real blow your socks off puffers! 

Nicolas Gadd, in his book, 'Spending Time With Frankenstein', tells of various visits to Peter's home in Whitstable, where after many months of having given up smoking, there were still tens of unopened cartons of twenty packets in drawers and cupboards.

 

Smoking was something that Peter enjoyed. During interviews, many journalistswould comment on the use of his 'trademark' white glove... Peter would tell them, 'I use these gloves, so that I do not stain my fingers. You can't play period roles with stained fingers!' From 'End of the Affair', Night of the Big Heat, Nothing But The Night', 'Dracula AD 1972' right up to 'The Silent Scream in 1980, Peter and his unfiltered friends often shared the screen...

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.