Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Arabian Adventure Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson May 16, 2020

Throughout WWII and into its aftermath, the 1940s were a heyday for the "Arabian nights" movies in which audiences escaped the harsh realities of war and domestic problems to ride the carpet into a world of fantasy and adventure. Alexander Korda's The Thief of Bagdad (1940) is the crown jewel of the genre, followed by the solid Arabian Nights (1942), Kismet (1944), A Thousand and One Nights (1945), and several others. Few genre offerings were released during the 1970s and the escalation of the Vietnamese Conflict, save for Pasolini's Arabian Nights (1974). British director Kevin Connor's Arabian Adventure (1979) is a G-rated B film that was purportedly made to cash in on the success of Star Wars: A New Hope (1977).

The malevolent sorcerer Alquazar (Chris­topher Lee, in the role of Jafar) rules the oppressed village of Jadur. He keeps his good self imprisoned in a mirror and also keeps Princess Zuleira (Emma Samms), his beautiful daughter, within the confines of the castle. (Also incarcerated is an old vizier portrayed by Peter Cushing in a cameo.) Outside are the wise boy, Majeed, (Puneet Sira, stepping into Sabu's little shoes) and swashbuckler Hasan (Oliver Tobias, doing a decent imitation of Errol Flynn). Vahishta (Capucine) watches over Majeed inside a sapphire. Alquazar promises Hasan that he will let him marry Zuleira if he travels to the Isle of Elil and retrieves the magic white Rose. This would grant Alquazar all-mighty power. Along with Khasim (Milo O'Shea), Alquazar's flunky, Hasan and Majeed ride on the magic carpet to Elil where they encounter flame-breathing brass monsters. Daad El Shur (Mickey Rooney), guardian of the grotto and an antipode to the Wizard of Oz, hopes to prevent Majeed and Hasan from seizing the Rose.

While Arabian Adventure is often colorful and luscious to look at, I wondered how the integration of the matte paintings, process photography, and real sets were received back in '79 because today, however decorative, they're noticeably artificial. Bill Cosford of the Miami Herald thought they passed the eye test: "The predict­able action is played out against a background of ex­cellent miniatures and well-drawn mattes, which combine to produce panoramas of an Arabian walled city by night that are truly impressive. The special­ effects work shows few advances from Korda’s 1940 state-of-the-art, but there was little that one wanted to improve in that one anyway." Conversely, the Los Angeles Times's Kevin Thomas deemed them too obvious: "the grandiose fake sets and painted backdrops, academically lit and shot in rich color." John Dodd of the Edmonton Journal felt the same way: "[T]he special effects...are simply tacky. The carpets, for example, never give a scary feeling of flight, the genies are obviously movie projections and the Arabian city looks just like the cardboard model that it is." The Calgary Herald's Fred Haeseker considered Jadur, as a cityscape, which are lensed in medi­um and long shots, came accompanied by "some extremely obvious looking miniatures." On the other hand, the-then Atlanta Constitution's regular film critic Eleanor Ringel defended the film's f/x: "[Connor and screenwriter Brian Hayles] have been well-served by their special effects chief, George Gibbs, who delights in rippling carpets, rippling genies and rippling bogs of dead men. When a monster looks fake in this, it's supposed to."

As Alquazar, Christopher Lee is fully in his element with his customary black garb. The rest of the actors deliver adequate performances for their archetypal roles. Arabian Adventure is fairly high-concept kitsch but suffers from a clunky script.

Arabian Adventure Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Kino Lorber Studio Classics has given Arabian Adventure its global debut on Blu-ray on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-25. The film has been opened up to 1.78:1 from its native 1.85:1. The marketplace scenes look bright and colorful (see Screenshot #s 8 and 12) with a little speckling detectable in-motion. The enchanted forest scene (#19) has an earthy green and rising sun only obscured by tree branches. The matte effect shots (such as the one in #16) aren't seamlessly blended with the live-action footage in a convincing fashion. Interiors and cave scenes are much lower lit and display kernels of grain. The grain structure is somewhat inconsistent throughout the picture, though. Kino has encoded the feature at an average video bitrate of 24451 kbps. My video score is 3.75/5.00.

Kino provides it standard eight chapters for the 98-minute film.

Arabian Adventure Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Kino supplies a DTS-HD Master Audio Dual Mono (1557 kbps, 16-bit) as the sole sound track. Pitch levels vary from scene to scene. For instance, dialogue is more audible in Alquazar's lair than it is in the street scenes, owing to noise and ambience. Composer Ken Thorne's rousing score brings the liveliest presence to the front channels. Unfortunately, it's only been released as a promo from Belgium-based record label Prometheus in an album titled Arabian Adventure: The Film Music of Ken Thorne, Volume 3. Syndicated movie reviewer Richard Freedman regards it as "a score largely lifted from Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade."

The optional English SDH display in a small white font and I activated them with semi-frequency.

Arabian Adventure Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• NEW Audio Commentary by Director Kevin Connor, Moderated by Screenwriter and Novelist C. Courtney Joyner - this recently recorded commentary could have come with better prep work. Joyner doesn't seem to have a lot of questions written out beforehand and sometimes has to rephrase or come up with follow-ups if Connor doesn't have an answer. The 82-year-old Connor does deliver some detailed responses when given the proper line of ?s. The commentary shines when he speaks about the design of the film. It's apparent that the Brit hadn't watched Arabian Nights in recent times before recording this commentary. In English, not subtitled.

• Theatrical Trailer (2:54, 480i) - a windowboxed and cropped original trailer for EMI's Arabian Adventure that hasn't been restored.

• Bonus Previews - trailers for Ambush Bay, House of the Long Shadows, Jack the Giant Killer, and Sinbad and the Seven Seas.

Arabian Adventure Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Arabian Adventure has all the necessary ingredients for the fantasy adventure movie: an evil sorcerer, genies, swordsmen, magic carpets, a prince, and a princess. But it's a middle-of-the-road effort compared to the silent and sound versions of The Thief of Bagdad and Arabian nights pictures from the '40s. Kino released this as a cash cow to coincide with the live-action Aladdin (2019) but I'm glad it's at last available in high-def. The transfer is above average but the uncompressed sound track could have used some more remastering or even a new stereo mix. RECOMMENDED to fans of the genre as well as Christopher Lee admirers.