The Wizard of Baghdad (1960) User Reviews

Last review on point

[bill-1056 · 4/10 · 5 June 2005]

I happened on this film simply because the TV was on and the FMC channel on cable happened to be showing it this one Sunday. The credits scene was of Dick Shawn riding on a magic carpet singing the intro song. I was intrigued. The previous review is right on point, I can only add that this appears to have been a vehicle for Dick Shawn and is really not much more notable otherwise. It has that pastel look of "The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T" or "Forbidden Planet", and is simply typical of that era. One interesting line is that in the first ten minutes of the film Shawn has an audience with William Edmonson ("Asmodeus", King of the Genies) through a looking glass, Edmonson remarks that "...Baghdad will become the center of the World!" How prophetic film can be in 1960.

Sam Katzman at Fox!

[JohnHowardReid · 4/10 · 28 June 2017]

Copyright 1960 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at neighborhood cinemas on a double bill with "Legions of the Nile": 3 March 1961. U.S. release: December 1960. U.K. release: 23 July 1961. Australian release: August 1961. 8,297 feet. 92 minutes.

COMMENT: Having successfully done for Columbia, Jungle Sam now turns his talents to Fox. Here he revisits one of his favorite haunts: old Baghdad, complete with Caliphs and what-do-you-call-'ems — wazeers, waziers, wazirs. (Sam isn't sure how to spell it, so when in doubt use 'em all. You can only be wrong twice).

If you want your product cheapened, there's no better man than "Gorilla" Katzman. Who else could make Technicolor a by-word for trash? Here he has CinemaScope and DeLuxe firmly in his sights. Plus of course comedian Dick Shawn in "his first starring role" (it turned out to be his last, though he did have featured parts in six or seven more features), and "dashing Hollywood newcomer" Barry Coe (whose career ended with his very next film "The 300 Spartans"). Even Diane Baker's standing was damaged.

Needless to say, good old Jesse L. Lasky doesn't so much as mention "The Wizard of Baghdad" in his autobiography. There's all this stuff about "The Greatest Show On Earth", "Union Pacific", "The Ten Commandments" and so on, but not a word about "The Wizard of Baghdad". Not a single word! I wonder why not?

OTHER VIEWS: A witless spoof. — Variety.

For customers who will laugh at anything, including that singularly unfunny funny man, Dick Shawn... Truly appalling. — The New York Times.

Touted as a satire on your typical Hollywood sword-and-sorcery fantasy, this effort singularly fails to impress on both levels. Sherman's direction is as ham-fisted as the script, whilst the budget seems extraordinarily tight — little effort is made to disguise wires for the flying carpet, for instance. — G.A.

Pay no attention to the man behind the carpet.....

[Poseidon-3 · 3 December 2003]

This one is in trouble during the opening credits! Shawn is "flying" on a magic carpet (actually, he's sitting on something while a fog machine blows in his face) singing an inane, unfunny, embarrassing and annoying song called "Eenie Meenie Genie". He then screeches (unconvincingly) to a halt and is read the riot act by Edmonson, King of the Genies. His mission is to reunite a pair of Baghdad royals whose union will ensure the future of the city. However, the city is currently being run by tyrannical Van Dreelen and he is set up to marry the female half of the couple (Baker.) Shawn gets a flying horse (unconvincing again, naturally) and sets out to complete his mission in spite of his own buffoonery. The film is lame. That's the best way to describe it. The comedy is dumb and tired, the action scenes are mostly comprised of stock footage from another, better movie and the story is trite and routine, even for its time. The "effects" are shoddy and the characters are mostly uninteresting. Shawn (looking like a slightly shorter "Jethro Bodine" of "The Beverly Hillbillies") mugs and hams (and sings again!) to no avail. A great deal of the scenes are static, especially those taking place in rooms of the palace. The film does get a shot in the arm from the very attractive Baker and her luscious love-to-be Coe. She is decked out in far more glamorous attire and hairstyles than she was usually given in this stage of her career. He is divine. Though it's hysterical to see him lumber around like a car mechanic in his old world finery, he is so charming and boyishly handsome, it doesn't matter. His flat, monotone voice also cannot dampen the joy in seeing him stripped to the waist (along with his stuntman) and wrestling a beefy slave. He gets to wear a cute little parade of snug pants in red, salmon and avocado and exchange some amusing banter with Baker. Otherwise, this is a deadly, skippable piece of camel dung.

Bad Danny Kaye Vehicle with No Kaye

[margot · 3/10 · 10 April 2009]

I saw this once by accident at a kiddie matinée. I was expecting the spy-comedy fare on the marquee. It was apparent that the scenarist and director were attempting to strike a note similar to the Danny Kaye costume comedies, but without the panache and high gloss. It is revealing about the early career of Dick Shawn that his fey, campy, manic mannerisms were thought to make him a possible successor to Kaye. But Kaye had class that transcended his Borscht Belt beginnings; Shawn never got beyond the tummler you see here.

The production values are of the Low Budget school. The Baghdad setting was a convenient way of making use of all those old Middle Eastern sets and costumes left over from the 40s. The film was no better or worse than Saturday morning TV fare--old Blondie and Bowery Boys comedies, which suggests a real condescension to its audience.

The Wizard should have made this disappear

[frankfob · 2/10 · 5 December 2003]

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.

For Diane Baker only!

[RodrigAndrisan · 1/10 · 9 February 2021]

I'm sure it's a delight for little children, especially since there is a wise talking horse, a flying carpet, a prince and a princess, and a tiny Aladdin appears for a few moments. I wanted to see the movie because of the lead actor, Dick Shawn, who gave the title of the movie, which I fell in love with when I saw him in "The Producers" by Mel Brooks. The role of L.S.D. - Lorenzo St. DuBois from "The Producers" is one of the greatest comedy roles ever, an absolute delight. But in this Wizard of Baghdad, he's disappointing. Diane Baker, the princess, very young and very beautiful, an actress I have admired in so many other movies (and much better roles), she remains the only reason to watch the film. A star only for her.

You need to see it thru a child'd eyes

[greg49-2 · 7/10 · 21 April 2009]

I saw this movie as a 7 year old and thought it was great. I was not worried about plot and great acting. As a child I saw it as fun. Pre Harry Potter Magic, good vs evil. If you are going to judge it as an adult, pan it all you want, but if you see it a a film a child might enjoy, you might get a totally different point of view. Your children might enjoy it more than "Citizen Kane" or "On the Waterfront". There are a lot of great movies out there, and I could care less if Dick Shawn's acting wasn't perfect or the script was terrible. I wanted to be entertained and as a child I was. I really don't think this was a movie made for an adult audience. Who cares if you could see the wires or they used co2 to simulate clouds. It was the 60's. Star Wars had not changed the way we looked at special effects. Like the old Flash Gorden Serials or Superman of the 40's. They were what they were, and kids loved them.

But Would it Play In Peoria? (Spoilers)

[shadowycat · 7/10 · 5 June 2005]

That's the whole point. This movie could (and probably did) play in Peoria.

They don't make 'em like this any more. Hollywood at its cheesiest. Inside jokes a la vaudeville and a talking horse, maybe a year before Mister Ed --> could this have been the idea for Mister Ed? The world was a simpler place then. The middle east was the land of Ali Baba and his 40 thieves. Flying carpets, genies, wild curved swords and glamorous babes.

Nothing was politically correct or historically accurate. Everyone is in silly costumes that they either take seriously or appear to be having a great time with. It's all very silly really, but that's all good, this was a feel-good Saturday Matinée classic. This is the last period of studio pictures, and this film has the feel of a lot of films from earlier times, but the consciousness of the hip early sixties as well, and the sets are imaginative - evocative of the middle east and maybe India, just authentic enough that you buy it, but the whole thing is a romp - you can't take it seriously, but watch this film and realize that after watching a film like this, viewers had more of an idea of what the middle east was all about than they probably had before.

I'm not familiar with either of the lead lovers, but am familiar with Dick Shawn, and I have to say, this is a great silly piece of old Hollywood, I watched it on FMC and really got into it, if you like campy comedies, you'll love it, I sure did.

Yiddish in Baghdad?

[bcrumpacker · 2 December 2004]

True, this turkey is hard to swallow. SPOILER ALERT The magic carpet's wires are visible, the talking horse is worse than Francis the talking mule, if that's possible, and the production values and schtick are lame, even by 1962 standards. Yet the seeds of Disney's animated "Aladdin" are here. After all, Dick Shawn is a Yiddish spouting, singing and dancing genie who turns the beefcake male lead into a prince, connives with Diane Baker [dolled up for once as a princess], and turns the bad guy into a parrot at the end. The Yiddish [in Iraq?] gets so thick that a character is named Sergeant Kvetch. Clearly, someone is pulling our legs. But the whole thing is silly, low budget fun. BC