The Three Abduls (1964) User Reviews

Entertaining

[meliajanssen · 18 July 2003]

This is one of those good versus evil stories with P.Ramlee pairing with his sometime writing collabrator, S.Kadarisman, as his older brother. It is a one time pairing that works excellently but was cleverly avoided for a second time. This is the perfect movie to watch Ahmad Nisfu at his evil best but even then, it's difficult to really truly hate him as he does it with such comedic contempt that you can't help but like him. Even Salleh Kamil, who seldom appears in a good supporting role did very well and even added an ironic hilarity with his Charlie Chaplin moustache, making him look like he was really sinister but yet harmless.

The supporting cast for this movie is fundamental in each of their own right and provide a nice folklore setting for a contemporary movie. Unfortunately, the women are just cosmetic ornaments in this movie, providing a relief for eye sores with all the male testorones leaping around the set. The music is listenable and one especially is really poignant 'Sedangkan Lidah Lagi Tergigit' sung by P.Ramlee and his on-screen wife Sarimah with the voice provided by his real wife, Saloma. It's a song about marriage and sets a moralistic tone in the movie about husband and wife.

All's well's that end's well in this movie but it was really great to watch Abdul Wahub teach his nemesises a good lesson.

A Slightly Above Mediocre Execution of a Fable

[darwishsyahmi · 6/10 · 7 October 2022]

Tiga Abdul lured me in with a very cool intro to the movie that had me rather pumped. With Saloma singing the theme and the names taking the other half of the screen, it appealed to me as a snazzy intro to a movie somewhat flourished with style. And it was, for the first 20 minutes. Especially with the iconic performance of 'Bunyi Guitar,' and the overall set design of the film. However that quickly went away when I slowly start to catch on that this is another easy going fable. But lets put my expectations of a "cool movie" aside and actually look at it as just a film.

The film's soundtrack was just alright, with of course Bunyi Guitar shining above the rest.

ONCE AGAIN, A. Bakar Ali did not disappoint me with his cinematography. Although I felt this film's cinematography fell behind Pendekar Bujang Lapok's, A. Bakar Ali was still able to create something interesting on screen with a few great shots.

The script is alright I guess. It's decent in that it is a simple fable. I would have liked for them to take a different route or make the ending more interesting. Although it is a fantastical fable, some scenarios just seem all too awkward and easy, especially with the store robbing and house robbing, P Ramlee could have went with something a little smarter. However I understand that again, it's a fable and that's the route they've chosen to go with.

The film is also flawed in how it has an inconsistency. Where did the narrator go?? Did they suddenly give up on writing him in? Shouldn't he have ended the story? Did someone kidnap him? I guess we'll never know.

Another thing to ask is, why would Sadiq get so mad about being robbed and claiming he was 'bankrupt' if he literally JUST acquired Wahab and Wahib's properties???

The directing was also just okay. After watching Pendekar Bujang Lapok, I wanted to tell myself that it was just A Bakar Ali that made the film look good. But looks like the directing in PBL played a bigger role than I thought because here A. Bakar Ali was not enough to carry Tiga Abdul.

As a fable film, it is expected to carry a moral. But it is the job of the filmmaker to execute the delivery of the moral in a way that is not forced, overtly convenient and spoon fed, which I feel Tiga Abdul kind of did.

There are enjoyable moments in the film, don't get me wrong, I just didn't takeaway much from the film other than bedtime story lesson of why I shouldn't be greedy. Which I already know.