Aladdin (Donald O'Connor) and his friend Omar (Milton Reid) are living the life in THE WONDERS OF ALADDIN (1961)
Steve Reeves was initially set to star in the role of Aladdin, which would have been odd. Instead, Lux Film cast him in another production, THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD (1961), which made more sense. Replacing Steves as Aladdin was...Donald O'Connor. Hmm...from Steve to Donald. The movie is colourful but the story is convoluted and the action episodic. It looks great but it's a mishmash of scenes more than anything else. Casting O'Connor as Aladdin was also odd but he had physical abilities that made up for the obvious issue in regards to his age. The production was cursed with major and scary production problems during the location filming in Tunisia. O'Connor hated the entire experience and was quoted as saying, "From now on I'll do nothing but drawing room comedies, and the only location I'm going on is in my backyard." Mario Bava is often credited as director but the camera technician disclaimed this saying that Henry Levin directed nearly all of it and Bava was mainly responsible for second unit tasks and technical stuff.
I like this movie and I thought D.O. was quite good in it. Donald was an excellent dancer and if he was older he could still do some of the acrobatic stunts that took place. The cast was a very good one with Desica and Adam leading the way. Terence Hill had a nice role the movie had plenty of sexy women. AMEN lots of cuties scantly dressed.
ReplyDelete