VEILS OF BAGDAD

US, 1953, 82 minutes, Colour.
Victor Mature, Mari Blanchard, Virginia Field, Guy Rolfe, James Arness, Gregg Palmer, Nick Cravat, Ludwig Donath, Leon Askin.
Directed by George Sherman.

Veils of Bagdad is typical of many of the small-budget supporting features that were made by Universal Studios in the 1950s. They starred many of the stars and starlets at that studio - Mari Blanchard being one of the more prominent in the early 50s. They often had strong actors, that is in build, like Victor Mature or Jeff Chandler or else had early vehicles for Tony Curtis and Rock Hudson. British Guy Rolfe, who was a villain in Ivanhoe, specialised in sinister villains.

The film is familiar plot material from any of the Arabian Nights stories with contacts between the Ottoman empire and Bagdad, alliances to foil uprisings in the mountains of contemporary Iraq.

This film is as enjoyable as any of the others - nothing startling, just one of those well-made supporting films which are able to transcend their time and appeal to audiences over the decades.

1. How entertaining an Arabian nights adventure? The continued appeal of these settings and stories to the popular audience?

2. Conventions of the genre? The portrayal of Baghdad, viziers and pashas, heroes, heroines and their dancing? Adventure, intrigue, wars, romance? How well portrayed here?

3. Colour photography, music, dancing? Fights?

4. How credible was the plot? The background of the Ottoman empire in the 16th century? The intrigues of Istanbul and Suleiman the Magnifi¬cent? The hero, his infiltrating the palace, the villains and their intrigues, the heroine and her dead father? Sufficient for the purposes of this kind of adventure?

5. Victor Mature as hero? Strong and tough? Appropriate for the film? His Robin Hood-like character and baud of men? Relationship with the vizier, the pasha, the vizier's wife? The heroine and her help? The dangers and his rescues, fighting? Duel at the end? Happy ending?

6. The heroine and her dead father, revenge? The vizier and his typical intrigues? The weak pasha? The vizier's wife and her love for gold? The spy in the palace and his torture? The wrestlers, the band of outlaws following their leader?

7. The ingredients of the basic story of good and evil, heroism, deception and intrigue?

8. A good example of this kind of film? Ordinary?