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
Review of The Wizard of Baghdad
