Most of Hollywood’s Arabian Nights fantasies are, of course, unadulterated tosh. The Middle East, wrote the American film critic William Zinssner, is transformed into ‘a place where lovely young slave girls lie about on soft couches, stretching their slender legs… Amid all this décolletage sits the jolly old Caliph, miraculously cool to the wondrous sights around him, puffing his water pipe.’
It is box-office commercialisation at its worst. As a cinematic franchise, however, Arabian Nights is the gift that keeps on giving, which goes a long way to explaining why Wikipedia has a list of 72 films (nowhere near complete) based on One Thousand and One Nights, starring everyone from Catherine Zeta-Jones to Scooby Doo.
Film fell for the caliphs and slave girls early. Thomas Edison kicked things off in 1902, producing an Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves that included dancers from the Paris Opera. These first film-makers loved the challenge of conjuring up the fantastical elements, especially the French technical virtuoso George Méliès.
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