Some might refer to this as a rhinestone, but those cynical people can have their opinion. When you just lay back and listen to the soundtrack, just feel the shivers that rush up and down your spine as Vic Damone sings of a "Stranger in Paradise", Ann Blyth warbles "Baubels, Bangles and Beads", and together, the two of them declare, "And This is My Beloved". That is romantic music at its best, and when you put it in this exotic setting, you have a movie that, like a York Peppermint Patty, will take you far away from your troubles and leave you singing in your mind.
One of many versions of the classic tale of a beggar/thief who sings of "Fate" and "The Olive Tree", this colorful MGM musical may look like a Maria Montez/Sabu movie, but there is nothing wrong with that, and the movie is so much more. It is romantic. It is witty. It is beautiful to look at. And most importantly of all, it features one of the most beautiful of all Broadway scores that doesn't date even if the plot to some might seem like an opera that Wagner never got his hands on.
The storyline focuses on the wise beggar Hajj (Howard Keel in another one of the Alfred Drake musical roles he took to the silver screen) and his lovely daughter Marsinah (Blyth) who find romance in the most unexpected of Bagdad places: the palace! Keel wins the lusty eyes of Lalume (the succulent Dolores Gray), wife of the Wazir, while Blyth meets a young man (Damone) she assumes is a gardener who is really, of all people, the caliph! The young man is in danger of loosing his throne to usurpers (most obviously, the evil Wazir, played by "Family Affair's" Mr. French, Sebastian Cabot) but ultimately, as Keel sings, fate will take care of that. Gray makes her entrance in the most luscious of ways, singing "Not Since Ninevah" with a chorus of female Asian warriors "Bagdad! Don't Underestimate Bagdad!" she sings, leading into the fiery production number that practically stops the whole show even before it barely starts. And then when she breaks into "Bored", you know you've got the type of female that could never just settle for being the Wazir's wife; The insinuations are obvious, especially when Keel and Gray duet on "Rahadlakum" The romantic entanglement of Blyth and Damone doesn't stop the show cold like some young romances do; In fact, it spruces it up with their other musical number "Night of My Nights".
Nearing the end of the Arthur Freed/Vincent Minnelli era (MGM was slowly dissolving their contract player list), "Kismet" didn't do as well as they had hoped, but like their 1948 pairing, "The Pirate", I think it holds up better today. It might not fare so well on stage (revivals in both L.A. and New York's concert musical series have gotten mixed reviews for the comic material), but oh, what a pleasure it is to hear.
One of many versions of the classic tale of a beggar/thief who sings of "Fate" and "The Olive Tree", this colorful MGM musical may look like a Maria Montez/Sabu movie, but there is nothing wrong with that, and the movie is so much more. It is romantic. It is witty. It is beautiful to look at. And most importantly of all, it features one of the most beautiful of all Broadway scores that doesn't date even if the plot to some might seem like an opera that Wagner never got his hands on.
The storyline focuses on the wise beggar Hajj (Howard Keel in another one of the Alfred Drake musical roles he took to the silver screen) and his lovely daughter Marsinah (Blyth) who find romance in the most unexpected of Bagdad places: the palace! Keel wins the lusty eyes of Lalume (the succulent Dolores Gray), wife of the Wazir, while Blyth meets a young man (Damone) she assumes is a gardener who is really, of all people, the caliph! The young man is in danger of loosing his throne to usurpers (most obviously, the evil Wazir, played by "Family Affair's" Mr. French, Sebastian Cabot) but ultimately, as Keel sings, fate will take care of that. Gray makes her entrance in the most luscious of ways, singing "Not Since Ninevah" with a chorus of female Asian warriors "Bagdad! Don't Underestimate Bagdad!" she sings, leading into the fiery production number that practically stops the whole show even before it barely starts. And then when she breaks into "Bored", you know you've got the type of female that could never just settle for being the Wazir's wife; The insinuations are obvious, especially when Keel and Gray duet on "Rahadlakum" The romantic entanglement of Blyth and Damone doesn't stop the show cold like some young romances do; In fact, it spruces it up with their other musical number "Night of My Nights".
Nearing the end of the Arthur Freed/Vincent Minnelli era (MGM was slowly dissolving their contract player list), "Kismet" didn't do as well as they had hoped, but like their 1948 pairing, "The Pirate", I think it holds up better today. It might not fare so well on stage (revivals in both L.A. and New York's concert musical series have gotten mixed reviews for the comic material), but oh, what a pleasure it is to hear.