Scanialara
You won't be disappointed!
Lovesusti
The Worst Film Ever
Matialth
Good concept, poorly executed.
Jonah Abbott
There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
mark.waltz
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.
ChorusGirl
One of the last big MGM musicals, and who expected they would return to the 1929 early talkie format?...nail the camera to a seat in the 10th row, have people stand around and talk--and then move over here and talk some more, don't edit out anything no matter superfluous or expendable it is, let everyone give hammy Vaudeville performances, and stage completely static musical numbers (there's even a pageant...like out of an old Ziegfeld show). It's as though there had been NO advances in film-making in the previous 20 years.On the upside...the score is excellent, and if you rent the 2008 DVD (contained in "Musicals from The Dream Factory Vol 3"), you will get a sense of what real, movie palace stereo used to sound like. Also, like most early Cinemascope movies, it is super duper wide, which is always thrilling to look at on a widescreen TV (even if the subject matter is as anemic as this). Note the gaudy costumes...designed by none other than Tony Duquette, the famed interior designer.
Throndinalkar
Back in the 70's, Eartha Kitt, Melba Moore and a young Obba Babatunde among others, starred on Broadway, in a lavish all black adaptation of Kismet. It was called Timbuktu. I enjoyed it immensely. Unfortunately, it seems as though there is no film record of this glorious adaptation. So I will have to carry it's memory around in my heart.It wasn't until the early 80's that I managed to catch Kismet on late night TV. Despite the fact that I saw them in reverse order, Kismet did come first. And although my perception of it's charms are colored by my prior exposure to Timbuktu, I must say that Howard Keel and his fellow cast members deliver outstanding performances.I highly recommend it.
thebun
Kismet's main problem is that it is not timeless. The playwright, scriptwriter, director, whoever, decided to put in a bunch of stuff that simply shreiks 50's. The song 'bored' is an example, as is the arrival of the three princesses of ababu (or whatever it is). If this story could have this crap removed, and replaced with some believable (and tasteful) Bagdad Arabian Nights stuff, then the wonderful songs like 'stranger in paradise' would have a proper frame. As it is, the music is trying to shore up a third-rate story. Is such a thing possible? It's like South Pacific, which with some massaging of the dialog, could be vastly improved, without changing the story. This music really deserves better.