Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp

I've seen many silent films in the past; but not a one so amusingly adorable as Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp.

First thing you must know is that children portray the lead characters of the story. This is an artistic choice most famously found in Alan Parker's 1976 musical Bugsy Malone. But it seems that Chester and Sidney Franklin beat Parker to the punch almost 60 years prior. Sure it's silly a tad bit crude; however we are drawn to the delightfulness that is the child-acting of adult characters. This brings out a playful, innocent quality to the film that Bugsy Malone fails to capture.

Once again, the film is One-hundred years old and with age comes stress. This film is choppy, not only since editing wasn't even close to being perfected in 1917, but also because film preservation isn't exactly the easiest thing to accomplish. We should be thankful that a great film like this is even available to us. Many films from the same year are long lost or likely destroyed.

To my understanding, the film holds a much stronger resemblance to the original folk-tale than Disney's 1992 animated feature. I can appreciate both adaptations; though, I must weigh in favor of the Franklin bros. as my little way of raging against the machine (i.e. Disney) and since Aladdin is not one of Disney's strongest renaissance era films. I find that a lot of the blunders in Disney's Aladdin go unnoticed. And perhaps my claiming that the Franklin brothers' 1917 hidden gem is better than Disney's mainstream hit just might lure you into watching it yourself.

The common people have always liked old stories about fantastic places where the most bizarre events can happen, the weirder, the better. Such unfortunates especially enjoy those tales that involve incredible hidden treasures or the chance to be a millionaire instantly and without effort; such fantasies provide a little hope to their miserable lives.

Well, logically, aristocrats are not very fond of those stories overall because they have always enjoyed riches and privileges so they are not much impressed by classic literature such as "Aladdin And The Wonderful Lamp", an oeuvre that was adapted for the screen by the duo of Herr Chester und Sidney Franklin in the silent year of 1917.

The film captures and enhances the spirit of the literary text, showing wonderful and luxurious décors and customs besides careful and fascinating special effects, striking for an early silent film production. It illustrates the fascination that the East always had for Westerners and that means a lot of clichés, natürlich!.

The film has a curious aspect; having in mind that this is a classic story that can be enjoyed by elders and youngsters, the principal characters of the film were played by children, those dangerous people that fortunately soften their cruel attitudes once they grow up. This gives the film a special charm and originality.

Those small performers are supported by adult actors but the little over actors play their roles quite well, focusing their efforts on exaggerating attitudes, feelings and behaviours that suit the exotic, fantastic and typical Eastern atmosphere of the film. Of course the original literary text is abridged ( if the directors hadn't done that and, having in mind that the story of Aladdin is included in the literary masterpiece "Thousand And One Arabian Nights", well, the film would have had an excessive running time ) but the essence and the magic of the original story are there in this "mini" version of the tale.

In spite of the fact that aristocrats see the film with indifference due to already having luxury and excess in their Schloss ( in the aristocratic case, the genie of the lamp would be the one that would have to ask for wishes… ) or because the slaves ( servants nowadays ) do whatever their masters ask without complaint, the film can still be enjoyed very much by people of any age, a beautiful film full of magical atmosphere and adventure in what is a naïve, skillful, concise and excellent adaptation of a classic text of the world literature.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must ask the genie of the lamp to do the Schloss housework.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com/

In this wonderful 'slapstick' the main characters are all under the age of ten. I think their performance is very good. It has nice special effects and of course a nice story. I saw the German/French version on 'Arte' which was OK despite of the alteration of the introduction and credit titles.