This obscure 60's bit of Arabian nights hokum features Jeff Cooper as Omar, a young prince who returns to the Muslim kingdom of Granada, to find the land under the thumb of villainous Hixem (Raf Vallone) a sneering, vulture-eyed tyrant (aren't they all?) While trying to raise forces to restore the throne to its rightful ruler, Omar coincidentally happens upon a bottle bearing Mizziana (Luciana Paluzzi from THUNDERBALL), a gorgeous and buxom genie of the Barbara Eden mold. Together with his comic servant Ali (Rueben Rojo), Omar and Mizzianna work to overthrow Hixem, while getting entangled in a love triangle involving Hixem's favorite concubine (Perla Cristal).
Like so many of the cornball sword & sandal movies from the same decade, this involves your archetypal beefy hero in period outfits out trying to free the palace in dubbed dialog. Surprisingly, it's a well written piece, with lots of tongue-in-cheek humor and actually a few moving moments, such as when Hixem frees one of his slaves, unexpectedly revealing his more compassionate side. And I wonder, being a Spanish-Italian co production, if there was any anti-Franco references in Omar's attempts to "restore freedom for Granada" against the tyrant. If so, it gives otherwise standard adventure fare a bit of edge.
Of course, being an Arabian nights bit of hokum, it has to have Paluzzi in skimpy genie outfits, plus other gorgeous bikini models posing as harem girls. Plus, there's a nice erotic bit of belly dancing that clearly made an impact on my own impressionable adolescent mind when I first saw it. It never ceases to amaze me how much visible sexual content could make its way into Arabian Nights fodder. Some undulating, dark-eyed vixen with a jewel in her navel always gave these movies a sensual air of oriental eroticism, all the more daring in that they were usually granted G-ratings for the kid matinées, as in the case of THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD or SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER. Not that I'm complaining.
