The Magic Carpet

This low budget adventure stars John Agar, Raymond Burr of TV's Perry Mason, and a very pregnant Lucille Ball The poor production values used to make this movie give it the look of a Technicolor, Three Stooges episode. It's really too bad I would have enjoyed a good Arabian Adventure, starring Lucille Ball!

I expected far worse from this Sam Katzman production. Far far worse. But it is actually an excellent little Arabian Nights programmer, in the right line of the Universal Studios movies from the forties and fifties, directed by the likes of John Rawlins, Arthur Lubin, George Waggner or George Sherman, starring Maria Montez or later Maureen O'Hara and Piper Laurie. I was very enjoying this One Thousand and One Nights programer. Maybe because of the Lew Landers influence as a director on Katzman, I quite don't know. It is colorful, splendid photography for this kind of grade B stuff. Yes, very good and entertaining movie.

I totally disagree with some previous comments. It seems as though everyone wants message films, or biting dialog for a picture to be great. Whatever happened to films being made strictly for entertainment sake. If you are looking for academy award performances forget it, but for a rainy afternoon and you just want some simple escapism then this is just the thing. The interesting thing about the whole movie was how Lucille Ball foiled all of the bigwigs who tried to put the screws to her by offering her this movie to fulfill her contract obligation. they all thought she would turn them down but she fooled them and accepted and as soon as the film wrapped she was gone.

THE MAGIC CARPET is great fun. A Sam Katzman Supercinecolor bargain counter costume extravaganza with Lucille Ball and John Agar... what's not to like? It made me want to see Monogram's ALADDIN and HIAWATHA made he same year also in Super cine-color... which I thought was fantastic and rich in every mad hue possible. What a calling card for Super Cinecolor! You actually could have a whole weekend watching all these films and top it off with RKOs SON OF SINBAD. Any scene with Lucy and a very confused Raymond Burr is hilarious and she clearly is between TV shows and running not walking through this silly funny film. Tin swords that clatter, people stamping about on the floor, and a flying carpet that looks like a stiff beach towel..... yippee! It's a masterpiece of razzle dazzle cine-color whizziness. See it and laugh.

Lucille Ball didn't have to do THE MAGIC CARPET and chose to make it just to finish off her contract with Columbia and move onto her planned new TV show, and we all know the result of THAT. Columbia did not believe that Ball would accept the role in this film, but she outfoxed them all and played the villainess in this Arabian Nights-type fun film. I saw it initially when it was first released, and I LOVE LUCY was already a smash hit on the tube. It was the second half of a double bill, and the audience enjoyed every minute. It was an unintentional(??) riot to see Ball so out of the character that we had come to expect already from LUCY. The SRO audience hooted, laughed, giggled, and had a great time. I don't even recall what the main feature was.... But THE MAGIC CARPET is still remembered, and I would love to find a copy.