Bowery to Bagdad

In ancient Bagdad, Aladdin's lamp goes missing and the ruler orders an exhaustive search. Generation after generation, his men continue the search. In modern New York City, Sach buys the magic lamp from a pawn shop. Gangsters are threatening Louie so that he would sell the shop. Sach releases the Genie and is granted wishes. The gangsters intend to steal it.

The concept should be funnier. I expected wackier wishes being granted. It's all a little disappointing. I'm not saying that The Bowery Boys is high concept comedy. I do wish that this is smarter with a fun premise. I also never like comedies which resort to gun fire. The last wish is probably the only good one.

Either you like The Bowery Boys or you don't....and this film clearly is for devoted fans. Its silly quotient is certainly higher than normal, that's for sure!

When the film begins, Sach (Huntz Hall) has found a magic lamp and when he rubs it, out pops a very odd genie (Eric Blore). It offers to grant him any wish (not just three) but because Sach is an idiot, he offers to share it with Slip (Leo Gorcey). But then Slip gives him an odd order--the genie can only grant wishes if BOTH he Sach and Slip agree on it. This is interesting because soon two teams of crooks show up and try to take the lamp. But even when they get it, the genie is bound by Slip's command...he cannot do any wishes until both of the 'boys' (actually both were in their mid-late 30s) agree.

Even for a Bowery Boys film, having a genie appearing and disappearing is highly unusual and rather dumb. Overall, the film does nothing to convert non-fans and might actually make a few fans think twice about their love for the Boys! Only okay...with lots of folks bonking each other on the heads, a goofy genie and nothing more.

The title is misleading: about 95% of "Bowery to Bagdad" takes place in a New York penthouse, where people are running around knocking each other on the head. As you can gather from that description, this is not exactly the fantasy epic you might expect from a movie about a magic lamp and a centuries-old genie. There also seem to be no consistent rules for when the genie can appear - sometimes you have to rub the lamp, sometimes he appears at his own will. With that said, Eric Blore, with his dry delivery as the genie, is the best thing in the film. There are also some nice special effects. ** out of 4.

Slip and Sach get their hands on a magic lamp with a genie (Eric Blore) inside. It's the thirty-sixth entry in the series and, while it's far from the best, it is enjoyable enough thanks in large part to the inimitable Eric Blore in his final film. Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall mostly go through the motions but they do have some amusing moments. Of course, Bernard Gorcey is funny as Louie. The rest of the gang is, as usual, background furniture. Although David Gorcey manages to get a few lines this time, so good for him. The supporting cast is what keeps the movie afloat. There's Robert Bice, Dick Wessell, and Michael Ross as three gangsters who want the lamp for themselves. Joan Shawlee plays a sexy moll and handles herself quite well with the comedy, including a couple of fun scenes bantering with Hall. Pretty much all of the movie's highlights involve Blore, a wonderful comic actor who played in over eighty films in his twenty plus years in Hollywood.

Still watching the Bowery Boys these days, and they're still fun. BOWERY TO BAGDAD has to be one of their more kooky episodes, only because as the series progressed, particularly in the 1950s, the plots became more insane and Huntz Hall was unleashed to do whatever he wanted to do!

Credit veteran comedy writer and director Edward Bernds, whose name may be familiar because he directed scores of Three Stooges shorts. There was a marked difference between the Bowery Boys films of the 1940s and the 1950s. Originally, the films had a comedy/drama slant, but by the next decade, all that went by the wayside with the Bowery Boys more comic book characters and with a sci fi or supernatural theme, case in point here. They conjure up a magical genie.

The series also had many notable character actors and Eric Blore, in his last film role, was well cast and probably well paid for his funny portrayal of a genie, who also gets drunk. Gorcey's father, Bernard, who played Louie, worked well with Blore; they both chewed up the scenery in one super scene.

But it's Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall who set off the fireworks with a host of one liners and crazy situations. Thankfully, Warner Brothers acquired the rights to these comedies and first sold part of the series on vhs, but now all episodes come in dvd box sets and in mint condition, with no edits. So, yes, still crazy after all these years. We love them.