It took a minimum
of three directors to realize, but Miles Malleson alone is credited with
working out Lajos Biró’s scenario.
It is the true
Arabian Nights material.
John Justin and Sabu
(and Rex Ingram as the genie) fill the screen for Douglas Fairbanks, Vincent
Korda takes over from Menzies (who participates), a unique style is
precipitated by all these means and the many attentions of the directors, who
are not only attentive to the style they have produced but also unremittingly
brilliant in its execution.
Ahmad the King
and his wicked Vizier, the Sultan of Basra and his mechanical toys, the
Sultan’s daughter whom no-one outside the palace may look upon, and the title
character revealed in the fullness of time to be a prince in his own right, in
a great mystic parable akin to Christian symbolism.