Arabian Adventure (1979)

The Rose Of Arabia.

Arabian Adventure is directed by Kevin Connor and written by Brian Hayles. It stars Christopher Lee, Milo O'Shea, Oliver Tobias, Emma Samms and Puneet Sira. Music is by Ken Thorne and cinematography by Alan Hume.

A prince is sent by an evil sorcerer (Lee) on a quest for a magical rose. Should he succeed, he hopes that as a reward he will win the hand of the princess.

Sometimes to moderately enjoy a film of this type, you just got to take yourself back to a time when simple children's adventure movies were made with simple film making techniques. This obviously doesn't hold up well these days, where even given the year it was made it was way behind advancements that were being made in special effects. Thus it's highly unlikely that the prepubescents of today would have the patience or care for such a production. Yet it doesn't lack for charm.

Is charm enough? Well it's not a great or very good film, it's heavy on chatter, the effects are indeed a little crude, acting and accents are borderline dire, and it seems to take an age to get going, yet it's not insulting like many far bigger budget pictures have been: even nowadays! It's best just to roll with it, enjoy the whimsy and the many small roles by the likes of Peter Cushing, Mickey Rooney, Capucine and, erm, John Ratzenberger.

Forgettable once it's over, but harmless with it. 5/10

This last film of the Kevin Connor/John Dark series of fantasy adventures, which I recall fondly from my childhood, sees Christopher Lee as "Alquazar", an evil sorcerer who manages to trick the lovestruck Oliver Tobias ("Prince Hasan") into setting off on a perilous journey for the all-powerful "Rose of Elil" which will earn him the hand of the beautiful Emma Sands ("Princess Zuilera"). Along the way he has a many adventures on his magic carpet; picks up the obligatory street-rat "Majeed" (Puneet Sira) and encounters magic and evil as he tries to fulfil his quest. It's a traditional Arabian Nights type story with sumptuous costumes and sets, and Lee is great as the baddie. A marvellously obsequious Milo O'Shea, Peter Cushing, Capucine and an all-too-brief series of scenes with Mickey Rooney make this more of an adventure story than a romantic one; and I quite enjoyed it.