A Thousand and One Nights (1945)

It's harder to get much sillier than A Thousand and One Nights, but in this instance silly pays off. This take-off on the familiar Aladdin tale may confuse some modern viewers with references that were so up-to-the-moment in 1945 but are ancient history now, but it's all done with such sparkle and such a sense of fun that most viewers will just shrug at the dated aspects and move on. Nothing in Nights is played very straight, and the result is not too far off from what Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour were doing whenever they went on "the Road." In Cornel Wilde, Nights doesn't have an actor with the same flair for comedy as Hope or Crosby, but he knows his way around a sword fight and knows enough not to take himself too seriously. Phil Silvers, fortunately, knows how to land a laugh line and takes advantage of this at every opportunity. Evelyn Keyes and Adele Jurgens make for some attractive distractions, and the supporting cast features a number of character actors that certainly know their stuff. Surprisingly, given that it's a Columbia picture, it even has a lush physical production, not to mention some great Technicolor photography. It all adds up to a very silly film -- but a very enjoyable one as well. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide