TCM just aired 1945's A Thousand And One Nights as part of their 31 Days of Oscar - (Nights was nominated for Best Art Direction and Best Special Effects), and the reason it's better than any other Aladdin movie is because of Phil Silvers. Silvers plays Abdullah, Aladdin's pocket picking best friend, and he injects (then) modern humour into this classic tale of magic lamps and princesses. You know this ain't your typical fantasy when Silvers wears a fanciful version of his trademark specs throughout the movie, and is allowed to use zany one liners. The genie (played by the lively Evelyn Keyes) is also a spitfire, insisting Aladdin calls her Babs, and sabotaging his wedding to the princess when she gets jealous. Why Aladdin (played by the oh so boring Cornel Wilde) didn't fall for this hotsy totsy genie is beyond me. That's all beside the point, because the character I'm most interested in, Abdullah, gets a happy ending of his own. It doesn't make a lick of sense, but Silvers gets the "Frankie" treatment - a glorious head of hair, perfect vision and an audience of real bobby soxers to sing to. This last scene of the movie is glorious on its own and uses a real recording of Sinatra singing All or Nothing At All. It's one of the great final gags.
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