Produced by the new Universal in the swingin' 60's, this is a throwback to the type of pictures they had done in the 1940's. You remember, those colorful adventure fantasies with exotic performers like Maria Montez, Sabu, Turhan Bey and Jon Hall. Now there's equally exotic performers-Tony Randall, Barbara Eden, Edward Andrews, and the most exotic of them all, Burl Ives. Big Daddy puts away his stetson and replaces them with ancient Arabic clothing as he gets out of the titled brass bottle (imprisoned centuries before by King Solomon the Wise) and freed by Randall who is anxious to prove that what he hoped was an antique was not, as suggested, made in Japan.
Engaged to the future Jeannie, Randall keeps messing up in her father Edward Andrews' eyes, and after losing his job thanks to Ives' interference, creates more tension with his father- in-law to be. The sensual atmosphere of the 1960's mixes with the camp comedy of the 1940's to create a fun family film.
Randall's a charming leading man, especially trying on a girdle, but it is Ives of course who ends up the scene stealer. He's the Edmund Gwenn and Cecil Kellaway of the 60's, adding the genie to Gwenn's Santa Claus and Kellaway's leprechaun of fantasy characters. There will be much curiosity over Eden involved in this project considering her involvement with another brass bottle just a few years later. It really does seem like a combination of "I Dream of Jeannie" and "Bewitched" episodes, especially by mixing business into the pleasure.
Engaged to the future Jeannie, Randall keeps messing up in her father Edward Andrews' eyes, and after losing his job thanks to Ives' interference, creates more tension with his father- in-law to be. The sensual atmosphere of the 1960's mixes with the camp comedy of the 1940's to create a fun family film.
Randall's a charming leading man, especially trying on a girdle, but it is Ives of course who ends up the scene stealer. He's the Edmund Gwenn and Cecil Kellaway of the 60's, adding the genie to Gwenn's Santa Claus and Kellaway's leprechaun of fantasy characters. There will be much curiosity over Eden involved in this project considering her involvement with another brass bottle just a few years later. It really does seem like a combination of "I Dream of Jeannie" and "Bewitched" episodes, especially by mixing business into the pleasure.