User Reviews

Often overshadowed these days by the musical version which came a decade later, this film by William Dieterle has the distinction of being one of the best examples of a 1940s Technicolor film there is. And with colour, no one shone out from the screen more than Marlene Dietrich. Here she is as Jamilla, garlanded in gold and looking positively luminous - her appearance in this movie alone would justify watching it.

Ronald Colman, that debonair English actor, plays the role of the beggar, Hafiz (which would be memorably played by Howard Keel in the musical). He's a little starchy and looks prematurely middle-aged, but he was always a very good actor, and here is no exception. James Craig is colourless as the Caliph but Edward Arnold and Hugh Herbert add humour as the Grand Vizier and Feisal.

The strength of this 'Kismet' though it definitely how it looks. It is how the films of the golden era were at their peak, and this version doesn't get shown on TV anywhere near enough.

More Arabian Nights stuff, this time emanating from the studio where the lion roared: according to the Internet Movie Database, there are twenty (count 'em) films that go by the name of KISMET and, although the Vincente Minnelli-Howard Keel musical version is the best-known of the lot, this earlier straight adaptation starring Ronald Colman and Marlene Dietrich is perhaps the best-regarded. For the record, I do have the former on VHS but won't have time to catch it just now and, of all the rest, I'm mostly interested in the 1930 German version (there was another one made in Hollywood the same year) which, like the film under review, was directed by William Dieterle! Speaking of which, I don't quite understand the reasoning of Warner Brothers (who have inherited DVD distribution rights to the MGM film library) behind recently releasing the 1955 version on this format on its own (so to speak, since it actually forms part of a Musical Collection) rather than coupled with the earlier version.

Aged 53, Ronald Colman still cuts a strikingly handsome figure (even when dressed as a beggar) and his silvery hairline is amusingly obscured by the most unseemly of turbans for all but one scene in the film's latter stages. Equally splendid-looking is his 43-year old German co-star who, in the film's most celebrated sequence that was, ironically, later cut for TV screenings because of its 'erotic' content(!), has her legs painted in gold for a veiled dance number before the court of evil Grand Vizier Edward Arnold and Colman (who dubs himself the King of Beggars by day but moonlights as a sovereign of a far-away land). Given the maturing age of the two leads, it's no wonder that two younger actors were recruited in the persons of James Craig (as the Caliph of Bagdad who likes to go incognito through the streets of his kingdom as a gardener's son) and the late Joy Page (Colman's secreted daughter); she had made a memorable screen debut in CASABLANCA (1942) and died earlier this year aged 83.

The cast is rounded up by Florence Bates (as Colman's nagging in-law), Harry Davenport (as Craig's wily adviser) and Hugh Herbert (as one of Colman's would-be comic-relief sidekicks). As was to be expected from Hollywood's premier studio, no expense was spared in bringing this opulent costumer to the screen – including shooting in eye-filling Technicolor amidst impressively-constructed sets – and this effort was rewarded by garnering the film four Academy Award nominations in that year's ceremony…although, as had been the case (and would be again) with similar Oriental ventures, the nominees all went home empty-handed!

This is not a bad movie, but it is not an important one. Made in the last decade of Ronald Colman's active career as a movie star, KISMET seems to be an odd choice for him. Normally he was playing English gentlemen types - Rudolph Rassendyll in THE PRISONER OF ZENDA, or Robert Conway in LOST HORIZON or Dick Helgar in THE LIGHT THAT FAILED. If he played Americans, they were the Supreme Court Candidate in THE TALK OF THE TOWN or the title character Boston Brahman in THE LATE GEORGE APLEY. Here he was playing the philosophical thief Hafiz of 11th Century Baghdad. An odd choice indeed.

To begin with, as he is playing an Arab, there was nothing physically "semitic" about Colman to suggest a citizen of Baghdad. However, the producers must have thought of him as a good example of a cultured type (Hafiz sprouts proverbs and examples of Middle Eastern wisdom), so he fit half the requirement. Still, it might have been better to have used someone who might have looked more like a citizen of the "fertile crescent". Robert Donat would have made a better choice.

Secondly, if they had to do a story about ancient Islam at it's zenith of glory and power, why did they choose KISMET? It is an old play by Edward Knobloch which was written about 1910 and became the favorite starring part for the then great stage character actor Otis Skinner.* In fact, Skinner did a film version of the play in the silent period. But while not the worst example of a well made piece of hokum, it remains hokum. Skinner was quite well identified with the central role, but he died in 1942. It may be that Paramount felt they could get away with this just because he was no longer around.

*Skinner's career, like so many of his contemporary stars like Richard Mansfield and Henry Irving can only be judged by snips and brief glimpses of their work - if they made an early silent film or even sound film (George M. Cohan in THE PHANTOM PRESIDENT comes to mind) we can see something of what they were like. Irving actually made surviving gramophone recordings of Shakespearean parts. In Skinner's case, most people who recall him at all today probably do so because Charlie Ruggles played him in the movie OUR HEARTS WERE YOUNG AND GAY which was based on a book by Skinner's daughter Cornelia Otis Skinner. If you can find the 1961 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, the article on "Make-up" had a page of photographs of Otis Skinner in a dozen roles, including Hajjj (the actual name of Hafiz's character - the real "Hafiz" is the greatest of Persia's poets).

Still the studio went to great lengths - they made it a color film (a rarity for Colman, by the way). They gave the two other best parts to the capable Edward Arnold as the evil Vizier, and to Marlene Dietrich as the Vizier's sexy (and bored) wife. This film reunited James Craig and Arnold (formerly together in THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER) with Craig as the Caliph. Except for romancing Joy Page as Colman's daughter, Craig really has little to do here. He's a target for Arnold's ambitious murder plans. Old Harry Davenport is the wise old Chancellor - a comparative figure of good to the evil Arnold.

It's serviceable and no more. You watch KISMET and you won't be bored, but you will not be enthralled by it. Colman does try to bring some additional juice to Hafiz. When threatened with banishment he seems genuinely surprised, hurt, and horrified - like being told he will now be a fish out of water, although he can live anywhere else in the empire. There are also some humorous moments, such as the threatened plan to punish Colman (in this film he is threatened with punishment several times) by cutting off his hands - he was captured as a thief. His anticipated looks at this imprisoned, chained down fists are surprisingly amusing. But the screenplay keeps going from mock philosophy to comedy to romance to melodrama. The ride is made as smooth as possible, but it seems like it's on old fashioned back roads.

So, I will say the film can be watched - but stick to THE LATE GEORGE APLEY or RANDOM HARVEST or A DOUBLE LIFE or CHAMPAIGN FOR CAESAR to get a better glimpse at Colman's acting strengths. He was just treading water here.

Third movie version of popular story involving beggar/magician in Bagdad who impersonates a prince. Meanwhile, the beggar's daughter falls for a camel-boy who's really a prince in disguise! Somehow, Marlene Dietrich gets shoehorned in playing sheltered royalty who rebels by doing a hot dance routine which must've been pretty risqué for 1944 (she's slathered in gold paint). MGM adventure does a nice job rewriting the original play by Edward Knoblock, featuring a colorful production and welcome comedic elements. It's jaunty fun with a fairly fast pace, hindered only by Ronald Coleman's miscasting in the lead (and his surprising lack of chemistry opposite Dietrich). Nominated for four Oscars, including Charles Rosher for his cinematography. Remade as a musical in 1955. **1/2 from ****

I've always felt that the technicolor used in the 1940s constituted some of the best color photography ever seen on film. KISMET is no exception. The color is ravishing, with pastel hues for the sets and costumes in interior scenes and ranks with the best color cinematography of any of the '40s films.

Unfortunately, the vehicle itself is weak and Ronald Colman is not the most suitable choice for the role of the scheming beggar. I admire Colman and he uses his speaking voice to marvelous effect but it's hard to see any chemistry between him and Marlene Dietrich, nor does he seem agile enough in the role. She plays the seductive charmer with all of the glamour she is noted for, including a sensuous dance with her famous gams painted gold. Too bad she wasn't given more screen time since hers is the film's most interesting performance.

James Craig had some decent roles in the '40s but here he is totally bland and colorless as the prince that Colman's daughter is in love with--only she knows him as a common gardener. The improbable plot is a thin one but made bearable by the exquisite photography, busy musical background score and some good character actors. Edward Arnold has a major villainous supporting role and seems to be thoroughly enjoying himself.

In my opinion, the '55 musical remake with Howard Keel in the Colman part showed us just how good the role of the beggar could have been if Colman played it more tongue-in-cheek. Keel was more physically right for the role, as well. Unfortunately, Colman always looked on the verge of middle-age in most of his roles, no matter how early the films were!

Trivia: this KISMET was nominated for four Academy Awards: color cinematography, art direction, background score and sound recording. If the Best Costume category had been recognized then, it no doubt would have been nominated in that category too.

This 1944 "Kismet" was supposedly an enormous and expensive MGM production.

Filmed in color, the film stars Ronald Colman, Marlene Dietrich, Joy Page, James Craig, and Edward Arnold.

There are songs in this movie, not memorable -- it's not the Broadway musical that Vincente Minnelli directed in film form starring Howard Keel.

Set in Baghdad, Colman plays Hafiz, who calls himself the King of the Beggars by day and by night plays the role of royalty from a foreign land. He has a daughter, Marsinah, and now that she's older, he realizes that he promised her the world and isn't going to be able to deliver.

Marsinah is content, however -- she's in love with a gardener's son (James Craig) who is really the Caliph of Baghdad but likes to go incognito. So Hafiz goes incognito as wealthy and the Caliph goes incognito as poor.

Hafiz poses as a dignitary and manages to get into the palace of the Grand Vizier. He's determined to have his daughter become part of the household; also, he's in love with sovereign from a distant land and romances the beautiful Jamilla (wife and queen of the grand Vizier).

The big scene in this is Dietrich's dance, with her legs painted gold. As always, she is incredible and beautiful.

Colman is a little old for Hafiz, but in this version, he has a teenage daughter. He's terrific as the sly beggar. As his daughter, Joy Page is lovely and innocent. She was Jack Warner's stepdaughter, not that it did her much good. She is still remembered as the young Bulgarian woman whose virtue is saved by Bogie in "Casablanca."

The sets are obviously backdrops and studio builds. But somehow, one believes it's a foreign land. The color is beautiful.

The musical numbers, except for Marlene's dance, are on the dull side. In the musical Kismet, the songs were fashioned from the music of Aleksandr Borodin, the melodies of which are very familiar, particularly Stranger in Paradise, and And This is My Beloved.

So this isn't Howard Keel, Ann Blyth, and Delores Gray; it's Colman, Page, and Dietrich. Since it's not a musical, that's more than good enough.

In Baghdad, King of Beggars Ronald Colman tries to swindle Joy Page into marriage with Caliph James Craig and Marlene Dietrich into his bed.

MGM offers the old Edward Knoblock potboiler as a play on an infinite stage, with the glass shots clearly paintings and the set designs cyclopean. Miss Dietrich gives an erotic dance, Miss Page is winsome, Edward Arnold plays the chortling villain, and Craig offers a performance that one contemporary critic remarked was "Baghdad on the Swanee".

It's clear that director William Dieterle doesn't take any of this seriously, but instead offers a travesty of spectacle. This was 1944, after all, and MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS would make enough money to pay for the entire operation of Culver City for the year. This was ham gravy, another sign of the clogging of MGM's hardening of the arteries, and enormous fun on a big screen.

Despite the full Hollywood treatment (the best sets, color cinematography and actors available), this movie was amazingly ordinary AT BEST. Much of it might be the extreme silliness of the plot and terrible miscasting of Coleman and ESPECIALLY Dietrich as Arabs! If you want to see BETTER similar films of the era, try Kim (with Dean Stockwell and Errol Flynn) or the superlative Thief of Bagdad (with Sabu). Both these movies are MUCH better written and succeed in sweeping the viewer away to a magical world of adventure, while Kismet just seems pretty but dopey--in fact, REALLY dopey. If you don't believe me, look at the pictures of Dietrich and her ridiculous hair styles in the IMDb gallery.

This is one of the few Ronald Coleman films I dislike (the other being the VERY dull Story of Mankind).

KISMET is the only film that Marlene DIETRICH made for MGM, the hottest studio in Hollywood at the time. Directed by William DIETERLE, who was born in Ludwigshafen, she plays a dancer at the court of the caliph, who has to assert himself against a scheming grand vizier.

DIETRICH is allowed to show off her gold-dusted legs and falls in love with a thief (Ronald COLMAN) who poses as a prince. Very naive oriental fairy tale, with the opulence you would expect from MGM, but also very scenic. DIETRICH has nothing oriental about him, but he is allowed to wear breathtaking costumes that the guys from the Hays Code definitely got their teeth into.

Whew! Beautiful colors! But that's it. Remember "Ninotchka?" "Garbo laughs"? Well, in this movie, Edward Arnold, as the evil vizier, laughs and laughs and laughs, and he's not nearly as good looking. And the two young lovers? There is a reason James Craig is not remembered, he has trouble speaking English with any clarity, rhythm or sincerity. And Joy Page, in the words of Humphrey Bogart, should "go back to Bulgaria." (Yes, that was her. James Craig was the second loser she picked for a husband.) Dietrich provides comedy relief, sounding exactly like Madeline Kahn in "Blazing Saddles." Thank goodness they at least have Hugh Herbert popping up from time to time...and, well, don't tell anyone but I LIKED Ronald Colman in this one....And we haven't even gotten to the truly jaw-dropping (as in bad) special effects. If you want to feel good about yourself at someone else's expense, watch.

Had Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg written anything memorable from this version of Kismet, Robert Wright and Chet Forrest might not have ever adapted Alexander Borodin's music to make their acclaimed version of Kismet in the fifties. We should all be the poorer for that.

Music is the weak spot in this version of Kismet, the songs sung by Joy Page and Marlene Dietrich aren't anything memorable. But classical American actor Otis Skinner who created the role of Hajj on Broadway back in 1911 is replaced by probably the only man in Hollywood who could have made that Edwardian dialog palatable to modern ears. Of course that would be Ronald Colman, a man I could get joy listening to him recite Buffalo Phone Directory.

This was one of MGM's biggest productions in the Forties, they splurged for technicolor and if you're going to have Marlene Dietrich play the seductive princess go for the gold. Lots of delightful cries emerged from cinema audiences when those golden painted legs of Dietrich were shown. Even on television they're still quite a sight.

Unfortunately the sound version of Kismet that Otis Skinner made in 1930 for Warner Brothers appears to be a lost film so we can't compare his interpretation of the lead with Colman. But in watching Colman's performance it seemed to be his Francois Villon aged so that he now had a teenage daughter. Anyway, it works beautifully.

James Craig is the earnest young caliph who I kept expecting to sing A Stranger in Paradise and Edward Arnold is the villainous vizier. Mr. Arnold played him like the political boss of ancient Bagdad.

MGM also filmed the better known musical version of Kismet with Howard Keel, Ann Blyth, and Vic Damone putting their marvelous voices to that classical score. That version has the music no doubt, but this one has Colman and Dietrich, so take your choice and you can't go wrong with either.

This seldom seen non-musical version has Ronald Colman as the beggar who tries to pass his daughter off as a princess in the Baghdad of the Arabian Nights. Colman was not a bad actor and when cast in tosh like "Lost Horizon" or "Random Harvest" managed to bring a touch of class to the daft proceedings, but this is way too camp even for Colman, ("I suppose queens do play around the streets of Baghdad at night", says Harry Davenport's old Agha at one point). His performance is a mixture of urbanity and dullness.

The queen he is in love with is played by Marlene Dietrich with her blonde hair piled on her head like a snake and with her thick Tuetonic accent is even more out of place than Colman. When she moves she is like a drag-queen ill-at-ease in her costume. The young lovers are James Craig, that hunk of beefcake culled from ham, and someone called Joy Ann Page. Charles Rosher's colour photography is a bonus but really, this makes the Minelli version look like a masterpiece.

Color was beautiful, Coleman a delight and thats it. I never watched a more ridiculous dance routine that Dietrich displayed. All she did was prancing around in so-called seductive poses, rather than actually dance, exhibiting what was then called Hollywood's best looking gams. Sorry, Betty Grable was still the queen of the legs department. BTW, I was sort of shocked, if that is the right word, where at the beginning of the credits, it said Starring Ronald Coleman in Kismet, with Marlene Dietrich. She didn't even get co-star billing, and the role was not a cameo. The chorus girls had definitely better movements than she. Of course they are professional dancers..not Marlene.

Ronald Colman and Edward Arnold (even as a villain) furnish most of the otherwise inadequate charm of this bit of Arabian nights cotton candy that tells of the "King Of the Beggars" who masquerades as a prince each evening while the true local royalty, the Caliph, also roams the streets of Baghdad by night, disguised as a peasant to learn what his subjects really think of him. A premise with promise; full potential unrealized.

Marlene Dietrich, while contributing to the decor, is largely wasted as Colman's love interest, a captive queen amused by his extravagant lies but unaware of his true identity. Her best moments come during her verbal sparring matches with Arnold. Colman, as always, makes the most of his role which, if not tailor made for him, certainly appears that way. James Craig gives it a gallant try, but is sorely miscast as the Caliph. Had wartime not curtailed Hollywood's supply of young leading men, Craig's participation herein would have been unlikely. It was simply too much to ask to bend his corn-fed, all-American, big lug nice guy type to the part, and MGM might better have borrowed Turhan Bey from Universal. The Technicolor camera seems to like Joy Page, appearing as Colman's daughter in her second film, but her role gives her fewer opportunities as an actress than her first appearance (in "Casablanca," as the Bulgarian newlywed whose husband tries to win money for exit visas at the roulette table). An almost unrecognizable Florence Bates has a couple good moments as Colman's household servant (begging pays well), but Hugh Herbert, with his 'woo-hoo' persona unaltered from that so familiar in Warners musicals of the previous decade, is rather incongruous as one of Colman's fellow beggars, even in as whimsical a fantasy as this.

On a recent TCM screening, host Robert Osborne went on and on about the lavish production values - which he reported offended some during wartime - but I must say, for an MGM production, the money doesn't really show on screen. With its fanciful painted backdrops and stylized sets, it instead resembles one of 20th-Fox's more cut-rate (Technicolor notwithstanding) Grable-Miranda features.

All in all, KISMET is an undemanding way to kill a hundred minutes, but aside from the always-welcome presence of Colman and Arnold, not much more can be said of it.

Beautiful photography, fabulous costumes, fast-paced. Classy (although old-fashioned) orchestrated musical score. These qualities are worth a look, but can't save the film.

When you consider that Colman is badly miscast, you must admire the fact that everything he does here is sheer acting technique. He certainly was a hard-working and skillful actor. Marlene Dietrich is cast as a "Greek Princess" visiting Baghdad but the blond German is no more believable as a Greek than as an Arab. She obviously could not dance but was savvy enough to deliver a sexy quasi-dance routine that makes you wonder what she could have done if not for censorship.

Arnold's laughing villain leaves you scratching your head wondering if this movie is serious or tongue-in-cheek or just a stage musical without songs. The other supporting cast members are so miscast as to be painful to watch (especially Craig and Joy Page).

Watchable for stunning photography and costumes, the likes of which will probably never be produced again.

William Dieterle directing, music by Harold Arlen (there's even a tiny bit of the Witch's Guard music at one point!), opulent sets and gorgeous costumes, Ronald Colman -- what more could anyone ask?

The film was very carefully crafted. Even the bit players -- especially Henry Davenport and Florence Bates -- were perfect. From the beginning, you are immersed in a magical world, an Iraq that died long ago, the Islam of Arabian Nights and Haroun el-Raschid, a romantic culture with its own philosophies and mysteries. Karsha foretelling the future with a sand reading, the muezzin and his apprentice singing the call to prayer, or the public bathing place that the rascals hide in, give the film a sense not only of unity and atmosphere but of meticulous attention to detail.

Dietrich's character was not Greek but Macedonian (like Alexander the Great, another blonde). I could have stood for more authenticity in her dance (especially after the Kraft girls who preceded her -- their Deva Dasi style dance *was* pretty authentic) and that gold paint was a little much. Still, the idea was that Jamilla was wild, and did unconventional things.

I do see where it could have been better. Craig in particular sounds jarringly "modern". But you forget that after a while. Modern films don't present this kind of idealism. We have to have everything brought down to sordid reality. A thing like this is good for you after too much "realism" gunk.

A dull and terribly cast Technicolor extravaganza that cashes in on the 1940s film audience's appetite for movies set in exotic and foreign locations.

Only this exotic and foreign location was completely built in a studio, with the plastic, garish results you would expect. This movie is so boring I can barely muster up the energy to say anything about it, and it's hard for me to believe anyone would enjoy watching it. I guess if you're a fan of a particular star in it, like Marlene Dietrich, for example, or Ronald Colman, there's at least that. Not much else to recommend it.

"Kismet" scraped together four Academy Award nominations in 1944, but back then nominations in all of the technical categories were tossed out like confetti, so they don't mean much. Nevertheless, it scored in the categories of Art Direction (Color), Cinematography (Color), Dramatic or Comedy Score, and Sound Recording. It didn't win anything, which is as it should be.

Grade: D.

This story about the king of the beggars of Baghdad marrying off his daughter off to royalty is certainly popular in film. There are several silent versions: 1914, 1916, 1920, and of course the 1955 musical. However the only competition for this masterpiece was made in 1930, featuring that great queen of camp, Loretta Young, but is now a 'lost' film, so until a copy is found this one remains the undisputed masterpiece of the genre.

Ronald Colman plays Hafiz the great thief to perfection, including the extremely difficult task of balancing a turban the size of a small cupola on his head for the audience with the Grand Vizier that would have annihilated a less hardy specimen. As a matter of fact the costumes in this film are important enough to merit the treatment of a main character: They are so exquisitely ridiculous and the material so obviously synthetic, overwrought, clashing in color and style and so overwhelmingly kitsch that it is the DEFINITIVE example for the period and genre. Nothing like this has been since before or since, thank God. Although the film is in color you could swear they had color blind designers working you will see dangerous combinations of color never since surpassed; emerald green and magenta, scarlet and deep blue, saffron orange and mustard yellow....these are just some samplings but you have to add the swimming pools/fountains in every corner shining in acid-sapphire, the elaborate Formica lattice work of the harem walls, the spectacular shine of gold plated plastic jewelry....it is a thousand nightmares of design wrapped neatly into one movie, to be treasured forever. This is not a movie to rent, you have to BUY this film and watch it several times to appreciate it in detail.

The most outstanding performance is of course, Marlene Dietrich as Jamilla, the 'Macedonian' wife and queen of the grand Vizier (Edward Arnold) who by the way is the closest I have ever seen to a slab of prosciutto in the shape of a human, stuffed into severe velour's-metal embroidered tunics that could asphyxiate an elephant in an Indian wedding. But back to Jamilla: Her dance sequence is one of those moments in Hollywood history for which there are simply no superlatives or adjectives that can approximate the exhilaration of watching it. It would be like trying to describe the explosion of an atomic bomb at sunset in the Sahara. I will just say that never has a human being been capable of moving so gracefully with so much hair piled up in a complex ziggurat on her head while heavily burdened with a solid gold embroidered camisole, gold painted limbs, and enough bracelet weight to sink the titanic. There is not a moment in which she is not batting away three pairs of false eyelashes per eye, while holding an inane conversation with utmost interest, maintaining a dangerous cleavage line in place and holding a completely transparent veil to her chin. One half of this coordinated effort would have killed Ms.Paltrow and her tepid generation of clone-blonds, they certainly don't make them like that anymore! James Craig is the very handsome Caliph who plays at being the gardener's son to romance Hafiz's child, the demure Marsinah ( Joy Ann Page) he even manages to be pretty normally dressed except for the severe crown he puts on in the morning to write letters which would have crushed any skull for karat weight in diamonds. Marsinah always looks plain and innocent, even while dancing and chanting, then she is taken away to the palace in a litter that looks like a plasticized, enlarged fabergé egg and when we see her again she is always crying because she is being forced to marry the Grand Vizier by her father, but I thought it was because she could not stand her violet outfit and her hideous tiara that was crushing her brains with a small hill of diamonds and a cataract to boot, falling down her forehead.

The excitement of watching the scenes is not so much out of the plot development as it is to see what they could possibly wear next. I will not detail Marlene's last outfit, in which she rides away with her true love into happily ever after because I am still blinded by the impact. Run, don't walk to get this movie! There is no way anyone can be disappointed with so many colors in every scene, this is the ultimate Ali Baba, Thief of Baghdad movie!

When I was younger I might have had the patience for this dumb thing. I used to watch every 1940s movie I could find and enjoyed most of them. I rarely gave up on a movie unless it was wretched, but now I'm older, more impatient and have more stuff to do so if I'm not feeling it I usually bail pretty quickly.

This is why I only watched perhaps 20-25 minutes of this movie, which struck me as very dumb Hollywood hokum. The movie seems to start in the middle, with a text intro that describes what has lead up to the present circumstances. Perhaps there's a good reason for this, but it gives the film an odd start. There were a couple of songs in the movie that were utterly tedious, one of them sung by Marlene, who seemed like an odd choice for this film (Marlene should be in a smoky bar or a brothel, not a palace). Everything about this movie just seemed dumb and false.

Still, I won't rate it because I haven't seen it all and don't want to unfairly lower its average rating. But I certainly wouldn't give it more than a 5 based on what I saw.

Ronald Colman plays 'the prince of beggars,' who schemes to marry his daughter to royalty while romancing Marlene Dietrich, the wife of grand vizier Edward Arnold. This is a different kind of role for Colman. He doesn't seem suited for the part, in my opinion. It's just hard to buy classy Ronald Colman as a beggar, though he gives it his best. I really hoped to like this one more than I did. It's got nice Technicolor, a great director, and a good cast. It's from MGM so you know it has quality sets and costumes. But the whole thing is just dull and boring. Marlene Dietrich's dance scene is the film's highlight but even that's not that impressive. Also it features the poor man's Clark Gable, James Craig. Not a fan. See it if you enjoy Dietrich or Colman but keep expectations low.

While it's a rare and much appreciated opportunity to see Ronald Colman's beautiful brown eyes in Technicolor, Kismet isn't really worth watching. It has a very tongue-in-cheek style that fits with the musical version but feels odd without the songs. Howard Keel is fantastic in the musical, and the added fairy tale quality is lost in the original version. It just feels like a very strange comedy that couldn't quite find the right direction.

As you'll see in most of the publicity photos, Marlene Dietrich plays the irresistible sex symbol in Kismet. She was clad all in gold, including her hair and painted legs, for her exotic dance. I'm not a fan of hers anyway, but I found her quite repellent in this movie. It felt like her ego fed off itself for hours before each take, and it was all she could do not to look in the camera and ask, "Aren't I incredible?" Plus, she and Ronald Colman looked like they couldn't stand each other, which really dampened the attempted electric energy in the film.

If you do want to watch this version, you'll see horrendously miscast supporting actors who couldn't possibly be found in an Arabian fairy tale. Edward Arnold's thick New York accent, Harry Davenport's unmistakable twang, and James Craig's modern American delivery feel very out of place. I feel bad for Ronald Colman, since he probably thought this was going to be another Lost Horizon. But you can't win them all, a fact all actors learn at some point in their careers.

In Islamic Bagdad, Hafiz considers himself, "The King of the Beggars". He's a beggar and a magician as a master of the slight of hand. He dresses up to walk the streets at night and pretends to be the Prince of Hassir. He is having an affair with Lady Jamilla (Marlene Dietrich) who is actually the Queen. She would rather be freed of the Grand Vizier. Meanwhile, the young Caliph often sneaks out of the palace pretending to be the royal gardener's son and falls for Marsinah, Hafiz's daughter.

This is trying to be a Hollywood grand epic. It's certainly a big production with all the gaudy colors. It doesn't have compelling characters to lead. I don't care about Hafiz. I have no overwhelming feelings, neither good nor bad. It's probably better to concentrate on the younger pairing. Dietrich does a weird golden dance which again forces me to wonder if the younger lovers aren't the better protagonists. It gets interesting about an hour into the movie. The problem is that Hafiz is better as a villain in the beginning who regains his humanity at its conclusion. It's all his fault due to his hubris. The acting is generally broad. It's all rather broad and tiring. The ending has some problems. It needs some changes. This is problematic from the start to its ending.