Jeff Chandler provides some narration for this swashbuckling "Eastern" from Universal and it's the sort of movie which he'd normally star in - maybe he was busy that month. Instead, Universal give the title role to Richard Greene, who plays an Arabian Robin Hood type figure who robs people in the desert.. but it's to fight a tyranical leader etc etc.
The story consists of well established swashbuckling tropes - a beautiful princess (Yvonne de Carlo) who marries the hero without realising, a hero with an alter ego and some wisecracking comic relief friends, duels at the climax, native girls, torture, slave markets.
It took place in a (to me at least) very unspecific time so I couldn't hook into any myth going - although characters are named Aladdin, Sinbad, Scherenadze, etc. It's a romantic, fetishized depiction of Arabic and Islamic culture but is a hell of a lot more positive than anything Hollywood's turned out in the last twenty years or so.
I struggled to get too enthusiastic about the stars. De Carlo is pretty and spirited with a great figure but a little anonymous - I got her mixed up with some of the support girls. Greene was always very much a second tier swashbuckler - he should be good but he lacks the verve of say a Rock Hudson who has a small support role. And as for De Carlo - I would've preferred Maureen O'Hara. The whole movie feels like assembled ingredients rather than a cohesive whole. But it is bright and unpretentious.
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