THE ADVENTURES OF HAJJI BABA (1954) ¢ ¢ ¢
D: Don Weis
John Derek, Elaine Stewart, Thomas Gomez,
Amanda Blake, Rosemarie Bowe, Paul Picerni,
Donald Randolph, Claude Akins, Percy Helton
An Arabian Nights tale about a handsome barber (John Derek) who rides out in search of adventure, and finds it when he encounters a missing princess. (There's also a valuable emerald, a devious dancing girl, a bunch of swordsmen on horseback and an army of warrior women.) I first saw this when I was seven, and some of the images, like the prisoners being hanged and left to die above the canyon, have stayed with me ever since. As old-style storybook escape, it still holds up pretty well, but I guess it doesn't hurt to be seven. Nat King Cole sings the title song, and Amanda Blake, who ran the saloon on "Gunsmoke" forever, plays the leader of the Amazons.
