The Adventures of Hajji Baba

Moviecut—The Adventures of Hajji Baba

source: The Adventures of Hajji Baba

The technical quality of this example of exotica is superb. This is probably the best looking exotica movie produced by Hollywood in the 50s, far more lavish looking than Rock Hudson's The Golden Blade. The attack of the Amazons in the desert is astonishing with the women standing on their racing horses and strangling male soldiers with a garrot.

"The Adventures of Hajji Baba" is a really bad film that looks great. For some reason, this film looks like an A-picture...with glorious Technicolor, some lovely sets and a longer running time than a B-movie, though it's not even good enough or believable enough to be a B due to some godawful writing and silly casting! The story is set in Persia, a land where everyone looks and sounds like they attended charm school in the United States....well, all but the willful princess, whose part is just written horribly. She spends most of the movie pouting, screaming and bellowing like a cow with a migraine! The scene at the bath early in the film is simply godawful! This woman describes herself as a '17 year-old' early in the film....but Elaine Stewart clearly is in her mid-20s and just comes off ridiculously....no, BADLY. I can't see how this film in any way helped her career. The bottom line is that the dialog is terrible, the story silly and yet the film LOOKS nice and features the inexplicably singing of Nat King Cole....yes, Nat King Cole in a movie set in Persia! His voice is like butter...but certainly NOT to be mistaken for a Persian! Overall, a silly and insipid film that only gets worse with age.

The representation of Arabs and Persians is unfathomable and funny! the film is all over the place, the dancer's scene has nothing to do with belly dancing, the clothing and colors of turbans is a joke, the fighting choreography is somewhat decent! you can enjoy the film if you want to see how Hollywood perceived the exotics of the Middle East!

Although most critics gave this movie the thumbs down (yes, there were actually some who praised it, including the Monthly Film Bulletin of all journals), and most contemporary patrons thought it at best mediocre fare, it has improved quite a bit with time. In fact, compared with the rubbish offered elsewhere on TV these days, it's actually rather good fun. It seems the astute producer, Walter Wanger, had the good sense to make the movie in two versions: CinemaScope and standard screen (so that theaters unequipped for Scope would not miss out). The latter of course is the version shown on TV. And very nice it looks indeed. The color, divorced from grainy CinemaScope, is appealingly sharp. The framing and compositions are more attractive too, being noticeably tighter than the rather loose widescreen line-ups. Admittedly, Don Weis was never much of a director, the acting is poor and the script juvenile stuff; but Thomas Gomez flings off his dialogue with a very agreeable gusto, Elaine Stewart makes a very decorative heroine and Mr. Derek looks suitably dashing. There are bevies of scantily-clad cuties scampering around and whenever things get even the slightest bit dull, Mr. Nat King Cole, accompanied by Nelson Riddle's orchestra, is whizzed on to liven things up — even under dialogue.

The Adventures of Hajji Baba This movie is excellent. Listed as 'B' movie, which it is. But this is no normal 'B' movie. The location scenery is superlative. In fact, some of the natural rock scenes I have seen many times in other famous movies. The direction is top notch. The acting is genuine and moving. Some very difficult lines are delivered with the utmost professionalism. EVERY actor AND EVERY actress is great! This movie is very impressive. To me, this movie is so good that it should be required viewing. The best 'B' that I have ever seen. But this movie goes beyond that. The (especial the women's) horse riding is very good. The ladies put the men to shame. It seems that the advertisement for hiring was "beautiful breasted barrel riders need only apply". Every female actress in this movie is gorgeous. For the men, one scene near the end, where the villain gives chase... he rides with his body unmoving. The wardrobe is inspired. The costumes are equally sparse as they are beautiful AND functional. As an aside, I would have put primal scissor cuts in the leotards of the Amazons. The sets are also awesome. Clearly to me, a stage director had built the minimalistic but dramatic sets. It is difficult to put in words how wonderful it to see such a laconic set. But look! Masterpiece, zen like, archetypal. Very good sets. There is one scene, which I am sure was supposed to be filtered as a night scene (when Hajji was rescuing the princess from the rope cross), was changed back to the actual film of full light. This exposed to me that the direction is tight. And the attention to detail made me, as a viewer, to more fully concentrate on the details. This made the movie more enjoyable because I have a want to be a couch coach. There's more! I don't know how the dialog was conceived and/or refined. Some of it is very contrived but at least effective. But, some of it is also inspirational. It seems to me that when the writers let go of the period that they did their best work. Honest and straightforward. In my mind, just a little more rewriting and a bigger budget would have propelled this movie into a classic. Ooh, I'm crazy, you say?! This movie was all ready better than Ivanhoe from the first scene. And, never looked back. The only movie, that comes to mind, that I can reasonably compare is 'The Robe'. But that is a classic, isn't it? The location manager needs to be commended. Unfortunately, in one scene the plants (to my eye) are spray painted red for effect. But in all the other scenes, the plants are shown off in great detail and for good effect. OK, that was the good. The male lead. The eyebrows, too much. I would have waxed a little from the bridge out to the ear to relieve some of the 'puppy' look. The haircut is consistent but a little long. I would have went with a GI crew. His acting is the hardest to relate with, however, glimpses of true feeling are displayed. Wish that it were more. The female lead. One scene she flicks her bangs back with were hand. Awesome. In the next, she uses a head shake to flick back her bangs back. Not awesome. That's the worst thing that I can say about the female lead! The leotards. NO. The answer is no. In one scene, a female player is shown WITHOUT tights. Thank god! Too bad the director didn't recognize this. Not enough closeups!! Hey, I'll trade two minutes of beautiful legs for two minutes of beautiful eyes! And, yes, that trade was possible. This is a western after all. Signing off. Moxy

John Derek was ahead of his time in the movement to uplift the status of women. This movie is really about women claiming their power and not being relegated to a status unequal with men. In his own life, he was so appreciative of the feminine ideal and he served the women he loved quite devotedly. I believe that he was more invested in life than in movies. I believe that he was as handsome as any of the great swashbucklers, and as good a performer. It is such a grace that he played Joshua in the Ten Commandments. Joshua is a true hero of the Bible - of the Hebrew and Christian traditions, both. He was an artist of high integrity and profound passion. This movie shows him in one of his best moments, career-wise, and in our insatiable appetite for entertainment, let us not overlook his travail in this life.

The hauntingly beautiful music sung by Nat King Cole sets this movie apart from the other Arabian romance pictures, with the dashingly handsome John Derek as its hero. This is a movie that I saw many years ago when I was approximately 8 years old, and it has stuck in my memory.

Anyone who has been married to both Ursula Andress and Bo Derek, must have something… Now in a white or orange turban and playing a brave young barber called Hajji Baba, in Isphahan, Persia, John Derek is still attractive to women and especially to Princess Fawzia (Elaine Stewart). In the Fifties, Derek was the dashingly good-looking young hero of adventure films, rated by his teenage female fans as a 10 on the scale of male beauty In "The Adventures of Hajji Baba," Derek helps an insolent princess – disguised as a boy – on her way to marry a distant powerful prince (Paul Picerni) against the wishes of her father… Once they arrive to meet him, in the desert, they soon discover he is a rogue, whose plans for marriage are purely for one ambitious purpose… Hajji Baba then rebels against the prince, rescuing and winning the heart of the beautiful princess by believing in himself The glamorous Elaine Stewart looked cool, lush and marvelous as the spoiled selfish cruel princess who walks through the entire motion picture expressing her bad temper, and silencing everyone by threat By the early Seventies and despite public interest in her, Stewart's career did not fulfill its potential… Her phase was over, but she had certainly proved that she could be a star and, 35 years later, fans of Fifties' movies are still enamored of her