Stylish but barely mediocre overall

good back-story, and good acting

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Two decades before her debacle of the movie version of the Broadway musical "Mame", Lucille Ball had a truly wretched film which she herself had badmouthed. It was all to get out of that Columbia contract, hopefully to appear in the big Cecil B. Demille smash, "The Greatest Show on Earth", but of course, that didn't happen. Instead, she ended up on TV and the rest was immortality.Lucy's a princess here, beyond miscast as an obviously non-Arab Arab princess. This is miscasting at it's worst, with Lucy acting like she's ready to have a cat fight with the first actual Arab to come along and reclaim the title she seems to have stolen from them. She's the sister of the caliph, the subject of affections by the caliph's right hand man (Raymond Burr) who is twice as evil as the usurper caliph, having nefarious intentions himself. Years before, the rightful caliph was murdered, and his heir is sent off on a magic carpet, growing up to be John Agar, a common thief. Hired as the caliph's doctor simply because he cured his hiccups, he soon finds out his real identity and becomes involved with both Lucy and Patricia Medina, a peasant girl who is no Maria Montez or Yvonne De Carlo. Corny to the end, this is a quota quickie (produced by poverty row producer Sam Katzman) that was perfect for Saturday matinée audiences but forgotten soon after. Burr is appropriately sinister, with Lucy obviously phoning in a performance. George Tobias provides comedy relief while the actual carpet is pretty impressive allegedly flying through the air with the greatest of ease.

THE MAGIC CARPET is notorious for one thing only: it was the movie that divided Lucille Ball's acting career neatly in two, for from here on she would be pioneering the Age of Television as Lucy Ricardo in "I Love Lucy", a show which over half a century after its release has been seen in practically every country in the world and has garnered her more notoriety than any meaty role, and more satisfaction that winning that golden statuette. However, at the time, she was taking a major risk which could become a hit or backfire miserably and Ball wasn't a particularly optimistic person, having toiled hard to crack the ceiling of her B-movie status. Pushing forty, completely washed up as a film actress as her talents had been ignored from every major studio, pregnant with daughter Lucie, struggling to make her marriage to Desi Arnaz work, she had read the message on the wall. It was best to be done with this mess and move on. Move on she did, and once she completed this poor excuse of an Arabian adventure, her foundling of a show shot to the top of the Nielsen ratings and made television history.

Lucille Ball didn't have to do THE MAGIC CARPET and chose to make it just to finish off her contract with Columbia and move onto her planned new TV show, and we all know the result of THAT. Columbia did not believe that Ball would accept the role in this film, but she outfoxed them all and played the villainess in this Arabian Nights-type fun film. I saw it initially when it was first released, and I LOVE LUCY was already a smash hit on the tube. It was the second half of a double bill, and the audience enjoyed every minute. It was an unintentional(??) riot to see Ball so out of the character that we had come to expect already from LUCY. The SRO audience hooted, laughed, giggled, and had a great time. I don't even recall what the main feature was.... But THE MAGIC CARPET is still remembered, and I would love to find a copy.

This low budget adventure stars John Agar, Raymond Burr of TV's Perry Mason, and a very pregnant Lucille Ball The poor production values used to make this movie give it the look of a Technicolor, Three Stooges episode. It's really too bad I would have enjoyed a good Arabian Adventure, starring Lucille Ball!