Review of Siren of Bagdad

On January 10, 2008 I watched four Paul Henreid swashbuckler/sand and sandal movies one after the other on Turner Classic Movies. "Thief of Damascus", "Last of the Bucanneers", "Pirates of Tripoli", and "Siren of Bagdad" from 6;00 a.m to 12;00 p.m. Why would anyone do such a crazy thing? I suppose it was some kind of innate desire to journey back to my childhood and down memory lane and catch up on a much forgotten past. The film that stands out of the group, in my opinion, was "Siren of Bagdad". This film really challenges the limits of the concept of "the willing suspension of disbelief". One of the most humorous moments comes when Kazah (Henreid), a magician, turns his friend Ben Ali (Conried) into a beautiful blond belly dancer. The Sultan (Charles Lung) flirts with the sexy vixen beckoning her to speak. Hans Conreid's voice makes an obvious sharp contrast with the belly dancer's beauty. Consequently,the reason for the strange voice is palmed off as the result of someone scaring his/her mother by whistling when she was caring them. Wow! What a stretch. Conried was given some of the best lines in the campy script such as "I would ask you for a match if they had been invented by now", and "When does the next camel to Basra arrive?" Throw in a former Pro Wrestler, Karl "Killer" Davis (Morab)of "Mighty Joe Young" fame, and Sylvia Lewis, one of the sexiest 1950's belly dancers you will ever see...and this turkey makes the necessary transition. In other words...the film is so "bad"... that you walk away thinking it was "good". Does that make any sense to you? If it doesn't .... I don't recommend this film.