SABU AND THE MAGIC RING (1957)
Article #422 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 5-11-2002
Posting date: 10-4-2002

A stable boy comes by a magic ring that summons forth a genie, who aids him in putting an end to a plot to kill the Caliph.

From what I gather, this puny little Arabian nights movie was originally a couple of episodes from TV edited together into a single movie. Actually, the whole thing flows smoothly enough that you don’t get that sense of it jumping into another episode at any point; I suspect the two episodes were meant to work as a whole. Sabu plays a character named Sabu, and the whole thing rides on his charm. You can’t help but notice that there are only a handful of sets; most of the movie takes place in a marketplace and a stable area nearby. And though the genie is supposed to be particularly powerful (he claims he’s an Ifrit; he eats genies for breakfast), his magic feats have been definitely scaled down to TV size, though I would definitely love to see that rule book for ifrits and genies that he has. Nothing great here, but an enjoyable little time-passer in its way.