“I’ve made 122 movies, and I daresay there’s a picture of mine
showing somewhere in the world every day.”
– Tony Curtis
Soooo … after The Prince who was a Thief (1951) was a hit
we got Son of Ali Baba (1952).
Pretty good posters.
Son of Ali Baba: The Trailer:
https://youtu.be/KNea4yAO8-M
Tony continues his rise to Action Hero Stardom with several Swordfights. He was starting to show his prowess with the blade.
But most sword fighting choreography in those days wasn’t very good.
And many Swashbuckler Movies had mob scenes of fights with a bunch of costumed Extras flailing away with prop swords and hoping nobody got poked in the eye. They were fun, but wouldn’t pass muster these days.
Large fight scenes can be tricky because despite all precautions
some people likely got hurt.
Sadly, without buying the movie I was unable find any useful footage of the climactic duel between bad guy Hugh O’Brian and Tony.
The Bad Guy: Hugh O’Brian.
Hugh went on to have a pretty good film career, including starring
in TV’s “The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp” (1955),
which ran for 6 seasons. Hugh ‘owned’ that role.
Below: Tony and Hugh practicing.
For safety reasons alone all fights are choreographed.
Fight Choreography in itself has become an art form in most
any Action Movie.
Tony practicing in blue jeans. Those odd boots are likely the footwear he used in the movie.
Choreography? Let’s not forget the dancing girls of Tangiers!
Mandatory for all movies such as this.
Not really complaining.
“Yonda” … that famous misquote:
In Son of Ali Baba, Piper Laurie and Tony Curtis stop their horses on a
mountain trail and look down on a castle in a valley. Tony points at it and says: “This is my father’s palace. And yonder lies the Valley of the Sun.” Those lines later came to be famously misquoted as
“Yonder lies the castle of my fodder.”
But, like my friend Garry says:
By the time things get fixed the lie is already a fact.
If interested, I did a whole series of posts on Hugh O’Brian back a ways:
Hugh O’Brian ____________ Not your average Cowboy Pt 3 The Shootist
Share this:
