The Brass Bottle (1964) Tony Randall, Burl Ives, Barbara Eden, Kamala Devi Movie Review

The Brass Bottle (1964)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Tony Randall and Burl Ives in The Brass Bottle (1964)

60s Magic

Harold Ventimore (Tony Randall) is desperate to impress Prof. Kenton (Edward Andrews) the father of his girlfriend Sylvia (Barbara Eden) and so buys from an auction an ancient Egyptian lamp known as a Kum Kum. But tings don't go as planned and Harold ends up stuck with the lamp which turns out to be a different sort of lamp with a genie called Fakrash (Burl Ives) inside. With Fakrash seeing Harold as his master who he must sere with his magic things don't go to plan with Fakrash's best intentions often causing more problems for Harold than he started with.

"The Brass Bottle" is one of those maybe movies, maybe back in 1964 the story of a genie trying to be helpful but causing chaos was a lot more amusing and maybe original than it seems now. Yes as I watched "The Brass Bottle" now more than 50 years after it was made I couldn't help but feel like I had seen it all before due to the now familiarity of chaos caused by a magician trying to do good but keeps on messing up. It is why I found various reviews which had fond memories of watching "The Brass Bottle" back in the 1960s but equally others who like me watched it much later and were not so impressed.

The thing is that whilst "The Brass Bottle" ended up ultimately routine fun it was still fun thanks to the perfect casting. Tony Randall was always great at playing that 60s husband, business man role, the nice guy who never seems to get any luck. And then there is Burl Ives who brings plenty of shall we say mischievous comedy to the role of the genie and has than jolly smile when ever Fakrash performs some magic. Throw in supporting performances from Barbara Eden and Kamala Devi and there is plenty about the acting which makes you smile.

What this all boils down to is that on one hand "The Brass Bottle" is fun with some typical 60s humour and performances. But on the other hand it is not only a movie which trades on an old gag but it is a movie with only one gag which is that of a genie causing chaos with good intentions.


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