Arabian Adventure

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Kevin Connor directs. Alan Hume behind the camera. Barry Peters cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 147 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
• 2Directed by Kevin Connor, shot by Alan Hume. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 3Editor Barry Peters shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 4Christopher Lee and Milo O'Shea and Oliver Tobias carry the top of the cast.
• 5Marketing tagline: "Soar into a Magical World of Action, Excitement and Enchantment!".
• 6IMDB entry: tt0078792 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 7Only 56 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography

Alan Hume

Editing

Barry Peters

Production design

Elliot Scott

Makeup / hair

Robin Grantham

Runtime

99 min · 1h 39m

Status

Released

Original language

EN

IMDB

Arabian Adventure (1979) ↗

IMDB rating

5.7/10 · 1,326 votes

MPAA

G

Also by

Kevin Connor

• 
  Shadow of Obsession

  1994 · ★ 10.0
• 
  Spies

  1993 · ★ 10.0
• 
  Lethal Exposure

  1993 · ★ 8.0
• 
  Trial by Combat

  1976 · ★ 7.8
• 
  Moonlighting

  1985 · ★ 7.5
• 
  The Dirty Dozen

  1988 · ★ 7.5

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Trailer

  Trailer · Official
• 

  ▶
  Arabian Adventure ≣ 1979 ≣ Trailer

  Trailer
• 

  ▶
  Arabian Adventure (1979) ORIGINAL TRAILER

  Trailer

Community reviews

What people are saying

• John Chard2017-01-07
  ★ 5/10

  The Rose Of Arabia. Arabian Adventure is directed by Kevin Connor and written by Brian Hayles. It stars Christopher Lee, Milo O'Shea, Oliver Tobias, Emma Samms and Puneet Sira. Music is by Ken Thorne and cinematography by Alan Hume. A prince is sent by an evil sorcerer (Lee) on a quest for a magical rose. Should he succeed, he hopes that as a reward he will win the hand of the princess. Sometimes to moderately enjoy a film of this type, you just got to take yourself back to a time when simple children's adventure movies were made with simple film making techniques. This obviously doesn't hold up well these days, where even given the year it was made it was way behind advancements that were being made in special effects. Thus it's highly unlikely that the prepubescents of today would have the patience or care for such a production. Yet it doesn't lack for charm. Is charm enough? Well it's not a great or very good film, it's heavy on chatter, the effects are indeed a little crude, acting and accents are borderline dire, and it seems to take an age to get going, yet it's not insulting like many far bigger budget pictures have been: even nowadays! It's best just to roll with it, enjoy the whimsy and the many small roles by the likes of Peter Cushing, Mickey Rooney, Capucine and, erm, John Ratzenberger. Forgettable once it's over, but harmless with it. 5/10

  Read full review ↓
• CinemaSerf2023-06-05
  ★ 6/10

  This last film of the Kevin Connor/John Dark series of fantasy adventures, which I recall fondly from my childhood, sees Christopher Lee as "Alquazar", an evil sorcerer who manages to trick the lovestruck Oliver Tobias ("Prince Hasan") into setting off on a perilous journey for the all-powerful "Rose of Elil" which will earn him the hand of the beautiful Emma Sands ("Princess Zuilera"). Along the way he has a many adventures on his magic carpet; picks up the obligatory street-rat "Majeed" (Puneet Sira) and encounters magic and evil as he tries to fulfil his quest. It's a traditional Arabian Nights type story with sumptuous costumes and sets, and Lee is great as the baddie. A marvellously obsequious Milo O'Shea, Peter Cushing, Capucine and an all-too-brief series of scenes with Mickey Rooney make this more of an adventure story than a romantic one; and I quite enjoyed it.

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  EMI Films

  GB

Key crew

• Makeup ArtistRobin Grantham
• EditorBarry Peters
• MusicKen Thorne
• Art DirectionJack Maxsted
• Special EffectsRichard Conway
• ProducerKevin Connor
• ProducerJohn Dark
• CastingAllan Foenander
• Makeup ArtistYvonne Coppard
• Production DesignElliot Scott

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• based on novel or book
• flying carpet
• treasure hunt
• desert
• arabian nights
• caliph

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical1979-11-21

Also known as

International titles

• 魔島屠龍HK
• ศึกมหัศจรรย์TH