John Chard

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