The Brass Bottle (1964)

Burl Ives as a genie named Fakrash. He is released from an ancient Kum Kum bottle by former Paris beatnik Tony Randall, who is now struggling along in the suburbs as an unsuccessful architect. Naturally the genie causes trouble ("This isn't Baghdad, this is Pasadena!"), but the gags in Oscar Brodney's musty screenplay are right off an assembly line of bad jokes. Family film from Universal is too talky, really, to engage children (to say nothing of their parents), though Ives, Randall and Edward Andrews (and Barbara Eden as Randall's fiancée) work hard to buoy the familiar scenario. Adapted from a book by F. Anstey, this was the inspiration for Eden's forthcoming TV series, "I Dream of Jeannie". ** from ****

Produced by the new Universal in the swingin' 60's, this is a throwback to the type of pictures they had done in the 1940's. You remember, those colorful adventure fantasies with exotic performers like Maria Montez, Sabu, Turhan Bey and Jon Hall. Now there's equally exotic performers-Tony Randall, Barbara Eden, Edward Andrews, and the most exotic of them all, Burl Ives. Big Daddy puts away his stetson and replaces them with ancient Arabic clothing as he gets out of the titled brass bottle (imprisoned centuries before by King Solomon the Wise) and freed by Randall who is anxious to prove that what he hoped was an antique was not, as suggested, made in Japan. Engaged to the future Jeannie, Randall keeps messing up in her father Edward Andrews' eyes, and after losing his job thanks to Ives' interference, creates more tension with his father- in-law to be. The sensual atmosphere of the 1960's mixes with the camp comedy of the 1940's to create a fun family film.Randall's a charming leading man, especially trying on a girdle, but it is Ives of course who ends up the scene stealer. He's the Edmund Gwenn and Cecil Kellaway of the 60's, adding the genie to Gwenn's Santa Claus and Kellaway's leprechaun of fantasy characters. There will be much curiosity over Eden involved in this project considering her involvement with another brass bottle just a few years later. It really does seem like a combination of "I Dream of Jeannie" and "Bewitched" episodes, especially by mixing business into the pleasure.

For the most part, "The Brass Bottle" is one of those silly comedies that they cranked out in the early '60s. In this case, jittery architect Harold Ventimore (Tony Randall) frees genie Fakrash (Burl Ives) who tries to hard to please his new master. It only complicates matters when Harold can't explain things to his fiancée Sylvia Kenton (Barbara Eden). Will these genies ever be able to do things right?! Yes, this movie is very much a product of those days, when we viewed the Middle East as the land of sultans with harems; I believe that OPEC gave us the negative view that now dominates. But no matter, this movie is impossible not to like. In that sense, it's sort of like the other 1964 movie in which Tony Randall and Barbara Eden co-starred: "7 Faces of Dr. Lao" (which also had kind of a magical plot).So, it may be a movie impossible to take seriously, but it's definitely good for a few laughs. And if absolutely nothing else, we can sort of see Barbara Eden getting primed to play the most famous genie ever to grace TV screens. Also starring Edward Andrews, Ann Doran and Philip Ober (who appeared on the "I Dream of Jeannie" pilot).One more thing: I noticed in the courtroom scene a picture of Pres. Kennedy. Since this movie obviously came out after his assassination, wouldn't they have been nervous about showing his picture?

I was a child when I last saw this film, probably on television ... remember it as being incredibly funny and charming and would really enjoy seeing it again!Burl Ives was a perfect genie ... can still recall the name of the great Fakrash el-Aamash after forty years, which is to say that the film made a remarkable impression. It would be interesting to see whether my sense of humor has changed all that much in the interim.The Brass Bottle seemed quite a bit better than the TV series "I Dream of Jeannie" that was inspired by it ... absolutely delightful, if my memory can be a reliable guide.