Kevin Connor hops Amicus for EMI with the unfortunate big budget flop ARABIAN ADVENTRUE, on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.

Young orphan Majeed (Puneet Sira) crosses the desert more concerned about sustenance for his monkey companion than his own starvation. Arriving in the kingdom of caliph Alquazar (Christopher Lee, THE WICKER MAN), Majeed finds little sympathy amidst the population of thieves and conmen but is good-hearted enough to offer up his only morsel of food in a peach to a blind beggar women who turns out to be a djinn Vahishta (Capucine, WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT?) who turns the peach pit into a jewel that will afford him and only him (for it turns back into a peach pit in anyone else's hand) three magical rescues should he find himself in danger. Appraised that a group of thieves plan to ambush the night guard and steal from Alquazar, the caliph sends a destructive dust storm onto the village that scuttles their plans. In the aftermath, stranger Hasan (Oliver Tobias, Curtis Harrington's MATA HARI) is jailed even though he claims to be a visiting prince. He shares his cell with the village's former headman ("special appearance by" Peter Cushing, SHOCK WAVES) who tells him that Alquazar poisoned the previous caliph and took the man's wife as his own, keeping his stepdaughter Princess Zuleira (DYNASTY's Emma Samms) away from potential suitors. When Hasan escapes his cell and infiltrates the palace, Alquazar warmly accepts him after observing his abilities and offers him the hand of Zuleira should he retrieve the Rose of Eli for him. Although Hasan has his suspicions – especially when Alquazar assigns him a sole bodyguard in scrounger Khasim (Milo O'Shea, BARBARELLA) – what neither he or anyone else realizes is that Alquazar's mortal soul is trapped in a magic mirror and has been offered freedom in exchange for the evil Alquazar's invincibility one he possesses the jewel. Khasim has a harder time sabotaging Hasan when Majeed uses the first of his magical rescues to beam himself up onto Hasan's magic carpet, but Alquazar keeps a watchful eye on the danger-fraught journey.

A throwback to the exotic adventures of Hollywood's Golden Age with a larger budget than afforded such genre pics for the 1970s, ARABIAN ADVENTURE is simply gorgeous to look at with the dazzling color photography of Alan Hume (FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE), production design by future INDIANA JONES art director Elliot Scott, and costumes of Hammer regular turned Oscar winner Rosemary Burrows (DRACULA, PRINCE OF DARKNESS) along with a grandly epic score by Ken Thorne (THE OUTSIDER) to please the ears. The eye candy and the authority of Lee in a dual role are just enough to ignore the usual weakness of such pictures even from the earlier era in its dull romantic leads. The effects work includes some matte paintings and process photography (backgrounds for composites shot in VistaVision) but is more dependent on miniatures, models, glass mattes, reverse motion photography, and clever foreground/background compositions. While ARABIAN ADVENTURE had been Connor's highest budget picture to date – stepping up from Amicus' THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT, AT THE EARTH'S CORE, and THE PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT as well as the previous EMI venture WARLORDS OF THE DEEP – the flop resulted in him helming only a couple more features including the cult classic MOTEL HELL and the poor THE HOUSE WHERE EVIL DWELLS for MGM before moving onto a busy career as a director of episodic television and TV movies continuing to this day. The supporting cast includes CHEERS' John Ratzenberger and THE SPY WHO LOVED ME's Shane Rimmer as thieves along with Suzanne Danielle (CARRY ON EMMANUELLE), Art Malik (THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS), and Milton Reid (CAPTAIN CLEGG).

Released theatrically by Associated Film Distributors and on VHS by Thorn/EMI, ARABIAN ADVENTURE skipped the DVD format stateside while rights owners Studio Canal released it on DVD in the U.K. and other European territories. As part of their Studio Canal deal, Kino Lorber's Blu-ray has unveiled the film on Blu-ray in a very attractive 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen in which glows with the desert sun, sprawling soundstage interiors and glass mattes hold up well, and even the film's in-camera effects look quite impressive for the time and a budget that is big but still probably far less than that of STAR WARS. Noticeable for the first time is that the credits lettering is no longer just gold; indeed, the lettering at first looks slightly faded but closer inspection reveals that the credits letters are actually textured to look metallic. Despite the budget, EMI did not spring for a Dolby Stereo soundtrack, but the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track gets the job done with clear dialogue, scoring, and some nifty sound design. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided.