Checking YOUR pulse after watching this Arabian adventure would be a good idea as well. Someone, somewhere at some time must have thought his was a pretty good idea for a picture, but obviously overlooked the fact that a man dressed in bright scarlet red would not exactly have looked inconspicuous as the leader of a band of desert rebels attempting to win back his lineage.Well I don't know, you'd think a picture with Lucy Ricardo and Perry Mason on hand would be something of a unique film experience, and this one certainly qualifies, but probably for all the wrong reasons. I see a number of other reviewers had some fun with this one pretty much along the same lines as I did. It's cool to see these actors go through their paces, but the result is just a mess. Seriously now, can you imagine Raymond Burr having the desert hots for Lucille Ball?As for the magical flying carpet, well that was just the icing on the cake. Not only was it comical looking, but you had to wonder how the players managed to keep a straight face. When it was all over, I finally figured out where John Kay (you know, the lead singer of Steppenwolf) might have gotten the inspiration for his mega-hit. I wonder if he ever saw the picture.

MGM's slogan was "More stars than there are in heaven." Columbia's might have been "More crap than there is in a chicken coop". Columbia produced some fine films, but its percentage of gobblers is notably higher than that of 20th, MGM, Paramount, Warner, etc. This is one of the turkeys.The story is the usual Arabian nights hokum. The dialog (some of which sounds as if it was lifted from Westerns) is written so as not to confuse a five-year-old, leading to terminal boredom for adults. The film is so uninvolving that the composer fills virtually every second with music, to make the viewer think something of interest is happening. The fight scenes, in particular, are notable non-events. (They look as if the actors choreographed them on the fly.)The acting is strictly amateur, with only Raymond Burr working up enough energy to sound convincing -- and that only occasionally. John Agar's performance is among his worst -- perhaps //the// worst. One gets an inkling of why his marriage to The Queen of Cute ended.The sets and costumes are lavishly cheap, and the color is the weirdly hued Super Cinecolor, a couple of notches inferior to the more-expensive Technicolor. The only things that show any taste or talent are several beautiful glass paintings.This is the sort of film that ought to have been skewered on MST3K, but wasn't. A shame, really.

Lucille Ball didn't have to do THE MAGIC CARPET and chose to make it just to finish off her contract with Columbia and move onto her planned new TV show, and we all know the result of THAT. Columbia did not believe that Ball would accept the role in this film, but she outfoxed them all and played the villainess in this Arabian Nights-type fun film. I saw it initially when it was first released, and I LOVE LUCY was already a smash hit on the tube. It was the second half of a double bill, and the audience enjoyed every minute. It was an unintentional(??) riot to see Ball so out of the character that we had come to expect already from LUCY. The SRO audience hooted, laughed, giggled, and had a great time. I don't even recall what the main feature was.... But THE MAGIC CARPET is still remembered, and I would love to find a copy.

This low budget adventure stars John Agar, Raymond Burr of TV's Perry Mason, and a very pregnant Lucille Ball The poor production values used to make this movie give it the look of a Technicolor, Three Stooges episode. It's really too bad I would have enjoyed a good Arabian Adventure, starring Lucille Ball!