Chu Chin Chow **** (1934, George Robey, Fritz Kortner, Anna May Wong, John Garrick, Pearl Argyle) – Classic Movie Review 8289

Director Walter Forde’s exuberantly entertaining 1934 British action adventure comedy musical Chu Chin Chow, a musical retelling of the Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves Arabian Nights tale, can still provide a lot of antique pleasure. It is a sweet relic of a by-gone era.

Fortunately, Forde’s fairly early sound film version of the fondly remembered, if obviously ancient Oscar Asche-Frederick Norton Arabian Nights hit stage musical was made when technical advances allowed it to be smartly filmed, so it does not seem too creaky now.

In a triumph of casting, the old music-hall star George Robey (known back in the day as ‘The Prime Minister of Mirth’) commands centre stage with his gloriously entertainingly exuberant turn as Ali Baba.

Anna May Wong plays Zahrat, the slave who combats the murdering villain robber-baron Abu Hasan (Fritz Kortner), one of Ali Baba’s 40 thieves. A former spy for Hasan, Zahrat decides instead to join Ali and his son Nur-al-din Baba (John Garrick), who is in love with the servant girl Marjanah (Pearl Argyle).

Thanks to the good old days material and Forde’s deft handling, it is delightfully lively, bright and vulgar, just as it needs to be, and the performances are suitably exotic and dynamic, with a good production by Gainsborough Pictures.

Chu Chin Chow runs 102 minutes, but the Fifties Lippert reissue as Ali Baba Nights was revised and cut, first to 93 minutes, then to 78 minutes.

Also in the cast are Malcolm McEachern [aka Mr Jetsam] as Kassim’s major-domo Abdullah, Dennis Hoey as chief henchman Rakham, Francis L Sullivan as The Caliph, Sydney Fairbrother, Lawrence Hanray, Frank Cochrane, Gibb McLaughlin as The Caliph’s Vizier and Thelma Tuson.

There had already been a silent version in 1923, with Betty Blythe as Zahrat, Herbert Langley, Randle Ayrton, Eva Moore and Judd Green as Ali Baba.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8289

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