Ali Baba is the servant of a rich merchant. One day, his master send him to the market to buy a woman slave. There, he find Morgiane, a beautiful dancer who is being sold by her own father. And he instantly become passionate for her. In the next day, he finds the cave where 40 thieves keep their stolen treasures. As he heard the magic words that open the cave's door, he can enter and steel some of the money kept there. So, Ali Baba becomes rich and buy Morgiane from his master. All seemed to be OK but the chief of the gang of thieves is pursuing Ali. After some laughable situations, Ali Baba, in the end, marry with Morgiane and give the money in the cave to the poor and the needed of the city. This is a funny version of the famous tale of Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves. In the leading role, we have Fernandel, a french comedian of the 40's and 50's, who was very popular here in my country, Portugal. Of course, it's not a movie in which the director wanted to make a masterpiece, but I think it's a good comedy about exotic people and landscapes. It was filmed on Taroudant, at 80 km from Agadir, on the south of Morocco. And it was the work of Georges Wakhevitch, who designed the memorable cave who opens with the command "Sesame, Open". In reality, it was a mobile door arranged against a true cave on the valley of Sous, the region from where are the 4000 Berbers who figure on the film. The feminine star on the movie, the Morgiane character, is played by a Egyptian dancer and actress, Samia Gamal, who became a star of the Egyptian cinema and who married a Texan oil magnate, overwhelmed by her womb dances.

... can't stop this turkey stinking up the screen. It's difficult - make that almost impossible - to imagine that Jacques Becker had just made the exquisite Touchez pas au grisbi immediately before moving on to this piece of cheese. Almost nothing about it works and the only minor point of interest is that leading lady Samia Gamal had starred in an Egyptian version of the same story twelve years earlier in 1942. What Becker and Fernandel were thinking of remains a mystery given that both were tops in their respective fields. Insipid, anaemic, uninspired, lacklustre, lifeless are words that spring to mind in connection with this entry though on the other hand if those adjectives light your fire you'll love it.

This has a pretty realistic thing by that it is just the fantasy elements are pretty much just nothing except for the Open Sesame door opening, for a realism based take on it, it is ok enough since it is French made which is their style. But if they are going to call this Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves you gotta bring it for this tale but I check now it is also known as Dance of Desire, well they are already veering toward other things of focus. Kinda for the adult set.