Arabian Nights (1942 film)

Arabian Nights is a 1942 adventure film starring Sabu, Maria Montez, Jon Hall and Leif Erickson and directed by John Rawlins. The film is derived from The Book of One Thousand and One Nights but owes more to the imagination of Universal Pictures than the original Arabian stories. Unlike other films in the genre The Thief of Baghdad, it features no monsters or supernatural elements.

The story starts at a harem which strangely has the Taj Mahal in sight, even though it is supposed to be located in Persia, where the elderly overseer bids his young charges to read the story of Haroun alRashid Hall and his wife Scheherazade Montez, unfolding the films plot in the process.Scheherazade, a dancer in a wandering circus owned by Ahmad Billy Gilbert whose troupe also includes Sinbad the Sailor and Aladdin, who have seemingly fallen on hard times , had captured the attention of Kamar Erickson, the brother of caliph Haroun alRashid. In his infatuation with her, and because of a prophecy which names her as the future queen, Kamar had attempted to seize the throne, but was captured and sentenced to slow death by exposure. As Haroun visits his brother, for whom he feels pity, Kamars men storm the palace and free their leader outnumbered, Haroun is forced to flee. He manages to get near the plaza where Scheherazades circus is performing and is spotted by the young acrobat Ali Ben Ali Sabu, who finds out his identity and decides to hide him in the circus, confiding only in Scheherazade though he does not tell her about the fugitives true identity. Upon awakening from the wounds he had received in his flight, Haroun beholds Scheherazade and instantly falls in love with her. ........

Source: Wikipedia