Arabian Nights (1942 film)

Arabian Nights
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	John Rawlins
Written by	Michael Hogan (story and screenplay) True Boardman (additional dialogue)
Produced by	Walter Wanger
Starring	Jon Hall Maria Montez Sabu Leif Erickson Billy Gilbert Edgar Barrier Shemp Howard Thomas Gomez Turhan Bey Elyse Knox Acquanetta Carmen D'Antonio
Cinematography	W. Howard Greene Milton R. Krasner William V. Skall
Edited by	Philip Cahn
Music by	Frank Skinner
Production company	Walter Wanger presents
Distributed by	Universal Pictures Company, Inc.
Release date	December 25, 1942 (1942-12-25) (US)[1]
Running time	87 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$904,765[2]
Box office	$3,453,416[2]

Arabian Nights is a 1942 adventure film directed by John Rawlins and starring Jon Hall, Maria Montez, Sabu and Leif Erikson. 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 The Thief of Bagdad (1940) and other films in the genre, it features no monsters or supernatural elements.^[3]

The film is one of series of "exotic" tales released by Universal Pictures during World War II. Others include Cobra Woman, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and White Savage.^[4] This is the first feature film that Universal made using the three-strip Technicolor film process, although producer Walter Wanger had worked on two earlier Technicolor films for other studios: The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936) at Paramount and the 1937 Walter Wanger's Vogues of 1938 for United Artists.^[5]