Kismet (1944 film)

Kismet
Directed byWilliam Dieterle
Screenplay byJohn Meehan
Based onKismet
1911 play
by Edward Knoblock
Produced byEverett Riskin
StarringRonald Colman
Marlene Dietrich
James Craig
Edward Arnold
CinematographyCharles Rosher
Edited byBen Lewis
Music byHerbert Stothart
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Distributed byLoew's, Inc
Release date
  • August 22, 1944 (1944-08-22)
Running time
100 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Kismet is a 1944 American Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film in Technicolor starring Ronald Colman, Marlene Dietrich, Joy Page, and Florence Bates. James Craig played the young Caliph of Baghdad, and Edward Arnold was the treacherous Grand Vizier. It was directed by William Dieterle, but was not a success at the box office. Dieterle had directed Dietrich two decades before in the German silent film Man by the Wayside, which was both the first role in which Dietrich was cast competitively and Dieterle's directorial debut.

The film is based on the play of the same name by Edward Knoblock, which was also the basis for a 1953 musical. The play had been filmed three times before, in 1914, 1920, and again in 1930 by Warner Brothers in an English version directed by John Francis Dillon and in a German-language version directed by William Dieterle that was released in 1931.