Vintage original 8x10 in. U.S. single-weight glossy publicity photograph from the classic 1930's musical comedy/fantasy, ALI BABA GOES TO TOWN, released in 1937 by 20th Century-Fox and directed by David Butler, starring Eddie Cantor. A movie company is doing the Arabian Nights when a hobo (Eddie Cantor) enters their camp, falls asleep and dreams he's back in Baghdad as advisor to the Sultan. In a spoof of Roosevelt's New Deal, he organizes work programs, taxes the rich and abolishes the army. The image features a funny interior medium shot of Ali Baba (Eddie Cantor) angrily tugging on the beard of a well-to-do Middle Eastern man as Prince Musah (Douglass Dumbrille) stands behind him. Printed on single-weight stock with a glossy finish, this vintage original photograph is in very fine+ condition with only a 3 light 0.75 in. vertical scratches in the right portion of the upper background area with one 0.5 in. vertical scratch in the border above them (all of which are only noticeable when viewing the photo at an angle) and a 0.25 in. diagonal crease on the bottom right corner within the borders only. Please note that this photograph actually features richer contrast with deeper dark tones than they appear in the accompanying scan. Two special-effects technicians--grip Harry Harsha and propman Philo Goodfriend--were killed when a machine that was being used to make the "flying carpet" look like it was flying jumped off its tracks and fell on them. Star Eddie Cantor appears as himself in the film's final sequence with Tony Martin. Newsreel footage of the many stars appearing at the Carthay Circle Theatre premiere of Wee Willie Winkie (1937), starring Shirley Temple, is used for the film's finale. The original release prints of this film used a then-revolutionary three-tone tinting process utilizing sepia and copper. Blue and orange mixed with copper were used for night sequences while sepia, amber and copper were used for daytime scenes. Ali Baba Goes to Town; 20th Century-Fox; 1937; dir: David Butler; cast: Eddie Cantor, Tony Martin, Roland Young, Gypsy Rose Lee, Raymond Scott and His Quartet, John Carradine, Virginia Field, Alan Dinehart, Douglass Dumbrille, Maurice Cass, Warren Hymer, Stanley Fields, Paul Hurst, Sam Hayes. |