Blu ray review: The Brass Bottle (1964)

Kino Lorber’s consistent releasing of 1960s family films like The Brass Bottle on blu ray is giving needed attention to a bypath in screen comedy that has been sorely overlooked. This was a period when movie comedy was influenced by TV sitcoms, rather than the other way around, and the result was several bright, colorful, and cheerful movies the like of which would disappear by the much more serious cinema of the 70s.

While it presents a structure obviously inspired by TV sitcoms – amusing situations with likeable characters and pat conclusions – The Brass Bottle managed to inspire a popular sitcom itself. This comedy is about a man who buys an artifact to impress his girlfriend’s professor father, and it turns out to contain a genie. The girlfriend in this movie is played by Barbara Eden, who would play the title role on TV’s I Dream of Jeannie based on concepts found in this movie.

However, in The Brass Bottle, the genie is chubby, friendly Burl Ives, who, at the time, was recording fun songs for children on popular albums that were often played in classrooms. Thus, kids were a ready-made audience for such a movie. The hapless man who discovers the genie is Tony Randall, and the remainder of the cast boasts such welcome, familiar faces from the era as Phil Ober, Edward Andrews, Ann Doran, Richard Erdman, Parley Baer, and Herb Vigran.

The film itself is the sort of unpretentious delight that 60s comedies of this sort had once been and still remain. Tony Randall’s character is responsible for acclimating the genie into the current culture, and discovers that having access to a helpful genie can also be beneficial to his social standing and his career. However, when he tries to use him for little tricks like moving a fire hydrant from where he’s parked, it causes water gush upward from where the hydrant had been. And an attempt to give him a lot of money causes him to explain counterfeiting to the well meaning genie. At the same time, Randall must try to explain away the various events and situations that come up and cause a problem with the local police. The idea to turn his girlfriend's stubborn father into an actual mule is a neat touch.

Along with being the sort of cute and disarming entertainment that defines this era’s comedy, there is a nostalgia element that makes such a film even more attractive. The sets, the sights, the cars, the fashions, all present another era in the same way as the pure innocence of such a colorful clean comedy

The main special feature on Kino Lorber’s great blu ray release is a commentary by media historian Lee Gambin, whose knowledge of and appreciation for this sort of movie is both refreshing and enlightening. The fact that he also includes an interview he conducted with Barbara Eden, who addresses the film and her eventual iconic role in the eventual TV show, is as fascinating as it is informative..

This happy movie experience is most highly recommended, and is available at this link: BRASS BOTTLE