Series: Vanity Fair Girls w/Eddie Boland Director: Hal Roach Producer: Hal Roach Titles: Photography: Editor: Stars: Eddie Boland, Ethel Broadhurst, Caroline Rankin Company: Pathé Exchange Released: 17 October 1920 Length: 1 reel Production No.: C-3 Filming dates: August 2-12, 1920 Rating: 6/10

Alias Aladdin

Eddie (BOLAND) and his bossy wife (CAROLINE RANKIN) go into an antiques store to browse for a bargain when Eddie finds what appears to be a genie's lamp. The downtrodden Eddie is ordered to sit down by the wife whilst she converses with the clerk (ROY BROOKS). Meanwhile a sales girl has to attend to two female customers who walk off without buying anything. She gives Eddie the eye and he responds bashfully before passing him the genie's lamp and telling him it's the real Aladdin's lamp but Eddie's wife berates him. As Eddie starts to doze off a genie suddenly appears next to him and encourages Eddie to say some magic words and rub the lamp. Moments later an array of beautiful* (*not my opinion, by the way!) women start appearing to him from behind a beaded curtain. One even rises from a water feature, leaving nothing to the imagination. That was when this viewer started rubbing HIS lamp! She lures Eddie into the water before running off. Eddie (now Aladdin) rubs his lamp and five more sexually provocative women appear around him. Suddenly the Rajah enters the room and catches Aladdin in the throws of almost having an orgy! Aladdin tries to reason with the Sultan, even ordering two pints of beer for them to share. The Sultan is taken away by two guards and the sex-mad girls return to cavort with Aladdin. When the Sultan reappears with a dagger, Aladdin makes him disappear with a wish from the lamp but a second attempt goes wrong when Aladdin rubs a boot by mistake and the two men fight on the floor. A veiled woman, dubbed 'the favorite' enters the room, does a dance and reveals herself to be Eddie's wife. She is quickly shown the exit by the two guards and then we see what should have already been obvious by now, that it was all a dream.

Favourite bit Pretty easy decision, this one! When the woman rises from the water with a see-through costume. There are just no words.

Trivia • Copyrighted October 4, 1920. • Reiussed in 1926 by Pathéscope as "The Wonderful Lamp". It was from this print I was able to review the film and therefore I have published the intertitle cards from it below. • There are ten people in the store in the opening scene. • At first glance I thought the genie was Billy Engle but Engle didn't appear on screen for Hal Roach until 1923, three years later. Which leads to the next obvious conclusion of it being Sammy Brooks but something doesn't look right to me and I am not convinced it is him. • When Eddie starts making his wishes several women appear, including one who rises on a pedestal from the water. Nipples everywhere! • The scene depicting black men as slaves to the Sultan and being used to prop up a table so that drinks can be placed upon it does look a bit dodgy! My opinion • Going into this I had low expectations. Ten minutes later I was completely satisfied and happy to have been proved wrong! Never in my life did I ever think I would rate an Eddie Boland film a 6 out of 10.

	Eddie Boland Eddie/Aladdin
	Caroline Rankin Eddie's wife
	Roy Brooks Clerk/The Sultan
	Lilymae Wilkinson Sales girl
	Jean Hope One of the Sultan's girls
	Sammy Brooks Genie of the lamp
	Ernest Morrison Sr. Slave
	Frederick Peters Guard who leads Sultan away
	Ethel Broadhurst One of the Sultan's girls
	Dolores Johnson One of the Sultan's girls

UNIDENTIFIED CAST

INTERTITLES FROM PATHESCOPE PRINT "THE WONDERFUL LAMP" (click image to enlarge)

SCREENSHOTS (click any image to enlarge)

Acknowledgements: John Benson (help) Steve Massa (identification of Ernest Morrison Sr and Frederick Peters) This page was last updated on: 10 June 2022