Kismet

Baubles, bangles and beads abound in Vincente Minnelli's shimmering musical.

As one of its hit songs has it, Kismet is all baubles, bangles and beads, a shimmering, jangling, polychrome Orientalist fantasy that knows it knows nothing of the Orient. Howard Keel has never been finer in voice than here as a poet caught up in an enjoyable gallimaufry of Wazirs and Caliphs, harems and bazaars, with Ann Blyth and Vic Damone strangers in paradise and unabashedly camp Dolores Gray singing the praises of Baghdad.