Kismet (1955)

Caliph Guard: [closing lines] Is this man to be pardoned, O Caliph?
Omar: Pardon him, All Highest. His crime was a service. Let him go free.
The Poet: No, don't ask that. Under the circumstances it would embarrass the All Highest to pardon his father-in-law. No, O Prince of Justice, let me help you to compose this most difficult of verdicts against a man who in his life never once did right and who never once wronged anyone. Condemn the scoundrel to some dreadful oasis at least a week's camel's journey away. Force him to take with him the widow of the soon to be late Wazir and all the property she can get her hands on before the accounts are audited. Condemn him to lighten her sorrow and to toil ceaselessly to remove all grief from her heart.
Lalume: You have just condemned yourself for life, My Lord.
The Poet: And finally, O Prince of True Believers, take from me my greatest treasure, my daughter, Marsinah. Take her away forever by marrying her til the end of her days.
The Caliph: Such is the Caliph's pleasure. And so he orders.
The Poet: [singing] Princes come/Princes go. An hour of pomp and show./ They know. /Princes come/ And over the sands and over the sands of time./ They go./ Wise men come./Ever promising/the riddle of life to know./Wise men come./But over the sands./ The silent sands of time./ They go./Lovers come./Lovers go./And all that there is to know/Lovers know./Only lovers know.

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The Poet: May your taxes increase!
[Said when acting as a beggar to get the Baghdad merchants to give him alms]

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Marsinah: [on being told that the Wazir intends to visit her room that night] If you do I'll kill myself, I swear it!
Wazir: Really? It'll be one of the most interesting wedding nights I've had in years.

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Future mega-successful TV producer Aaron Spelling (Charlie's Angels, The Love Boat, Dynasty) appears uncredited as a beggar. Spelling wrote in his memoirs that this role made him decide to give up acting. Director Vincente Minnelli always said he was responsible for Spelling's career as a successful TV producer and told him: "Had I not put you in 'Kismet', you'd still be an actor somewhere."
There was a number in the original musical called "Zubbediyah, Sameris' Dance" that was later excluded from the movie version; it was performed by Princess Zubbediyah, the woman who the Caliph was supposed to marry.
Another number excluded from the movie was the Vizier's theme song, "Was I Wazir." It was probably not used in the movie because of the bizarre punishments described in the song, including that of a royal flute player who lost his grasp on his instrument, and who the Vizier had bitten by an asp.
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