Universal enjoyed some success in the 1940s with their colorful "Thousand and One Nights" tales featuring the likes of Maria Montez, Jon Hall, and Sabu. By 1953, however, metal fatigue had set in and The Golden Blade suffers greatly from diminished returns. Nothing here is quite what it used to be. The sets are claustrophobic, the acting without the camp value of Montez and Turhan Bey, and the swashbuckling merely a matter of getting Rock Hudson from point A to point B. Only George Macready as the evil Vizier and a bevy of Miss Universe contestants as handmaidens seem to get into the spirit of things, the latter broadly smiling at all times despite the heavy breathing that surrounds them. One question remains, however: In exactly what part of ancient Baghdad did princess Piper Laurie purchase the henna rinse needed for that colorful coiffure?