# Kismet (1955 film)
*Kismet* is a 1955 American musical film from [Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer](https://www.edgepedia.org/metro-goldwyn-mayer), directed by [Vincente Minnelli](https://www.edgepedia.org/vincente-minnelli) and adapted from the 1953 Broadway musical of the same name, itself based on Edward Knoblock's 1911 play about a beggar poet who rises to power in old Baghdad.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/51549-KISMET) Produced by Arthur Freed from a screenplay by Charles Lederer and Luther Davis, it stars [Howard Keel](https://www.edgepedia.org/howard-keel), Ann Blyth, and Dolores Gray, with Vic Damone and Monty Woolley.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/51549-KISMET) Its score by Robert Wright and George Forrest adapts themes by the Russian composer Alexander Borodin, and its best-known song, "Stranger in Paradise," became the stage show's biggest hit.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/97644/kismet-1955) The film was a box-office failure at the end of the studio musical's commercial reign, and it received no Academy Award nominations.[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/51549-KISMET?cxt=filmography)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Source material | The 1953 Broadway musical *Kismet*, book by Charles Lederer and Luther Davis, music and lyrics by Robert Wright and George Forrest, from themes by Alexander Borodin; the show ran 583 performances at the Ziegfeld Theatre[4](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/kismet-2421) |
| Lead cast | Howard Keel (the Poet/Hajj), Ann Blyth (Marsinah), Dolores Gray (Lalume), Vic Damone (the Caliph), Monty Woolley (Omar), Sebastian Cabot (the Wazir)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/51549-KISMET) |
| Direction | Vincente Minnelli; Stanley Donen completed the last three or four days of shooting and a day of additional shooting when Minnelli left for Europe to start *Lust for Life*[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/51549-KISMET) |
| Production | Filmed 23 May to 22 July 1955, plus additional shooting on 8 August 1955, at a cost of $2,692,960[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/51549-KISMET) |
| Format and release | CinemaScope in Eastman Color, Western Electric sound, 112-113 minutes; New York premiere 8 December 1955, Los Angeles premiere 22 December 1955, general release 23 December 1955[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/51549-KISMET) |
| Reception | Reviews were mixed to dismal; the film earned no Oscar nominations and took in about $2.9 million worldwide against an estimated $2.6 million cost[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/97644/kismet-1955) • [3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/51549-KISMET?cxt=filmography) |
## Spoilers
### Story and characters
In old Baghdad, an impoverished poet (Howard Keel) and his daughter Marsinah ([Ann Blyth](https://www.edgepedia.org/ann-blyth)) go to the marketplace to sell his rhymes for food. Through mistaken identity he is taken for Hajj, a famous sorcerer, and posed as that man he extracts a purse of gold from Jawan, an elderly thief (Jay C. Flippen), by promising to remove a curse.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/51549-KISMET) He then maneuvers his way into the household of the Wazir (Sebastian Cabot), whose favorite wife Lalume (Dolores Gray) takes an interest in him, while Marsinah falls in love with a young Caliph ([Vic Damone](https://www.edgepedia.org/vic-damone)) traveling in disguise.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kismet_1955) [Monty Woolley](https://www.edgepedia.org/monty-woolley) plays Omar, an advisor to the Caliph, in what AFI records as Woolley's last film.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/51549-KISMET) • [3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/51549-KISMET?cxt=filmography)
## From Broadway to the screen
The stage show succeeded on its music, its whimsical plot, and the star presence of Alfred Drake as the Poet; when the show became a hit, playing 583 performances and winning Tonys including Best Musical, that seemed like a sound investment to MGM.[4](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/kismet-2421) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/97644/kismet-1955) According to [Frank Miller](https://www.edgepedia.org/frank-miller)'s Turner Classic Movies essay, the studio began negotiating for the rights before the musical even opened, eventually paying $125,000 for them.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/97644/kismet-1955) AFI's production history, drawing on the M-G-M and Arthur Freed collections at the USC Cinema-Television Library, records the studio's interest from 6 December 1953, weeks before the Broadway opening, and an intention to secure both the musical rights and the rights to Knoblock's play, which MGM had already adapted in 1944.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/51549-KISMET)
MGM had originally planned a version with a screenplay by [Alan Jay Lerner](https://www.edgepedia.org/alan-jay-lerner) and Arthur Schwartz, potentially starring Ezio Pinza and [Cyd Charisse](https://www.edgepedia.org/cyd-charisse), but as word of the Broadway musical spread, Freed decided to use the Lederer-Davis libretto instead; the two men were hired to adapt their own book on 29 September 1954.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/51549-KISMET) Keel, already under studio contract, took the Poet's part; TCM notes he had previously followed Drake into Curly in *Oklahoma!* on Broadway and scored in the film of another Drake vehicle, *Kiss Me Kate* (1953).[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/97644/kismet-1955)
## Production problems
Minnelli first declined the film, saying he hated the stage version, and only capitulated when production head Dore Schary implied that directing it was the price of making *Lust for Life*, the [Vincent van Gogh](https://www.edgepedia.org/vincent-van-gogh) biography he wanted.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/97644/kismet-1955) Once committed, he conceived the picture as a fairy tale with stylized sets and lighting, but during shooting he was preoccupied with preparations for *Lust for Life* and spent more time on set design than on directing the actors, so that what appeared on screen was a leaden comedy-drama rather than whimsical fantasy.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/97644/kismet-1955) Only Keel and Gray, whose big numbers are the film's highlights, had the tongue-in-cheek attitude the material needed.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/97644/kismet-1955)
Choreographer Jack Cole, who had staged the dances for the Broadway version, quarreled with arranger Johnny Green over "Not Since Nineveh," one of the film's most complicated dance pieces; Freed sided with Green, and Cole was later disappointed to see some of his best choreography cut in editing.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/97644/kismet-1955) When the production ran a few days over schedule, [Stanley Donen](https://www.edgepedia.org/stanley-donen) took over direction for the last three or four days plus a day of additional shooting, because Minnelli had to leave for Europe to begin *Lust for Life*.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/51549-KISMET) The Breen office also constrained the material: the Wazir does not drown as in the play but is revived, the physical relationship between Lalume and the Poet is repeatedly interrupted by other characters, and censors warned that "Gesticulate" should contain no vulgar or unacceptable gestures.[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/51549-KISMET?cxt=filmography)
## Music
The score is Robert Wright and George Forrest's adaptation of Borodin's classical themes, the same team that had scored the 1944 hit operetta *Song of Norway* from [Edvard Grieg](https://www.edgepedia.org/edvard-grieg)'s music.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/97644/kismet-1955) "Stranger in Paradise" comes from the Polovetsian Dances in Borodin's opera *Prince Igor*.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/97644/kismet-1955) Two film songs, "Bored" and "Rahadlakum," were not based on Borodin's work, and some Broadway numbers, including "Rhymes Have I" and "Zubbediya," did not appear in the released film; in place of "Rhymes Have I," some of its lyrics are spoken over brief strains of the music.[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/51549-KISMET?cxt=filmography) [André Previn](https://www.edgepedia.org/andre-previn) and Jeff Alexander supervised and conducted the music, with orchestrations by Conrad Salinger, Alexander Courage, and Arthur Morton.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/51549-KISMET)
## Reception and box office
The reviews were mixed to dismal. Bosley Crowther of *The New York Times* wrote that the film was staged "as though it were the marching orders for the Macy parade" and moved at a ponderous tempo, while praising its opulence; critics generally commended the sets, the score, and Keel's and Gray's performances but found the rest of the film lacking.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/97644/kismet-1955) On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 57 percent Tomatometer from seven reviews, and several retrospective critics call it Minnelli's weakest musical.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kismet_1955)
The commercial result signaled the decline of the big studio musical. Made for an estimated $2.6 million, it brought in only $2.9 million worldwide, and after *Brigadoon* (1954) and *It's Always Fair Weather* (1955) it was the third Freed production in a row to under-perform at the box office.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/97644/kismet-1955) AFI records a production cost of $2,692,960, $9,100 over the first estimate, and states that the film received generally favorable notices but no Academy Award nominations and was not among MGM's box-office hits of the year.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/51549-KISMET) • [3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/51549-KISMET?cxt=filmography)
## Place in the Kismet story
The 1955 film is one of several versions of Knoblock's play, which provided star vehicles for Oscar Asche in London and Otis Skinner on Broadway in 1911 and was filmed five times, twice with Skinner as a 1920 silent and a 1930 talking film.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/97644/kismet-1955) MGM had previously made a 1944 version with [Ronald Colman](https://www.edgepedia.org/ronald-colman) and [Marlene Dietrich](https://www.edgepedia.org/marlene-dietrich); in 1967 the story reached television in an ABC broadcast starring José Ferrer.[6](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/24029) In later years the 1955 film has attracted auteurist attention for traces of Minnelli's style, even while being ranked among his lesser works, and it carries a footnote in entertainment history: Aaron Spelling appears unbilled as a beggar, and after making the film he decided he had no future in acting and moved behind the camera.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/97644/kismet-1955)
## References
1. [Kismet (1955), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/51549-KISMET)
2. [Kismet (1955) by Frank Miller, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/97644/kismet-1955)
3. [Kismet (1955), AFI Catalog (filmography detail page)](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/51549-KISMET?cxt=filmography)
4. [Kismet – Broadway Musical – Original, IBDB](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/kismet-2421)
5. [Kismet (1955), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kismet_1955)
6. [Kismet (1944), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/24029)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Musical and music films (individual works) › Musical films of the 1930s to 1960s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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