Out of all the former holdings of the Russian empire/USSR, Azerbaijan seems to have had the strongest cinematic output. They were surprisingly
self-sufficient, got to be produced in their own language and not
Russian, and there's a steady stream of content, no matter the decade. I've discussed some before, such as the 50s musical O Olmasın, bu Olsun, and today I'll be looking at another, Arşın Mal Alan...
Asker is a wealthy man in search of the one thing he lacks-A woman to be with, to share his riches and home, and to marry. He disguises himself as a cloth peddler and starts scouting for girls on the streets of Azerbaijan with his servant. He soon encounters Gulchohre and falls head over heels. The feeling is mutual, but her grouchy father is against the union. He doesn't want his daughter marrying someone so lowly. How can these young lovers overcome these challenges?...
The Cloth Peddler (Arşın Mal Alan) is a simple but fairly charming musical. It's romantic, ridiculous, and completely unbelievable, and makes for a fun watch all round.
Given that they're both mid-century technicolour costume musicals, I was afraid it might blend in too much with O Olmasın, bu Olsun, but thankfully they are different enough. There are similarities in locations and costumes, but whereas that was larger scale and full of diverse city hustle, this is a bit pared back, and focuses more on general romance.
The story here really only has the one beat. Asker is a rich guy who really wants love, and settles almost immediately for the first girl he sees. Bit of a thin romance, really, and the two lovers don't have a lot of time together before instantly falling in love, but they make a nice enough pair.
The film has strong Coming to America vibes, also about a privileged rich guy going out into the world with his servant to find his one true love. It also has the same kind of conclusion, where riches win out for everybody. What a tough decision!
The characters are fairly basic. Asker is shown as amazingly perfect, and has a habit of serenading those around him all the time. Between this and his singleminded quest for love, his family/servants often look at him like he's a bit daffy. Gulchohre meanwhile is a nice enough girl, who makes it clear to her dad what does and doesn't want.
One issue I had was the characters here all look the same! Similar clothes, colours, hats, and facial hair, etc. You can generally keep a handle on it, but at times I was a bit lost.
The comedy here is pretty fluffy and light, and gets some laughs, both in dialogue and general shenanigans.
The climax is by far where The Cloth Peddler gets the most ridiculous. In any other movie the plucky underdog would find some way of proving his love for the girl to her disapproving father. Maybe he'd even save the day from roving baddies. Here though? Asker breaks into Gulchohre's home in the dead of night and kidnaps her! She wakes up in an unfamiliar place, and starts tying bedsheets together, fully intending to commit suicide! But at that moment Asker comes and swings the doors open. They cry out each-other's names, then dive for each-other's arms and kiss. How romantic!
How Asker doesn't get beaten to death I'll never know. Like, I know he wasn't really kidnapping her, he was just whisking her away to his palatial abode to show her the truth. But this really wasn't the way to do it! Couldn't he just say he'll take her somewhere and stick on a blindfold? Because the way he does it, she absolutely thinks she'd been kidnapped!
Now that it's known that Asker is actually rich, all opposition to their marriage fades, and her dad is happy to accept him as a son. Not much of a moral victory there! The rest of the film is devoted to their wedding. It's all a bit of a conflict-free climax, and could've used a bit more oomph, but is an alright note to end on.
As a musical, this is good. The songs here come hard and fast, but with enough breaks to give the performers and audience time to breath. They are nice enough even if the lyrical content may have eluded me. The singing itself is of note too. While O Olmasın was a regular musical, Cloth Peddler is sung with a more operatic style.
The cast do well in general too. Even if they do all blend together a bit, they get the job done.
The movie makes use of gorgeous sets, and nifty matte paintings. These are sometimes really obvious, but in a possibly intentional way, and it nice sense of stagelike unreality.
Despite the impression these screenshots give, The Cloth Peddler wasn't originally in colour. It may have been the
intention, but factory costs due to the war made it impossible at the time.
But recent colourisation efforts have left the film looking its perfect
self. While I'm sure it works well in black-and-white too, it feels really fitting and authentic, and exactly like a colour film from that period.
Modern colourisations of old films can be a dicey. Oftentimes it's done against the
wishes of creators or the public, only to be trendy. On the logic that black and white is
terrible and old, and only colour can make things hip and new. And it often
just looks plain awful! Like when it was done for Casablanca, that stripped away all the
brilliant shadows and lighting, and made it look like a bad video game. In
other cases though, like 1935s She, it was the creator's intention, fits really well,
and was done by someone who really knew what they were doing.
The Cloth Peddler is a classic in Azeri cinema. The whole operetta is, in fact. Not only is it popular on the stage, it's received a plethora of adaptions before and after this. This may well be the best though, and makes for a great showcase of their musical culture, as well as cinema in general!...
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