The Brass Bottle (1964)

An architect (Tony Randall) uncorks a brass bottle which lets out a genie (Burl Ives), who in gratitude for being freed tries to help out the architect but only succeeds in messing up his life consistently. The inspiration for the popular long running television series I DREAM OF JEANNIE, this inoffensive family friendly fantasy comedy plays out like a TV sitcom and even looks it with its familiarly bland Universal back lot houses and streets. The laughs are obvious and infrequent although the dinner party sequence is fairly amusing. It doesn't help that Ives hardly looks Middle Eastern but every bit the Scottish Irishman that he is. Still, it's a modestly pleasant time waster. But the cast is game including Barbara Eden (who would later play TV's JEANNIE) as Randall's fiancee, Kamala Devi, Edward Andrews, Richard Erdman, Ann Doran and Kathie Browne.