Arthur Joffe directed this visually stunning, but weakly scripted (by Joffe and Tom Rayfiel) Arabian romantic adventure. Ben Kingsley plays Selim, a filthy-rich Arab potentate who kidnaps a beautiful, young New York City girl and brings her to his desert alcazar, where he forces her to join his harem. The twist is that Selim is not really that bad -- in spite of the fact that he has kidnapped the young girl, he actually feels compelled to uphold a time-honored tradition that he doesn't really believe. Selim is an aesthete who wants to embrace the ways of the Western world.