Der Gauner von Bagdad

This is Reeves' best film. It's got it all - a love story, humor, adventure and last but not least a pretty good musical score. Reeves plays Karim a thief who falls in love with a princess. When the princess Amina has a sleeping curse placed on her, Karim must find the only cure - a blue rose. A party sets out from the palace to find the blue rose with the winner getting the hand of the princess in marriage.

The special effects are nothing by today's standards but Reeves and Moll exude a considerable rapport, due in no small part to Arthur Lubin's direction.

This film has something in it that everyone would enjoy if they just allow themselves to be taken by it. If you have the chance to see it, simply sit there with a snack & beverage and let the film bring you into the land of 1001 Arabian Nights. The music is almost hypnotic, as the theme plays all through the background. The colors and scenery are breathtakingly beautiful. I enjoyed this film when I was a boy. It took me 20 years to find it on a video cassette and expected to be a little disappointed. I wasn't. It was all that I had remembered and more. See this one with your kids!

Although not as impressive as the Powell/Berger/Whelan/Korda version (1940),this might be the only movie in which Steve Reeves is not relegated to muscle man routine,rather recalling some parts of Errol Flynn .His thief is actually almost a romantic hero ,half Arabian Nights half fairy tale in which the man of common birth has to suffer great hardships before marrying a princess.And the princess ,the gorgeous Georgia Moll,makes Karim's task worthwhile.The genie of the lamp (of the bottle) is present.My favorite sequence is that of the treacherous lady who tries to make Karim turn to stone,which proves that Steve Reeves' characters can be smart too.

I remember how great I found this movie when I first saw it as a child. Entertaining, inviting, beautifully scored and visually exciting, it was a good surprise for me, a muscle-movies fan then.

I found Steve Reeves could show something else than his stunning muscles. He gives this time a very lighthearted performance - surprisingly, I guess, for his legions of fans - a step ahead of his habitual towering figure and dark persona. He shows, maybe for the one and only time, that he could create a character that goes beyond himself, in this case, Karim, the Thief of Bagdad. Convincingly, this is the point. In excellent, slimmer shape, smiling, it was Steve Reeves in his apex, in a delightful, colorful movie.

This is a very lovable movie, and I rate it as the best in his career, if you put the seminal 'Hercules' aside as 'hors-concours'.

Many reviewers have expressed a quiet affection for this film. And rightly so.

Steve Reeves does well and seems to be enjoying himself.

I liked the quest for the blue rose: the seven gates with the strangler trees, the cloak of invisibility, the dangerous lady in white, etc.

The special effects were credible considering that the film is more than fifty years old

I enjoyed the pearls-from-shooting-stars ruse.

Carlo Rustichelli's score supported the action without resorting to Arabian Nights clichés.

A colourful, entertaining film reminiscent of those Saturday matinees.