El ladrón de Bagdad

This is an Oriental fantasy about ¨thousand and one Arabian nights¨ with plenty of incredible adventures , fantasy , witchery and wizardly. The malignant vizier Jaffar (magnificently played by Conrad Veidt) with powerful magic faculties imprisons the prince Ahamad of Bagdad (attractive John Justin) who loses his throne, he then escapes thanks to a little thief named Abu (sympathetic Sabu). They arrive in Basora where Ahamad and the charming princess (gorgeous June Duprez) fall in love . But prince and thief are haunted by Jaffar , Ahamd is turned blind and Abu is become a dog . The story accumulates several fantastic ingredients such as transformation of the starring , a flying mechanic horse , a magic bow , a flying carpet and of course the colossal genie (overacting by Rex Ingram) who gives three wishes to Sabu , the magic eye , the figure of goddess Kali with several hands , among others.

This remarkable picture ranks as one of the finest fantastic films of all time . Produced by London Fim's Alexander Korda and directed by the definitively credited Ludwing Berger , Michael Powell and Tim Whelan with a stunning screenplay by Lajos Biro and Miles Malleson also dialogue writer and actor as a Sultan fond to mechanic games . The WWII outbreak caused the paralyzing shooting , then the three Korda brothers and collaborators traveled USA continuing there the filming , in especial on location in Grand Canyon Colorado . The splendid visual and glimmer Technicolor cinematography , setting and FX provoked the achieving three Oscars : Production design by William Cameron Menzies and Vincent Korda , Cinematography by George Perinal and Special effects by Osmond Borradaile , though today are dated and being urgent a necessary remastering because of the colors are worn-out. Furthermore, one nomination for the evocative and oriental musical score by Miklos Rozsa . This vivid tale with immense doses of imagination will appeal to fantasy fans and cinema classic buffs.

The making of The Thief Of Bagdad is quite a story unto itself, almost as wondrous as the tale told in this film. Alexander Korda nearly went broke making this film.

According to the Citadel Film series Book about The Great British Films, adopted son of the United Kingdom Alexander Korda had conceived this film as early as 1933 and spent years of planning and preparation. But World War II unfortunately caught up with Korda and the mounting expenses of filming a grand spectacle.

Budget costs happen in US films too, only Cecil B. DeMille always had a free hand at Paramount after 1932 when he returned there. But DeMille nor any of his American contemporaries had to worry about enemy bombs while shooting the film. Part of the way through the shoot, Korda transported the whole company to America and shot those sequences with Rex Ingram as the genie in our Grand Canyon. He certainly wasn't going to get scenery like that in the UK. Korda also finished the interiors in Hollywood, all in time for a release on Christmas Day 1940.

The spectacle of the thing earned The Thief Of Bagdad four Academy Award nominations and three Oscars for best color cinematography, best art&set direction for a color film, and best special effects. Only Miklos Rosza's original musical score did not take home a prize in a nominated category. Korda must have been real happy about deciding to shoot in the Grand Canyon because it's impossible to get bad color pictures from that place.

The special effects however do not overwhelm the simple story of good triumphing over evil. The good is the two young lovers John Justin and June Duprez and the evil is Conrad Veidt as the sorcerer who tries to steal both a kingdom and a heart, both belonging to Duprez. This was Veidt's career role until Casablanca where he played the Luftwaffe major Stroesser.

Of course good gets a little help from an unlikely source. Beggar boy and thief Sabu who may very well have been one of the few who could call himself at the time an international movie star. Literally rising from poverty working as an elephant stable boy for the Maharajah of Mysore he was spotted by Alexander Korda who needed a native lead for one of his jungle features. Sabu captures all the innocence and mischievousness of youth as he fulfills the Arabian Nights fantasy of the boy who topples a tyrant. Not a bad message to be sending out in 1940 at that.

The Thief Of Bagdad holds up remarkably well today. It's an eternal tale of love, romance, and adventure in any order you want to put it.

Thief of Bagdad is truly advanced for its time. It has very good special effects. The use of flying carpet sequences is very advanced for 1940. In good prints the color is spectacular. The acting is somewhat stilted, but acceptable for a period piece. Both costume and set design are superior. The music is excellent. Most elements of the film fit together to provide a superior piece of "fluff" entertainment.

"The Thief of Bagdad" is impressive in the shape of the evil magician Jaffar (Conrad Veidt). He plots with lies and magic spells to obtain the kingdom from its rightful ruler the young King Ahmad, and a gorgeous princess from her father...

He falls victim in the end, as all tyrants do (in books and legends) to love and of the common man whom he ignored, here embodied by the little thief (Sabu).

The armies of good and evil, black and white, are superbly realized in both visual and literary terms...

The script is poetic, simply and very beautiful... The costumes of the magician and his men rising and falling like the wings of black birds, attacking suddenly in the night to inflict destruction and create terror...

The radiant hero wears white turbans and robes, and his princess is dressed in pinks and pale blues...

For spectacular scenes it matched all that had gone before, while through its use of color, it brought to life a world such as had not seemed possible before...

With flying carpet and flying white horse, with a giant genie (excellently played by Rex Ingram), with evil wizards, and with the good acting of Sabu and Veidt, "The Thief of Bagdad" captures the quality and true atmosphere of the Arabian Nights...

The 1940 version remains the screen's finest fairy tale!

The Thief of Bagdad is a treasure. First and foremost, it is a good story. Though my four children's primary exposure to this tale, the most famous of the stories of the Arabian Nights, comes from the Disney Corporation, the Thief of Bagdad held their interest to the end. The story moves along at a good pace and includes a twist or two that reduced predictability. Sabu, who plays the young thief, Abu, also measures up to any of today's teen actors in appeal, judging from the number of times I heard my oldest daughter say, "He's c-u-t-e!"

In 1940, the film won Oscars for cinematography and special effects. Today, of course, those effects seem very dated ("Look, it's Barbie flying through the air," declared my daughter at the sight of the genie flying). Yet they fit into the story well. The film is, after all, over 60 years old. The effects fit with the script. Furthermore, what ones sees in The Thief of Bagdad remained pretty much state-of-the-art for the next twenty-five years. One need only compare the opening montage from a 1967 Star Trek episode to see this. In that, it was quite an achievement.

This qualifies as a family film, though there are a few stabbings near the end. The acting is so obvious and the wounds so bloodless as to those scenes nearly as artificial as animation.

All in all, a fun film worth watching for either an evening of pure entertainment, or for the historical value of the effects. I recommend it.