The Thief of Bagdad

A beautiful princess, courted by royal suitors, is desired by a powerful Mongol magician. There is none in the kingdom wily & cunning enough to thwart the evil one's wicked plots - no one, that is, except THE THIEF OF BAGDAD.

This is another wonderful Douglas Fairbanks silent adventure epic. The world of the Arabian Nights springs alive before our eyes, with Fairbanks as all its fantastic heroes rolled into one. His athleticism is here perfectly at home in a realm of flying carpets, magic armies & undersea battles.

Director Raoul Walsh & Art Director William Cameron Menzies have created a realm of domes & towers, turrets & great halls, bazaars & souks - all the perfect backdrop for Fairbanks & the plot's sinuous action.

In the supporting cast, Sojin makes an excellent villain, the mysterious epitome of evil. Look for Anna May Wong as a palace maid & versatile African American actor Noble Johnson as the Indian Prince.

Both versions of this film now available on video feature scores based on themes from Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, which exquisitely conveys all the allurement of the Thousand and One Nights.

THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (United Artists, 1924), directed by Raoul Walsh, is an original Arabian Nights fantasy that remains one of the most visually stunning of all silent films with trick photography and lavish sets (compliments of William Cameron Menzies) taking top form over anything else. Considering the time this was made, with musical score and title cards taking place over spoken dialog, this gives the impression of being made decades into the future in the days of advanced film technology. Then again, this is 1924, running 150 minutes (depending on the projection speed), and a small wonder how audiences felt watching this lavish tale during its initial premiere, focusing on mythical events set in "The Dream City of the East." It was quite obvious then this was something never before presented on screen, making the current products of director DW Griffith seem old-fashioned and out of date. Fortunately, THE THIEF OF BAGDAD doesn't fall into that category, and hopefully never will.

It's star attraction, Douglas Fairbanks, having made a reputation for himself in costume swashbucklers, previously appearing as Zorro, Robin Hood and the leader of The Three Musketeers, assumes another challenge, an Arabian Nights Fantasy. Fairbanks is cast as The Thief (no actual name given), in the crowded city of Bagdad. Almost immediately, the Thief, bare-chested and sporting baggy pants resembling the bottom half of a pajama, lives up to his title picking pockets, stealing food from the ledge of a balcony, and living by his philosophy, "What I want, I take." The movie opens and closes with a Holy Man (Charles Belcher) raising his arm towards the glittering stars in the heavens spelling out "Happiness Must Be Earned." In between those words, the moral of the story is told to a young lad how this thief earned his happiness.

Lengthly with some lulls, THE THIEF OF BAGDAD never ceases to amaze. Compared to the 1940 Technicolor sound adaptation starring Sabu, where both versions differ, the sole focus being on fantasy, with highlights being the flying carpet and a nasty villain. The Fairbanks version doesn't include what many would expect to see, a genie from the magic lamp granting three wishes. It doesn't really matter because the 1924 production has enough magic and visual fantasies to go around. Fairbanks excels in his role by climbing a magic rope, riding a winged horse across the clouds, fighting underwater sea monsters, and his battle with the valley of fore. The special effects reaches its climax where the thief materializes his army of thousands, possibly millions, from puffs of smoke, entering the castle by wrapping himself with an invisible cloak, whisking by his enemies. A magical tale, brilliantly told, full of surprises too plentiful to mention here.

THE THIEF OF BAGDAD is Douglas Fairbanks' finest hours on screen. Aside from being in a far away land, Doug resumes his athletic skills as in previous films, ranging from visual stunts to his trademark smile. It's unlike anything he has ever done before and something that could only be accomplished on screen once. Reportedly the first million dollar production, every penny of it shows on screen. How fortunate for THE THIEF OF BAGDAD not to have ever been the victim of neglect and put on the list among many titles as a "lost" film? How many lavish film productions such as this will never see the light again? The Douglas Fairbanks legend lives on with films such as this.

A supporting cast of not so famous performers, only Anna May Wong as the Mongol Slave, did make a name for herself in future films up to the sound era. Julanne Johnston, possibly a screen beauty that will never be known considering she spends the entire time with her face covered by a veil. Aside from Brandon Hurst (Caliph), and Noble Johnson (the Indian Prince), Sojin stands out in his spine chilling performance as the evil Mongol Prince.

THE THIEF OF BADGAD was one of 13 feature films broadcast on the PBS 13-week series, "The Silent Years" (1971), hosted by Orson Welles. Before the start of the movie, Welles talks about how the movie influenced him as a boy, having seen it multiple times in the theater. Though its TV presentation runs 132 minutes, missing footage would be restored in later years, including the underwater sequence as the Thief encounters a harem of beautiful maidens; the thief's battle with a prehistoric bird; as well as his encounter with a living statue with foot long fingernails. Video copies since the 1980s were distributed in various ways. Companies carrying public domain titles at bargain prices would distribute this very long movie minus any type of music soundtrack. Other distributors, namely Blackhawk, contained organ scoring by Gaylord Carter, while others had Thames Orchestration. THE THIEF OF BAGDAD has been available at different time lengths as well, with the standard being 150 minutes. There have been others as Video Yesteryear to have distributed a print as long as three hours at correct silent speed. The KINO company includes what's been missing from numerous prints over the years, that being the cast listing of actors in its conclusion. Aside from the wonders of video and current DVD, THE THIEF OF BAGDAD, which did get some exposure on American Movie Classics (1997) and Turner Classic Movies' "Silent Sunday Nights," hosted by Robert Osborne with Gaylord Carter organ scoring, since September 10, 2013, it's been presented on TCM accompanied by Carl Davis Orchestration from the Thames Video Collection.

In closing, THE THIEF OF BAGDAD is worthy screen entertainment for all ages and future generations to come. The thought of this to still be available and appreciated today would have made Fairbanks proud, thus, the moral of the story, "Happiness Must Be Earned." (****)

There are very few silent films that I enjoy as much as a modern film. In fact, the only silent film that I would rate as a 10 is Buster Keaton's The General. But Douglas Fairbanks is certainly worth watching, if you have any real interest in film. He has so much charm, and moves so fluidly, that he captivates even when the special effects are, well, very 1920s. Fairbanks does not so much act as he dances the role. The costumes and sets, by William Cameron Menzies, are also spectacular. I have watched this movie in the earlier DVD version, and frankly it put me to sleep. First, a great deal of it was missing, and so the story was choppy and hard to follow. Second, the print quality was poor. But the new Kino Fairbanks collection is a miracle of film restoration. There is one section on this DVD that is poor quality, compared to the others. But since this is a section that I have never seen before, to see it at all is wonderful.

This movie is great fun to watch, like you would expect from a genre movie such as this one. It has all the typical adventurous, action and comedy elements present to make this a great swashbuckling movie. Add to that Douglas Fairbanks in good shape and you have a classic unforgettable genre movie!

Douglas Fairbanks is totally great in this one. He looks, acts, breaths, eats like a real superstar. He handles all of the athletic action in the movie really well. It's not hard to see why this man was THE swashbuckling hero of the '20's.

The movie is really great looking, with many grand looking sets. Really great looking stuff! (though obviously all fake.) Something you would normally expect to see in a D.W. Griffith movie. The movie also has some silly looking but yet great early special effects, toward the ending of the movie.

The story has all the ingredients needed for such a genre movie as this one; an heroic main character, a love interest, stereotypical villains and lots of fun and action. Especially toward the ending the movie starts to become greatly adventurous after a sort of slower middle and good first part. It's of course all rather simple and formulaic but this is also what makes the genre so great. You just always know what to expect. It's good simple fun that's professionally and well made, that's also beautiful to look at.

Also definitely fun to see how much of this movie was later used again in Disney's "Aladdin". Some, mostly action sequences, are obviously almost directly copied.

A great fun movie, from swashbuckling-specialist director Raoul Walsh.

9/10

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I first viewed this movie in 1924 at age 6 yrs--probably the first movie I ever saw. I thought it was terrific then, and after viewing it again now(2003) I still think it is an exceptionally fine movie. Many special effects without benefit of computers. A very ambitious movie for that time.