Bagdad

The costumes, locations, and action make up for the thin plot in this story of a princess in search of her father's murderer. True, there are holes in the story, Maureen O'Hara as a red-haired Turkish princess takes a stretch of imagination, but the look of the film is wonderful. Vincent Price, as always, makes a menacing villain. One wishes there was more romance, however. A good time, nonetheless.

The costumes, locations, and action make up for the thin plot in this story of a princess in search of her father's murderer. True, there are holes in the story, Maureen O'Hara as a red-haired Turkish princess takes a stretch of imagination, but the look of the film is wonderful. Vincent Price, as always, makes a menacing villian. One wishes there was more romance, however. A good time, nonetheless.

Bagdad is a Hollywood B movie from the 1940's that was given an unusually generous budget which covered its production in Technicolor as well as the services of three actors already recognised as stars, Vincent Price, Maureen O'Hara and John Sutton. This presumably indicates the Studio bosses who approved production felt they had a better than average script, capable of generating a very successful movie. More realistically, the script was the turkey that prevented real success and with less generous budgetary decisions it would have sunk without trace within a few months of its release.

Four extant IMDb User Comments on this film point out that Maureen O'Hara did not look like a Turkish Princess, an Arabian, an Iraqi, or a Bedouin Arab. These commentators were right in all four cases, she looked like the pale skin, redheaded Caucasian beauty she actually was. But two interesting observations follow - firstly the story in this film was so confused that, even among the relatively few comments already on this database, her character has been assigned four different nationalities; and secondly it seems strange the production budget could not even cover the cost of darkening her hair and skin (or that of co-stars Vincent Price , Paul Christian and John Sutton) - surely a minimal demand for the make-up department. Such discrepancies abound throughout this film and rob it of any validity as a serious work. Its setting is the pre-World War I Ottoman empire, but the language is (erratically) similar to the high society English of the early Georgian period and does not match the story any better than the makeup. The stars all appear to have been well aware of these deficiencies and, recognising that the film would almost certainly finish up being classified as a turkey, they decided not to attempt to compensate for them, but instead to overact outrageously -chewing up the scenery in grand style so that a fun time could be had by all. This type of film usually disappears quickly and totally soon after its release; instead Bagdad is still with us (both as a VHS tape and periodically on cable television) because they did this so effectively that, once we have accepted exactly what is being presented, we can still settle down and have a lot of fun watching it once in a while.

It has been said this was Maureen O'Hara first real starring role. Most of her fans would not accept this, but it was one that provided her with an exceptional opportunity which she seized with both hands and feet. Not only beautiful but active and athletically graceful, she is a pleasure to watch. Her fiery temperament only adds to the fun, and watching her outwit all her very threatening adversaries probably appeals to most children of all ages. Vincent Price, as the deadliest of these, plays up to her as only he can. Overall this may not be the most convincing recipe for creating a collectible film, but after accepting its limitations (and with appropriate acknowledgments to some excellent work behind the camera) I must recognise that in this instance it appears to have largely succeeded. For me, a VCD of 'Bagdad' remains a minor but still enjoyable part of my home video collection, even though NOT to be found among my historical films.

It is a rousing , moving , stirring tale , though mediocre , and with action as well as thrills without much sense . And it packs a colorful photography in Technicolor , with color de Luxe . Adventure and thrilling movie and as title indicates set in Bagdad in the turbulent Oriental wars . Princess Marjan (Maureen O'Hara) , the daughter of a Bedouin wealthy , returns home from attending a college in England, and finds her father has been killed and Hassan (Paul Hubschmid or Paul Christian), the leader of a suspicious bunch known as the Black Riders , the main suspect . Leaders of the machinations against her father's people are the military governor Turkish Pasha Al Nadim (Vincent Price) who is lurking sinisterly , and a cousin (John Sutton) of a prince , as well . This is a film in which all the magic of thrilling Bagdad is shown ¿ . Lips against lips... sword against sword... in the world's fabulous city of sin! The picture of 1001 pleasures! ...1001 adventures! ...1001 delights!

Oriental adventure with all the usual ingredients , including glowing colour and distinctive photography in Cinemascope . Adventure and stirring movie set in Bagdad , including bandits , a nasty governor , gorgeous dancers , intriguing sheiks , and many other things . Maureen O'Hara gives an average acting the daughter of a sheik who swears to avenge his daddy and is soon involved the intrigue and plots between the Bedouins and the Arabs. Along the way , she dances and sings lousy songs . O'Hara managed to spring from this ridiculous camp Oriental Adventure outing to stardom . Maureen played brave females in several Adventure/Pirate movies during the 40s and 50s in Universal Pictures , similar to Yvonne DeCarlo ,in fact the latter was originally cast as Princess Marjan. However, she had recently been ill and lost a lot of weight, so much that the producers decided to replace her with Maureen O'Hara . Maureen interpreted various Muslim girls in Simbad the Sailor , Flame of Araby and Bagdad . She also performed the daughter of a powerful lord in The Black Swain , a valiant aristocrat in The Spanish Main , a feared pirate woman called Spitfire in Against All Flags and a French countess in Trípoli . Later on , in 1952 she starred At Sword point as Musketeer Athos' daughter , an untamed Australian girl in Kangaroo and finally the known Lady Godiva . There's also the ordinary good-looking , handsome partenaire , the German Paul Christian who starred a lot of adventure movies , as well . Adding a good support cast , such as : John Sutton , Jeff Corey , Frank Puglia , David Wolfe , Fritz Leiber and special mention for Vincent Price who often played baddie roles . Vincent is well , but this is an inferior vehicule for his high skills .

Colorfully produced by Robert Arthur and Universal International , being accompanied by brilliant and glimmer cinematography carried out by director of photography by Russell Metty who photographed numerous super-productions . Shooting in the ordinary locations from Alabama Hills, Lone Pine , Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park , Santa Clarita, Universal Studios backlot , Iverson Ranch , Lane, Chatsworth , Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California . Thrilling as well as moving musical score by Frank Skinner , including Oriental sounds . The motion picture was regularly directed by the prolific artisan Charles Lamont . He churned out numerous one- and two-reel comedies for various producers, including Mack Sennett and Al Christie, and began directing features in the mid-'30s. Lamont was a staple of such independent studios as Chesterfield and Republic, for whom he turned out many action, western and comedy films, but he found his niche at Universal in the late 1930s, and directed several comedies for Universal's top comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, including : Abbot and Costello meet the mummy , Abbott and Costello meet the Keystone Korps , Abbott and Costello Go to Mars , Meet Captain Kidd , Abbott and Costello meet the invisible man , Meet Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde , In the Foregn Legion , Hit the ice ; furthermore , other comedies as : Francis in the haunted house and Ma and Pa Kattle series such as : Ma and Pa Kattle on vacation , Ma and Pa Kattle in the Ozarks , Ma and Pa go to town . And he made noir cinema as : The dark hour , International crime , A shot in dark and other Oriental adventures : Salome where she danced and Flame of Araby with Maureen O'Hara again .

Lots of people don't know that Maureen O'Hara could sing. In fact, she had a beautiful soprano voice. There was no reason why she wasn't cast in The King and I or any other musical. If you want to hear her sing, you can look up some of her live performances online, or you can find the unknown old flick Bagdad.

The story and casting of Miss O'Hara makes no sense, but if you like Technicolor flicks set in the Arabian desert, you probably won't care. She plays an Arabian princess (yes, I know, with flaming red hair) who has been educated in England and is therefore more "civilized" than the other people in her village. However, when her father gets murdered, she forgets her European education and vows to get revenge. Along the way, she gets involved in a love triangle (because when you're avenging the murder of your father while trying to do your royal duty, you have time to date two men) between Vincent Price and Paul Christian. In the great Hollywood tradition, everyone in the cast is as white as they come, but some of them are made up to look Middle Eastern. Jeff Corey, Frank Puglia, Fritz Leiber, and John Sutton are certainly not from Bagdad. The costumes seem a bit silly, but no one will probably pay attention to them once they see Maureen show off her figure in her intricate outfits. This movie is for fans of hers, but not really for anyone else.