Raoul Walsh's masterpiece of the silent cinema. Editorial Reviews. Want to help us help them? Strangelove,’ Dies at 99, There Are Not Thirty-Six Ways Of Showing A Man Getting On A Horse - Anne-Katrin Titze - 16250, 1940s movies, short films, and etc. A television series, Thief of Baghdad, was also made in India, airing on Zee TV between 2000 and 2001. The Thief of Bagdad (1940) Full Cast & Crew. Jaffar prevents the two from following him by raising a storm that shipwrecks them. The Princess, now in love with Ahmad, runs away, but Jaffar blinds Ahmad and turns Abu into a dog. A Victorian Englishman bets that with the new steamships and railways he can circumnavigate the globe in eighty days. However Ahmad stumbles upon the beautiful princess and they fall in love with each other. Abu's appearance sparks a revolt against Jaffar by the city's inhabitants, and Abu kills the fleeing Jaffar with the crossbow. Related Videos. [8], The New York Times reviewer Bosley Crowther enthused that the film "ranks next to Fantasia as the most beguiling and wondrous film of this troubled season". This film later influenced the creation of the Malay film Abu Hassan Penchuri ("Abu Hassan the Thief", 1955) which was based in Baghdad. The Thief of Bagdad Korda had intended to cast Vivien Leigh as the Princess, but she went to Hollywood to be with Laurence Olivier.[6]. Although this production is a remake of the 1924 version, the two films have differences: the most significant is that the thief and the prince are separate characters in the 1940 version. The Criterion Collection released a two-disc DVD release in 2008 that includes a commentary track by filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, who are both longtime fans of the film (their comments were recorded separately and then edited together). The Thief of Bagdad, meanwhile, is far less anchored to historical fact anyway, and the recent history of Anglo-Arab dialogue had not seen Islam present a significant threat to British interests. The Thief of Bagdad is a 1940 British Technicolor historical fantasy film, produced by Alexander Korda and directed by Michael Powell, Ludwig Berger and Tim Whelan, with additional contributions by William Cameron Menzies and Korda brothers Vincent and Zoltán. - Order by Phone 1-800-336-4627 A number of Indian Hindi-language films, were made under the titles of: Baghdad Ka Chor (The Thief of Baghdad) in 1934, 1946, 1955; Baghdad Gaja Donga (Thief of Baghdad) in 1968; and Thief of Baghdad in 1969 and 1977. [1] The film was also a success in Europe, selling 5,135,145 tickets in France and becoming the seventh most attended film of the year. Its consensus states, "Dashing, dazzling, and altogether magical, The Thief of Bagdad is an enchanting fantasy for children of all ages". By the end of the year, Korda found himself running out of money and credit, and in the spring of 1940 he arranged to move the entire production to Hollywood (where some shots of the movie's young star Sabu had to be redone, for he had grown more than 3 inches (76 mm) during the year since shooting had commenced). Sabu plays the heroic little thief who saves the day. In the time of the Arabian Nights, the city of Baghdad is ruled by Sultan Ali Bajazeth but actually controlled by the scheming Grand Vizier Ghamal. Abu is given a magic crossbow as a reward, but he also steals the king's magic carpet and flies on it to Bagdad. With Ahmad restored to power and reunited with the Princess, Abu avoids the sultan's plans for his future by hopping back on the carpet and flying off in search of fun and adventure. 0:02. THE THIEF OF BAGDAD is much lighter with its themes and textures than other films of that time, except for the Disney animated films. Movie Info When the Thief of Baghdad (Douglas Fairbanks) sneaks into a royal palace, he discovers and instantly falls in love with a beautiful princess (Snitz Edwards). The Thief of Bagdad is a picture that we highly recommend for all ages and all races. It was released in the US and the UK by United Artists. Search for "The Thief of Bagdad" on Amazon.com, Title: The finished film has 3 songs, but others were written, with recordings of some surviving, including one verse of Rex Ingram singing a song written for the genie. The film stars child actor Sabu, Conrad Veidt, John Justin, and June Duprez. But what we want to know is, which films do you think were overlooked for Oscars? Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive, diverse representations in books, TV shows, and movies. In ancient Basra, a blind, young beggar begins telling the film's story in flashback (mimicking the style of the Arabian Nights), revealing that he is really Ahmad, the young, naive Sultan of Bagdad. At some point during production, the film was being written as a musical. 11 of 11 people found this review helpful. In ancient Baghdad, a handsome thief, Karim, falls in love with the beautiful Amina, daughter of the sultan. The film was released on VHS by The Samuel Goldwyn Company. In order to win her love and best his rival, he performs astonishing feats of daring in the Valley of Fire, Valley of the Monsters and Cavern of the Enchanted Trees. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. [9], Roger Ebert added The Thief of Bagdad to his "Great Movies" list, calling it "on a level with The Wizard of Oz". In his detailed and very good booklet notes, Frank DeWald confirms this with his description: In some ways, the musical style of The Thief of Bagdad is atypical of Rózsa. According to Ebert, "it maintains a consistent spirit, and that spirit is one of headlong joy in storytelling". Is their love doomed? For example, the Disney film Aladdin borrows freely from it, particularly the characters of the evil Vizier and the Sultan, both drawn with a marked similarity to the characters in The Thief of Bagdad. A devil-may-care thief in Bagdad falls for a beautiful princess. The thief of Bagdad Summary Motion picture lobby card for "The thief of Bagdad" shows stars Douglas Fairbanks and Julanne Johnston in a scene from the film. In Bagdad, the young and naive Sultan Ahmad is curious about the behavior of his people. [15] Baghdad Thirudan, a 1960 Indian Tamil-language film by T. P. Sundaram, was directly remade from the 1924 version. Cast Douglas Fairbanks, Snitz Edwards, … Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, In Bagdad, the young and naive Sultan Ahmad (John Justin) is curious about the behavior of his people. They flee to Basra, where Ahmad meets and falls in love with the Princess. But the evil Jaffar has also traveled to Basra to propose to marry the princess. This technique has since become the standard process for separating screen elements and/or actors from their backgrounds and placing them on new backgrounds for special effects purposes, and has since been used in thousands of films. This is a process still utilised to this day, especially for weather forecasts, where a blue background is used for the superimposition of another image. A Persian King exiled from his kingdom by an evil trickster allies with a thief to take his powerful throne back and win back his true Princess. Abu awakes alone on a deserted beach, where he finds a bottle and opens it, releasing an enormous genie intent on killing the boy. Abu, though, tricks the genie into submitting to him and granting him three wishes. One major change is crucial: In the silent film, the thief and the romantic lead were one and the same, played by Fairbanks. In 2016, "The Thief of Bagdad" is still delightful with impressive special effects for a 1940 film with magic flying carpet, jinn, flying horse and fantastic journeys. With the jewel, Ahmad sees Jaffar using his magic to make the Princess forget her true love. In the time of the Arabian Nights, the city of Baghdad is ruled by Sultan Ali Bajazeth but actually controlled by the scheming Grand Vizier Ghamal. Wanting to know more about his people, Ahmad is tricked by Jaffar, his evil Grand Vizier, into going in disguise into the city. However Ahmad stumbles upon the beautiful princess and they fall in love with each other. Georges Périnal, credited as George Perinal, won the Academy Award for Cinematography, Vincent Korda for Art Direction, and Lawrence W. Butler and Jack Whitney for Special Effects[3] (marking the first use of the "manual bluescreen technique"[4]). Ahmad befriends the young thief Abu that helps him to escape from the prison. Prior to The Thief of Bagdad, set designs and décor in major films like D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance (1916) were a tasteful mixture at best and in most cases a jumble. 1940 film by Ludwig Berger, Alexander Korda, Michael Powell, William Cameron Menzies, Zoltan Korda, Tim Whelan, List of films with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, "The 13th Academy Awards (1941) Nominees and Winners", "Working Knowledge: Blue Screens—Leap of Faith", Foster on Film – Fantasy: The Thief of Bagdad, "The Thief of Bagdad Blu-ray (United Kingdom)", The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade, Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Thief_of_Bagdad_(1940_film)&oldid=1018573507, Films directed by William Cameron Menzies, Films that won the Best Visual Effects Academy Award, Films whose art director won the Best Art Direction Academy Award, Films whose cinematographer won the Best Cinematography Academy Award, Films based on One Thousand and One Nights, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2018, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 18 April 2021, at 19:59. 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