The Thief Of Bagdad (1940)

Jaffar Takes

The Thief Of Bagdad
UK/USA 1940 
Directed by Ludwig Berger, 
Michael Powell & Tim Whelan
London Film Productions
Imprint  Blu Ray Zone B

Please note: One day before publishing this review, I discovered I'd already reviewed this movie 16 years ago. However, this is a more detailed account of it and, it turns out, my tastes must have changed a lot over the years... I take less prisoners with this one. I will leave both reviews up in the index so you can take your pick but, this review is how I feel about this movie now. 

So the second movie of Imprint’s beautifully restored box set of The Thief Of Bagdad films is the 1940 version produced by Alexander Korda. This was my father’s favourite film but, alas, it arrived too late for him to look at it one last time. But I wanted to watch it again to try and figure out if I was missing anything from previous viewings. I’ve never felt this was a truly great film but, my dad did so...

Yeah. Okay... this is about the best way yet to see this landmark and rightfully respected film adaptation, purporting to be sourced from certain stories in the varous tales (and titles) of the 101 Arabian Nights. And it’s a fine film, to be sure. It looks amazing although, some of the effects, with it being the first colour film to employ blue screen techniques, look a little dated and wobbly to me. I say this after loving the effects work on the Douglas Fairbanks version, which I reviewed here. 

I find this version a little slow though but, the narrative has an interesting structure in that it flashes back from a little way into the story to tell how the former king, played by the quite charming John Justin, was made blind by the evil Jaffar, played by Conrad Veidt. And also why his friend, the actual thief of Bagdad, played here by Sabu, was turned into his seeing eye dog, again courtesy of the antagonist. 

We learn that Jaffar needs to find these two to restore the consciousness of the love interest, played by June Duprez and how, after the film catches up with itself and this happens, the former king and thief are again outcast and trying to find a way to get back to Jaffar, while Jaffar murders the young lady’s father, played by Miles Malleson (who also helped write the movie) in their absence. This involves mostly Sabu in adventures featuring a djinni (played with a large personality by Rex Ingram), a giant spider battled on its web, a blue all-seeing eye as a crystal and a purloined flying carpet. But there’s also a mechanical, Pegasus-style flying horse and a multi armed automaton of a blue skinned lady with murderous intent. 

And it’s fine with the actors all very good and charming but, alas, I did feel it a little slow and less adventuresome than I would probably have liked. But it’s not without its many good points, not least of all being the magnificent score of Miklós Rózsa... which will probably call to mind many of that composer’s other scores, including one with a similar soundscape, being his score for the later movie The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad (reviewed by me here). Sinbad actually gets a mention in this movie but, alas, we don’t quite get to meet him in this particular tale. 

Now the film tends to jump around a bit with, it seemed to me, scenes which could have been in there left to the imagination. I am putting this down to a constantly changing script and trouble during filming (the primary director was the great Michael Powell but, as you can see, three directors are credited). Also, the film started off being shot in Great Britain but, it was during The Blitz so the production had to relocate to America some way through. Sabu had grown a couple of inches in the interim period between shoots so, all of his scenes had to be reshot again in the US. You can often tell the scenes which were shot in each location because, in the scenes shot on set in America, the women all have their blouses tightly buttoned up to the top where, in continuity defying fashion, the UK scenes are a lot looser with the way the costumes are worn on the ladies in question. 

It’s leisurely but it’s still a bit of a romp and it obviously struck a chord with my dad when he first saw it (he watched it at least once a decade I think) and I’d still recommend it to friends to watch this version. But that’s me just about done on this one, I think. Other than to reiterate that this new restoration of The Thief Of Bagdad on Blu Ray looks absolutely superb (and that might well be why some of the effects work looks a bit clunky I suspect... it probably wasn’t supposed to be seen this sharp on technology this good). So if you are a fan of this film... this is currently the best iteration of it to buy... although I suspect there will be a US and UK restored version arriving on their respective shores before another decade has passed.