The Thief Of Baghdad 1961

Ghost of Baghdad

The Thief Of Baghdad
aka Il ladro di Bagdad
Directed by Arthur Lubin & Bruno Vailati
Italy/France 1961 
Titanus
Imprint Blu Ray Zone B

Well, while I was certainly expecting the 1961 Italian/French co-production of The Thief Of Baghdad to be somewhat less interesting than its predecessors, I had at least expected a trashy, action packed peplum which would entertain me no end. Especially since it stars former Hercules and action muscle man Steve Reeves in the titular role of Karim. Instead... I found myself mostly just feeling like I was sitting around waiting for something to happen.

Now this was my first Steve Reeves movie (still waiting for the Hercules films to be released in their correct aspect ratios in English friendly versions on Blu Ray so I can see them) and I was maybe expecting a little more from him. He was, in all honesty, a little wooden but, at the same time, he was perfect as a leading man presence in these kinds of things so, I am still looking forward to seeing him in other movies. But this was a bad first impression (even though this movie seems to be a much loved film on the IMDB). 

Okay, so the plot is almost identical as the Douglas Fairbanks version (which I reviewed here.) except it’s almost half the length and, yeah, it’s in vibrant colour (for the most part). Many of the special effects don’t seem nearly as good as either the silent version or the 1940s version (reviewed here), it seems to me. Although, that being said, I loved that, when Karim mounts the flying horse Pegasus for the first time and it takes off in to the air, both he and the magical steed both turned into a cartoon version of themselves for the long shot, in exactly the same way that Kirk Alyn would start flying in the two 1940s Superman serials (which really need to be upgraded to Blu Ray people. Come on you slow poke companies!). So that was kind of charming. 

Karim’s love interest, played by Giorgia Moll, is fine in this but, it seems to me that she’s somewhat underused and the character is less credibly drawn than the equivalent characters in the previous movie versions. Considering she’s kind of the lynch-pin of the action and the quest for ‘the blue rose’ that follows.

I was hoping that, once we got into the quest section of the film, it might pick up a little but... dunno, I found it just as dull as the rest of the movie, truth be told. Also, one of the elements which have been added to the story here, namely a magic ghost helping Karim on his quest... seems a ‘convenient’ way out of trouble for the script writers most of the time. However, once the identity of the ghost is revealed at the end of the picture, his presence in front of several people in an earlier part of the film just, from what I can see, makes for a massive continuity problem within the story too but, honestly, I’m not going to bother analysing this thing too much. 

Unfortunately, the great Carlo Rustichelli’s score for the movie seems a little lacking too and, yeah, short review and all but I was really disappointed in this third movie in Imprint’s astonishing new The Thief Of Bagdad set, I’m sad to say. Especially when compared to another peplum I revisited six months or so before, namely the great Mario Bava’s Hercules In The Haunted World (review coming soon). As you would expect, Imprint have done an amazing restoration job on the film and, yeah, a big thank you to them for putting these things out, for sure. But I won’t be recommending the third movie in this set to anyone I know, alas.