The Thief Of Bagdad 1924

Arabian Heights

The Thief Of Bagdad 
USA 1924 Directed by Raoul Walsh
United Artists/Imprint Blu Ray Zone B

Five years after Douglas Fairbanks formed United Artists... with Mary Pickford (to whom he was married), Charlie Chaplin and D. W. Griffith... he got very enthusiastic about doing this huge, expensive epic of a film, The Thief Of Bagdad. This is the first film featured in Imprint’s new The Thief Of Bagdad three movie Blu Ray restoration boxed edition. A couple of weeks before he died, my dad expressed a more than passing interest in, when he got well enough again, rewatching his favourite movie, the 1940s Korda version of The Thief Of Bagdad. Unbeknownst to him, I’d already pre-ordered this set direct from Imprint in Australia (because the pound to Australian dollar rate is wonderful at the moment) for him as a Christmas present. Alas, my father passed away before it arrived and he was in no real state to watch it anyway but, my mother and I are now watching it for him, hoping that some kind of spirit of my dad is somehow watching it with us.

Now, I’ve not seen a movie with Fairbanks in it before and, while I can certainly admire his physical prowess and understand why he was so popular in his day, I found his acting to be a little more over-the-top than was maybe strictly necessary. It’s more what you think of as a stereotype of silent acting as opposed to what my actual experience of what silent movie acting can often be. Nevertheless, I also found him quite endearing and don’t begrudge him his popularity because... yeah... he’s still pretty entertaining to watch. However, another actor in the film does contrast with him in terms of style to his detriment... but more on her in a minute. 

I have to say, the prospect of sitting through over two and a half hours of this movie seemed daunting but, no, I was caught up in it straight away and it really didn’t seem that long at all. You can see why the film was so expensive to make... it looks truly epic and the sets are amazing. For example, the wonderful gate of Bagdad which splits open in four different directions, revealing giant teeth holding it together when locked, is absolutely marvellous and just one of many inventive moments in this movie (it certainly wouldn’t look out of place in the first Flash Gordon serial, reviewed here, made over a decade later). 

Fairbanks’ thief character (and his partner in crime, played wonderfully comically by Snitz Edwards) is set up in a long series of scenes highlighting his ingenious and skilled thievery (including some nice use of a magic rope in the early scenes which, honestly, the character shouldn’t have been so quick to throw away because it would have been useful on his later adventures in the movie). Anyhow, he becomes infatuated, in a series of incidents too convoluted to cover here, with the Sultan’s daughter, played by Julanne Johnston and, in the last hour of the film (with his character believed dead by all but his romantic interest), he competes with three princes to find and bring back the rarest treasure on Earth, to give to the lady and win her hand in mariage... specifically competing against the villainous Mongol prince, played by Sôjin Kamiyama (in a role which I can’t help but think may have influenced Alex Raymond on his newspaper strip creation of the Flash Gordon villain Ming The Merciless). 

The villain is also helped by the treacherous slave girl in the Sultan’s palace... who is played by Fairbanks’ big discovery and who is the actress I was talking about earlier, in a relatively small (spread out over the length of the movie) but pivotal role... 

So... when Fairbanks was trying to cast the film, he saw the film The Toll Of The Sea (reviewed by me here) and so he got in contact with the leading lady from that small production, Anna May Wong, to fulfil this role in his movie. And it pretty much shot her to fame and kickstarted her career properly. And she really does a great job here too. She also indulges in the essential style of silent movie acting where everything needs to be relayed with gestures and expressions but, she’s much more subtle and understated here than, for example, Fairbanks’ overuse of his hand making grabbing motions every time his character sees something he wants to steal. She’s pretty amazing in this, it has to be said and, yeah, a nice surprise because, when I pre-ordered this set, I hadn’t read her biography as yet and didn’t realise she was in this until I’d read that (my review of that book can be found here).

Anyway, back to the adventures... while his rivals pick up, respectively, a magic carpet, a magic eye/jewel and a magic, healing apple... Fairbank’s thief goes through several quests culminating in his recovery of a magic chest, which gives him pretty much anything he wishes for. So he braves The Valley Of Fire... timing his jumps over volcanic pits which pretty much pre-dates modern video game design... kills creatures in The Valley Of Monsters (slitting open the chest of one, we see the blood splash down in a moment that definitely marks this film out as a pre-code movie), braves The Cavern Of Enchanted Trees, meets The Old Man Of The Midnight Sea and then rides a pegasus-like horse from The Abode Of The Winged Horse to the Moon Kingdom to retrieve both his chest and a cloak of invisibility. All this before rushing back to Bagdad and conjuring a battalion of soldiers to defeat the secret army the Mongol Prince has raised in Bagdad for the conquest of the city. 

And it’s great stuff... some of the special effects such as the magic carpet, done practically by lifting a platform on cables and flying it over the heads of the people of the set of Bagdad, look absolutely amazing and put to shame effects done differently over the years since this one hit cinemas. And though some of the creatures look a little fake and the wings on the horse a little less powerful than you would expect, I was completely bowled over by the spectacle of this film and enjoyed every second of it. Carl Davis’ ‘new score’, which has recycled bits of Rimsky-Korsakov’s music, including lots of repetitive steals from Scheherazade, really upped the game too (I love that whole symphonic suite anyway) although, the use of The Flight Of The Bumblebee seemed a little too on the nose, it has to be said.

All in all, though... great film and a wonderful transfer from Imprint films. I will wholeheartedly recommend this version of The Thief Of Bagdad to anyone I know and I look forward now to revisiting the Korda version in this set, along with the Steve Reeves version which I haven’t yet seen. 

Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N.

Pecking Order

Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N.
aka Captain Horatio Hornblower
Directed by Raoul Walsh 
UK/USA/France 1951 
Warner Brothers
Spanish Blu Ray Zone B 

This will be, not much more than a short series of notes on Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. rather than a full blown review because, well, I felt the film was hugely entertaining but don’t have much to say about the cinematography, shot composition or music, to tell the truth. The acting is all excellent but, it’s what you’d expect from a top notch cast like this, working with some very well written dialogue.

Ever since I was a barely conscious child, I remember being impressed by my dad’s bookshelves but three specific sets of books remain in my memory to this day. One was his collection of hardbacks of the main works of Alexandre Dumas, another was a small Mervyn Peak boxed edition and, last but by no means least, his impressive box of C. S Forester’s Hornblower novels. Now, the film and TV shows have been on numerous times over the years on British TV but, I’ve somehow never got around to seeing any of them. For Father’s Day this year I wanted to get him a good Blu Ray transfer of the film starring Gregory Peck as the titular character but, nobody in the UK or the US seem to have put it out in a restored format. But I got one put out in Spain and, I have to say, it’s a fine transfer and has the full English language track on it. 

Forester himself helped somewhat to adapt his stories to the big screen for this one, which is based on three Hornblower tales (two novels and one short story I am told). I don’t know how this one is handled as an adaptation but, in one section where an officer has his leg injured but recovers sufficiently in order to have more adventures later in the movie, well... all my dad said was about this matter was that, in the book, he loses that leg. 

The film starts us with a scene of Hornblower having one of his crew flogged and it shows everything about his character as he takes an officer aside and impresses on him that it’s because that officer threatened the crew member with flogging that he has ordered it so. He personally disagrees with it and thinks it a harsh punishment but needs to uphold the officer’s judgement in the eyes of the men... but that said officer should think twice before lightly referring to this kind of judicial penalty in future. Which says everything, I think, about the kind of man Hornblower is.

And from hereon in it becomes a series of naval adventures where political decisions are enforced with broadside cannon runs and swordfighting. There’s even a love interest in the form of Lady Barbara Wellesley, played by Virginia Mayo, who was something of an afterthought in the casting, it would appear but who handles the role magnificently. Alas, both Hornblower and Wellesley are married to other people but, the film makes that right in the end so they can continue their shipboard romance on the mainland by the end of the movie. 

There are a few other actors of interest such as an early role for Stanley Baker and a character played by Mr. Pastry himself, Richard Hearne. Not to mention uncredited roles for Sam Kydd and Richard Johnson. Perhaps the most striking of the uncredited roles was the captain of a Spanish vessel who swordfights with Hornblower in one scene, played by Christopher Lee, still a few years away from his big break out role in the Hammer films. 

But my biggest surprise in the movie was the presence of James Roberston Justice as seaman Quist. Now I’m used to seeing the hulking, portly presence of Justice in comedy roles as pompous authority figures in films in the Doctor or Carry On series (for instance). In this one he’s a little slimmer than I remember him, doing a different accent but still as lovable a character as he is in his more comedic roles, for sure. I really loved him in this and I think I need to try and track down some more films where he’s playing against type. 

And that’s me done with Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N., I think, other than to note that another great Forrester novel which caused a big splash in Hollywood was Humphrey Bogart’s Oscar winning vehicle The African Queen. Another entertaining movie but, I think this is pretty good too. I remember reading back in the day that Gene Roddenberry’s concept for Star Trek was Hornblower in Space and this movie certainly bears that out, I think. Even the three note motif that the sailors use to pipe the Captain on and off board, sounded vaguely familiar to my ears... and then I realised it’s the same three notes that Roddenberry used on his communicators in the original Star Trek series so, yeah, Hornblower in space indeed. Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. is a splendid adventure yarn, though and, I’d certainly recommend it to lovers of old Hollywood movies. Very entertaining. 

The Roaring Twenties

Speak Easy And
Carry A Big Stick

The Roaring Twenties
USA 1939 Directed by Raoul Walsh
Warner Brothers
Criterion Blu Ray Zone B
Spine Number 1208

“He used to be a big shot.”
Gladys George in The Roaring Twenties.

Take a quick glimpse at my all time favourite movies list on the right of this blog and you’ll notice that The Roaring Twenties is not on there (as are a few other ommissions such as Wonder Woman, I need to update that thing). This is a surprise even to me because, during my teenage years and early twenties, I used to watch this movie a good number of times every year. It was one of my all time favourites and I don’t know how I managed to let it slip off that list. Maybe because I haven’t now revisited it in over thirty years but, here I am now watching it again in a wonderful restored version on The Criterion Collection, no less.

Now, regular readers of my blog may remember that I’m definitely not a fan of gangster movies... they always remind me of the hoodlums and thugs encountered in life at school as a kid so, most of them punch too close to home for me. But I always make an exception for The Roaring Twenties because, frankly, it’s director Raoul Walsh’s masterpiece and easily one of the greatest pieces of art in American cinema.

The film tells the story of Eddie Bartlett, played by James Cagney in what would be his last gangster role for ten years (when he returned to the genre for the director’s also excellent gangster picture White Heat). The film opens towards the end of the first world war, where Bartlett is pals with George, played by Humphrey Bogart at his most villainous... and young lawyer Lloyd, played by Jeffrey Lynn. It says everything about Eddie’s two friends when Lloyd has a German soldier in his sights and then lowers his rifle because the kid looks like he could be no more than 15 years of age. George promptly shoots the kid dead, declaring “He won’t be 16!”. Its at this moment they find out the war is over and the armistice has been signed.

So the three go their separate ways and, after briefly meeting his love interest for the movie, Jean, played by Priscilla Lane (who goes on to hook up with both Eddie and Lloyd in a bizarre, post Hays Code love triangle)... well, like many returning ‘heroes’ of The Great War, Eddie finds his old job as a mechanic gone and with nowhere to go except to stay with his best friend, taxi driver Danny (played wonderfully well by Cagney’s good friend Frank McHugh). Danny and Eddie share shifts on the cab Danny owns but a new opportunity awaits them at the beginning of prohibition in 1920 and the film’s other leading lady, Panama Smith, played by the wonderful Gladys George, helps get Eddie into the bootlegging business. This is something Lloyd helps with, acquiring taxi cabs as a distribution system for Eddie, who becomes a huge kingpin of prohibition bootlegging.

Then, when Eddie and his gang are disguised as coastguards and intercepting a delivery meant for another gang boss, he hooks up with George again who joins his outfit. Shenanigans ensue as the two downward spiral into a world of crime and violence at a time when the average American public saw the bootleggers as the romantic adventurers supplying them with underground alcohol at the time of an immensely unpopular law.

And at this point, we get to the two things which finish Eddie and his empire off for good and turn him into a broken down, broken hearted (after he finds out about Jean and Lloyd), struggling taxi driver once more. The Wall Street Crash of 1929, followed by the end of prohibition in 1933. Eddie sells out his business to George, who leaves him just the one cab for old times sake. Then, a little later, George is in the hot seat from a prosecution by legal eagle Lloyd and, George decides Lloyd needs shutting up for good, even though he’s married to Jean and has a four year old son. At this point, the demolished man that was Eddie Bartlett steps in once more to... well, I won’t spoil the ending for you but it’s emotional and also features one of the most haunting last lines of any movie committed to celluloid.

If you’ve not seen The Roaring Twenties, you probably won’t understand why I tend to tear up slightly whenever I hear somebody sing Melancholy Baby but, yeah it gets me every time and you really should take a look at this if film is your thing. The crisp, black and white photography (brought out a treat by the latest Criterion edition), the powerful acting performances* (especially from James Cagney and Gladys George, who should both have got Oscars for this thing), the epic scope of the picture and the amazing, historic montage sequences (edited by a young Don Siegel, no less) all make for what... well, I’ll say it again... it’s an absolute masterpiece of cinema and you need to see this one. Absolute brilliance at all levels at a time when the Breen Office required a lot of changes to the original script but, what is implied rather than obviously made implicit here is, in some ways, even more effective. An absolute stand out... as close to a perfect movie as you can get, I would say. Add this to your shelves or watch list for sure.

*And spare a thought for those old actors before explosive squibs were used in films sometime in the 1940s and onward. When you see a bullet land inches from an actor to hit a brick wall by his or her face... or see a couple of windows shot out behind where said actor is running, as you often do, remember these ‘effects’ were done with live ammo! Sharpshooters off set would be firing where the actors weren’t and, if the actor didn’t hit their mark... well, the incentive to get the shots and the actors to make sure they were where they were supposed to be when they were supposed to be there was pretty strong, alright.