The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
7/10
Starring
Conrad Veidt
Sabu
John Justin
June Duprez
Directed by Michael Powell, Ludwig Berger and Tim Whelan
The Thief of Bagdad is a 1940 British fantasy film classic remake of a 1924 classic of the same name. The movie is magical, each scene is inviting and you will love the whole effects used (that is if you are viewing it from the eye of someone from the 40s). Here is where the whole blue screen effect started, and if you are like me who watched Disney’s Aladdin and liked it, you will love to see where Disney got their idea from.
It won’t be fair if anyone goes on listing fantasy films and skip this classic, this was one movie that I remembered watching when I was young when my lovable aunt introduced me to the love of movies, this movie made me wish I too had a flying carpet. Sabu, who played Abu in this movie, did not put up much of a classic acting that many say made him famous, but he was not that bad either to me the actor that stole the show was Conrad Veidt who played Jaffar.
The movie plot is about a Prince named Ahmed (John Justin) who got fooled by his most trusted advisory Jaffar to leaving the palace and seeing life how life is on the street first hand. While there Jaffar had Ahmed arrested as a mad man and planned to kill him, while he Jaffar mounted the throne.
But in prison Ahmed met a resourceful thief named Abu and together they broke out of jail.
On their getaway, Ahmed got to meet and fall in love with a beautiful princess that Jaffar had eyes for and so Jaffar did all that he could to get Ahmed out of the way, and Ahmed with the help of Abu did all that they could to save the princess, which include meeting a Genie, getting a magic carpet and a crystal that can show you anything you want.
This British classic made use of the best of the best in effects in the 40s it won the Academy Awards for Cinematography, Art Direction and Special Effects. The Thief of Bagdad marks the first major use of bluescreening in the film industry, all due to Larry Butler who introduced and pioneered it.
This movie has greatly influenced many other movies after it’s time especially those released about The Book of One Thousand and One Nights tales, let’s not forget Disney’s Aladdin and its franchise and The Prince of Persia video game franchise. The movie stands strong on a 100% approval rating on the critic aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, and it was a critical and commercial success. So if you have not seen this wonderful tale that happened down in Bagdad, about how a Prince and a thief took on the evil sorcerer Jaffar so as to save the beautiful Princess; then where have you been?
Take the time out to go see this movie you will be glad you did.
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