The Thief of Bagdad (1940 film)

The Thief of Bagdad
Film poster
Directed by	Michael Powell Ludwig Berger Tim Whelan
Written by	Lajos Biró Miles Malleson
Produced by	Alexander Korda
Starring	Conrad Veidt Sabu John Justin June Duprez Miles Malleson
Cinematography	George Perinal
Edited by	Charles Crichton
Music by	Miklós Rózsa
Distributed by	United Artists
Release dates	December 5, 1940 U.S.A. December 25, 1940 UK
Running time	106 min
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

For other uses, see The Thief of Bagdad.

The 1940 film version of The Thief of Bagdad is notable for its use of Technicolor and its special effects, which won it three Oscars.

The Thief of Bagdad was produced by Alexander Korda's company London Films in England, but due to the outbreak of World War II filming was completed in California in the United States. It was directed by Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell and Tim Whelan and starred child actor Sabu, John Justin, and Conrad Veidt. The film won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Art Direction and Special Effects. It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Original Music Score.

Although this and the 1924 version have some similarities there are also significant differences. The most notable is that in the 1940 version the thief and the prince are separate characters.

The film has been highly influential on later films based on The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, and the Disney film Aladdin borrows freely from it, particularly the characters of the evil Vizier and the Caliph, both drawn with a marked similarity to the characters in it. The character of the thieving monkey Abu in the Disney cartoon is obviously based on the thieving child Abu, played here by Sabu. Richard Williams, speaking about his film The Thief and the Cobbler, said that one of his interests was in creating an Oriental fantasy that did not copy from it.

Synopsis

John Justin plays Ahmad, the King of Bagdad. His evil Grand Vizier, Jaffar (Conrad Veidt) convinces him to go out into the city disguised as a poor man to get to know his subjects (in the manner of Harun al-Rashid). Jaffar then has Ahmad arrested and thrown into a dungeon, where he is soon joined by Abu the thief (Sabu), son of Abu the thief, grandson of Abu the thief. Abu arranges their escape.

They flee to Basra, where Ahmad dares to lay eyes on the Princess (June Duprez). They fall in love. However, Jaffar has journeyed to Basra also, for he desires the Princess and intends to win her hand, but her father the Sultan (Miles Malleson) wasn't so sure. Confronted by Ahmad, Jaffar blinds him and turns Abu into a dog, and binds the spell so that Ahmad will only regain his sight when Jaffar holds the Princess in his arms (the film starts here and then flashes back to earlier events).

Abu wanders onto a beach and finds a bottle. When he opens it, an enormous genie (Rex Ingram) appears and tries to kill him, but Abu tricks the genie back into the bottle; the genie promises to grant him three wishes if he will let him out. Abu agrees, but wastes his first wish by asking for sausages. Abu manages to steal a large jewel, the All-Seeing Eye, from a temple guarded by a giant spider and, in a pool down below, a giant octopus, and after finding out where Ahmad is, asks the genie to bring him to Ahmad. Ahmad asks to see the princess once more, which Abu arranges with the All Seeing Eye, but the Eye makes Ahmad go blind again, and during the ensuing argument, Abu wishes Ahmad to Baghdad, after which the genie abandons him. When Abu destroys the All Seeing Eye, he is greeted by spirits who had been trapped. As a reward, he is given a magic flying carpet and a crossbow, and sent against Jaffar. After Abu kills Jaffar with a shot to the forehead, King Ahmad regains his kingdom and the Princess. When he is told about Ahmad's plans to send him to school, Abu flies away to find freedom and more adventure.

References

• Leibfried, Philip (2004). Alexander Korda's The Thief of Bagdad, An Arabian Fantasy. Hollywood, Calif.: Hypostyle Hall Publishers. ISBN 0-967-52531-4. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

External links

• The Thief of Bagdad at IMDb
• The Thief of Bagdad at the BFI's Screenonline Full synopsis and film stills (and clips viewable from UK libraries).
• Reviews and articles at the Powell & Pressburger Pages
• The Making of the Thief of Bagdad
• The Thief of Bagdad at Rotten Tomatoes