Review for The Thief of Bagdad

Despite this year being the 75th anniversary of its release, Alexander Korda’s ‘The Thief of Bagdad’ still stands up as one of the all-time family greats. I’d go out on a limb and suggest that a seven or eight year old would be as transfixed by this film as I was when watching it air in black and white on television in the late 1960’s.

One of the first films to use Technicolor, Alexander Korda ensured that this was a veritable psychedelic feast of colour with beautiful sets, costumes and characters of every colour combination imaginable.

This particular Korda (Alexander, whose brothers were also involved in the film industry) was, by the time of this film’s release, already coming to the end of a glittering career in film production which stretched back to the early part of the century with dozens of silent and talkie films to his name.
This was to be a no-budget spared re-make of the Douglas Fairbank’s classic (released by Eureka on Blu-Ray at the tail end of last year and reviewed here). That version had been a lot of fun but now it was time to bring all the fantasy to life with sound and colour.

No less than six directors worked on the film (including Korda and Michael Powell) and it’s a film on a grand scale, brimming with creativity and scale. Despite some marginally suspect keying, the effects remain impressive to this day and include flying carpets, flying horses, giant Genies, multi-armed robotic dolls, giant spiders and vast sets. It’s also a rip-roaring adventure with never a dull moment.


The cast do an excellent job and, whilst the acting descends into pantomime on occasion, this is perfectly acceptable in context.
A betrayed King (played by John Justin) and a street thief called Abu (played by the then very boyish Sabu) work together to end the reign of the treacherous Jafar (the spooky Conrad Veidt) in Bagdad. In love with the same princess(June Suprez) he tricks the king into becoming a mere citizen and then takes power, hoping the king has been destroyed. When it transpires that the king is very much alive and has fallen in love with a local princess, he uses magic to blind the king and to turn his faithful side-kick into a dog.

Naturally the King and Abu don’t take all this lying down and they’ll do whatever it takes to rescue the princess from the reptilian Jafar. Although that about sums it up, it rattles along at a great pace and every new chapter means another adventure. It’s just so much fun to watch – one of those films you could watch every Sunday for a year and never tire of.


I already have a purchased copy of the film on DVD from Network which was excellent quality given the limitations of the format. The Blu-Ray is even better, showing a level of detail that I suspect didn’t show up when projected, even at scale. One example is when we see the Genie for the first time, the lines of the ‘bald wig’ are clearly visible and I don’t recall noticing that on my previous version. But generally, the better quality allows the vivid colours and wildly impressive sets to really shine.

It’s no wonder the film was such a huge hit on release – the Star Wars of its day, spawning masses of related merchandise like board games and books. It won three Oscars for its jaw-dropping visuals.

Although everyone in the cast does a great job but  the undoubted star of the film was the 16 year old Sabu – a decent actor but an even more impressive acrobat who seems to do his own stunts, of which there are many.

Humour is ably provided by the wonderful Miles Malleson (Kind Hearts and Coronets) as a bungling toy-collecting Sultan who trades his daughter for a flying horse and his 200 wives for a cuddle with a multi-armed doll. His is a note of pure Britishness and a delight to see.

What is perhaps most remarkable about the film is that it was British. It’s almost unimaginable that a film of such scale would be produced in Britain today without US investment.

Extras on the disc are disappointingly slight with just a gallery and trailer, although the gallery of merchandise and posters is well worth a look as it gives some insight into just how huge the film was at the time of its release. I believe that the US Criterion release of the film has a whole raft of extras not included here.

An absolute classic that, along with ‘The Wizard of Oz’, is a great example of how great these early Technicolor films could be. Highly recommended.