The Thief of Bagdad

Image credit: IMDb

We know that fantasy is timeless; wondrous narratives filled with magic, drama, and heroic quests transcend generations and will continue to so do until all mediums for expressing them are extinguished. This fact has been proven time and time again with various films, however I am still amazed just how much the love for such tales and their own longevity can keep something afloat when the tides of time wash everything else away. 

This afternoon, my film of choice was The Thief of Bagdad, thus the stimulant for my current awe and train of thought. 

The film tells the story of Ahmed, a common thief living in Bagdad who one night sneaks into the palace to plunder it. But once inside his love for treasure is surpassed when he beholds the beautiful princess and he decides to steal her instead. Pretending to be a prince, Ahmed wins the princess’ heart, but his true identity is quickly revealed and he barely escapes with his life. To save her from a forced marriage, Ahmed travels through great lands of wonder and peril to find a rare treasure that will prove his love and worth.

The exotic and romantically erotic setting of Arabia remains tried and true to this day. The gorgeous and extravagant set pieces for this film form a world entirely their own. Despite the grainy, black and white filter and the overblown acting, The Thief of Bagdad still proves to be a cinematic giant capable of grabbing an audience of thousands in one hand squeezing the collective breath out of it.

Without a doubt, the triumphant awe factor of the film is its incredible set: six and a half acres and the biggest set in Hollywood history. Each set from the Caliph’s palace to the underwater cavern of the sirens is absolutely jaw dropping, made all the more incredible by the achievements in costume design. Silks, satins, sequins, and jewels adorn even the commonest thieves in this movie, making the central Bagdad a realm of fantasy. 

Image credit: TV Tropes

But amidst its rich and exotic aesthetic, the film serves a succinct and powerful narrative of a person’s ability to change. A moral story lies at the centre of the swashbuckling action and political drama and the character arc of Ahmed is both predictable and satisfying. 

While the film itself is quite outdated, and many of the ‘special effects’ had not held up all that well, there is still an awful lot of enjoyment to be taken from this 1920s classic and one can easily see why it has remained in cinema’s classics canon. 

Director: Raoul Walsh, 1924

Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Snitz Edwards, Charles Belcher, Julanne Johnston, Sojin, Anna May Wong, Brandon Hurst, Tote Du Crow, & Noble Johnson