The Thief of Bagdad (1940 film)
The Thief of Bagdad | |
---|---|
Directed by | Michael Powell Ludwig Berger Tim Whelan |
Written by | Lajos Bíró Miles Malleson |
Produced by | Alexander Korda |
Starring | Conrad Veidt Sabu June Duprez John Justin Rex Ingram Mary Morris |
Cinematography | George Perinal |
Edited by | Charles Crichton |
Music by | Miklós Rózsa |
Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | |
Distributed by | United Artists |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 106 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | $1,750,000[1] |
Box office | over $1 million (US/Canada)[2] 5,134,653 admissions (France, 1946)[3] |
The Thief of Bagdad is a 1940 British
Although produced by Alexander Korda's company London Films in London, the film was completed in California due to the outbreak of World War II.
Georges Périnal, credited as George Perinal, won the Academy Award for Cinematography, Vincent Korda for Art Direction, and Lawrence W. Butler and Jack Whitney for Special Effects[4] (marking the first use of the "manual bluescreen technique"[5]). Miklós Rózsa was also nominated for Original Music Score, a first for a British film at the Academy Awards.[6]
Although this production is a remake of the 1924 version, the two films have differences, the most significant being that the thief and the prince are separate characters in this version. The screenplay is by Lajos Biro and Miles Malleson, who also appears in the film as the Princess's father, the Sultan of Basra.
Plot
In ancient
Jaffar, a powerful
The Princess is tricked into boarding Jaffar's ship. Jaffar tells her that she can cure Ahmad's blindness only by allowing the sorcerer to embrace her. She submits and the spells are lifted from both Ahmad and Abu. When the pair sail in pursuit, Jaffar raises a storm that shipwrecks them. Returning to Basra, Jaffar uses a mechanical dancer to kill the Princess's father. He then returns to Bagdad with the Princess.
Abu awakes alone on a deserted beach. He finds a bottle and opens it, releasing an enormous
In Bagdad, Ahmad is reunited with the Princess, who remembers him. They are imprisoned by Jaffar and condemned to death. Abu helplessly witnesses all this with the jewel's aid. In anger, he destroys the jewel, which frees the "Old King" of the "Land of Legend". Abu is given a magic crossbow as a reward. He steals the king's magic carpet and flies on it to Bagdad. Abu's appearance fulfils an ancient prophecy and sparks a revolt against Jaffar by the city's inhabitants. Abu kills the fleeing Jaffar with the crossbow, and Ahmad is restored to power. Abu, alarmed by Ahmad's plans to educate him to become the vizier, flies off on the carpet in search of fun and adventure.
Cast
- Conrad Veidt as Jaffar
- Sabuas Abu
- June Duprez as the Princess
- John Justin as Ahmad
- Rex Ingram as the Djinn
- Miles Malleson as the Sultan of Basra
- Morton Selten as the Old King
- Mary Morris as Halima, Jaffar's agent, and the "Silver Maid"
- Bruce Winston as the Merchant
- Hay Petrie as the Astrologer
- Adelaide Hall as the Singer
- Roy Emerton as the Jailor
- Allan Jeayes as the Story Teller
- Robert Greig as Man of Basra (uncredited)
- Glynis Johns as Maid of the Princess (uncredited)
- Tao Porchon-Lynch as The Golden Idol (uncredited)[7][8]
Duprez's character is unnamed; she is simply referred to as "The Princess", and addressed as "Princess", "my dear", etc.
Korda had intended to cast Vivien Leigh as the Princess, but she went to Hollywood to be with Laurence Olivier.[9]
Production
Producer Alexander Korda, after a search for a director, chose German filmmaker
By the end of the year, Korda found himself running out of money and credit, and in the spring of 1940 he arranged to move the entire production to Hollywood (where some shots of the movie's young star Sabu had to be redone, for he had grown more than 3 inches (76 mm) in the year since shooting had commenced). Powell remained in England, so direction was taken up in Hollywood by
At some point during production, the film was being written as a musical. The finished film has three songs, but others were written, with recordings of some surviving, including one verse of Rex Ingram singing a song written for the genie.
The film is notable for being the first film Peter R. Hunt worked on, serving as an associate editor at 15 years old.[11] Hunt later worked on six James Bond films, including directing 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
Reception
The film was Korda's most successful in the U.S.[2] The film was also a success in Europe, selling 5,135,145 tickets in France and becoming the seventh-most-attended film of the year.[12]
The New York Times reviewer Bosley Crowther enthused that the film "ranks next to Fantasia as the most beguiling and wondrous film of this troubled season". Crowther praised "its truly magnificent color" and the performances of all five main actors.[13]
Roger Ebert added The Thief of Bagdad to his "Great Movies" list, calling it "on a level with
Its 1924 predecessor holds a 96% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and its 1940 remake has a 100% rating based on 29 reviews, with an average score of 8.70/10. Its consensus states "Dashing, dazzling, and altogether magical, The Thief of Bagdad is an enchanting fantasy for children of all ages".[15]
Influence
The film has been highly influential on later movies based on
Larry Butler invented the first proper chroma key process for the special effects scenes in this film, a variation on the existing "traveling matte" process. This technique has since become the standard process for separating screen elements and/or actors from their backgrounds and placing them on new backgrounds for special effects purposes, and has since been used in thousands of films.[citation needed]
This film later influenced the creation of the Malay film Abu Hassan Penchuri ("Abu Hassan the Thief", 1955) which was based in Baghdad.[citation needed]
Home media
The film was released on VHS by
It has been released on Region B–locked Blu-rays in Germany (Anolis Entertainment, 2012) and the UK (Network Distributing, 2015).[19] The UK disc also includes image galleries and the original theatrical trailer. The German disc features the same extras, plus additional trailers, an audio commentary and a 53-minute documentary on the film's star, Sabu.
See also
- List of films with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a film review aggregator website
References
- ^ "UA Meeting". Variety. 20 November 1940. p. 20.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-299-23004-3. p172
- ^ French box office of 1946 at Box Office Story
- ^ "The 13th Academy Awards (1941) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
- ^ Mark Fischetti (1 February 2008). "Working Knowledge: Blue Screens—Leap of Faith". Scientific American.
- ^ "NY Times: The Thief of Bagdad". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2012. Archived from the original on 17 October 2012. Retrieved 13 December 2008.
- ^ "99-Year-Old Dancer Shares Secret for Long Life". YouTube.
- ^ "Theatre/Film".
- ^ Robert Osborne, Turner Classic Movies
- ISBN 9781423605874.
- ^ "Peter R. Hunt -AZ電癮人". AZ電癮人-AZMOV (in Chinese). Retrieved 5 August 2022.
- ^ "The Thief of Bagdad (1940)". JPBox-Office. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
- ^ Bosley Crowther (6 December 1940). "'The Thief of Bagdad,' a Delightful Fairy Tale, at the Music Hall". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 July 2009.
- ^ Roger Ebert (6 May 2009). "Thief of Bagdad (1940)". rogerebert.com. Retrieved 26 July 2009.
- ^ "The Thief of Bagdad (1940)". rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
- ISBN 0-8160-1356-X.
- Aladdin: The Series also uses the Rose of Forgetfulness in the episode "Forget me Lots". Foster on Film – Fantasy: The Thief of Bagdad
- Thousand and One Nights and by movies like the 1940 Thief of Bagdad in which an evil grand vizier has seized power and imprisoned the princess." How Prince of Persia Defeated Apple II's Memory Limitations; War Stories; Ars Technica. 17 March 2020. Archivedfrom the original on 21 December 2021.
- ^ "The Thief of Bagdad Blu-ray (United Kingdom)". blu-ray.com.
Bibliography
- Leibfried, Philip; Willits, Malcolm (2004). Alexander Korda's The Thief of Bagdad, An Arabian Fantasy. Hollywood, CA: Hypostyle Hall Publishers. ISBN 0-9675253-1-4.
- The Great British Films, pp 55–58, Jerry Vermilye, 1978, Citadel Press, ISBN 0-8065-0661-X
Further reading
- Kelly, Kathleen Coyne (2009). "Medieval Times: Bodily Temporalities in The Thief of Bagdad (1924), The Thief of Bagdad (1940), and Aladdin (1992)". In Haydock, Nickolas; Risden, E. L. (eds.). Hollywood in the Holy Land. ISBN 978-0-7864-4156-3.
External links
- The Thief of Bagdad at the TCM Movie Database
- The Thief of Bagdad at IMDb
- The Thief of Bagdad at AllMovie
- The Thief of Bagdad at the American Film Institute Catalog
- The Thief of Bagdad at the BFI's Screenonline
- Reviews and articles at the Powell & Pressburger Pages
- The Making of the Thief of Bagdad
- The Thief of Bagdad at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Thief of Bagdad: Arabian Fantasies an essay by Andrew Moor at the Criterion Collection