The Thief of Bagdad (1940)

Directed by

Tim Whelan, Zoltan Korda, William Cameron Menzies, Michael Powell

Genre

fantasy film, adventure film, family film, cinematic fairy tale, flashback film

Country

United Kingdom

Runtime

1h 42m

Rated

NR

Rating

7.1 of 10 from 299 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A kingdom is overthrown by a wicked magician. A kind prince teams up with a clever young thief to reclaim his throne and save a princess.

whimsicalgrandold-fashionedvisually lushadventurousfantasticalmusicalexotic

What happens

The Thief of Bagdad is a 1940 British Technicolor historical fantasy film, produced by Alexander Korda and directed by Michael Powell, Ludwig Berger and Tim Whelan, with additional contributions by William Cameron Menzies (who had designed sets for the original 1924 version starring Douglas Fairbanks) and Korda brothers Vincent and Zoltán. The film stars Conrad Veidt, Indian-born teen actor Sabu, June Duprez, John Justin, and Rex Ingram. It was released in the US and the UK by United Artists. 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 (marking the first use of the "manual bluescreen technique"). Miklós Rózsa was also nominated for Original Music Score, a first for a British film at the Academy Awards. 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. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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