The Thief of Bagdad

A large-scale fantasy film drawn from the Thousand and One Nights. Ahmad is the king of Baghdad; his vizier Jaffar deposes him, blinds him and throws him into a dungeon. There he meets a young thief called Abu. The two escape and set out to stop Jaffar. On the way there is a giant genie, a flying carpet and a mechanical horse. What the film is known for is its effects. The enormous genie emerging from a bottle, the flying carpet sequences and the giant spider were done with the optical methods of the period, and the film won the Oscar for special effects, along with awards for cinematography and art direction. The production history is complicated. Shooting began in England, stopped when the war broke out, and the team moved to America to finish it. That is why the film credits more than one director. Sabu plays Abu and Conrad Veidt plays Jaffar. Alexander Korda produced. The music is by Miklós Rózsa. One of the foundational films of its kind for anyone who likes classic fantasy and handmade effects. To a viewer measuring by today, its representation of eastern tales belongs to its period and some passages are uncomfortable now.