"The Thief of Baghdad"

Criterion recently released a beautifully restored edition of 1940’s charming and still spectacular The Thief of Bagdad. Producer Alexander Korda gets the deserved top billing, but no less than three directors worked on the picture, including future lavish concoctor of lush cinematic fantasies Michael Powell. An effects-heavy film based upon the legend of the Arabian Nights, Thief stars boy wonder Sabu as the titular character and Conrad Veidt as a sinister sorcerer. A landmark of special effects, many techniques were actually invented for the film — including the ubiquitous blue screen effect — that remain standard processes, albeit in much more advanced forms.

With all due respect to the imagination, craft, skill and laborious hours it takes to create today’s CGI effects, there is a different type of creativity and problem solving in the creation of Thief’s sequences of flying carpets and horses, 40-foot tall genies and giant spiders. The beautiful matte paintings of Percy Day play a crucial role in the film’s depiction of fantastic Arabian cities of yore, and the garish tones of early Technicolor serve the subject matter well.

It would be naïve and irresponsible — if not impossible — to not mention the film’s inherent racism; this is 1940 after all, and the British government had been “helping” Iraq govern itself for almost 20 years. Barring Sabu and African American actor Rex Ingram’s genie, Caucasian actors play the lead roles and the extras are of Middle Eastern descent. At the same time, to focus too closely on the institutional racism, ignorance and thoughtlessness of the time seems a disservice to the film. It’s all on the surface, none of it intentionally disparaging and it’s less offensive and cringe-inducing than aspects of the previous year’s “historical” epic Gone With the Wind.

The film might move a little slow for some children accustomed to more hyperactive narratives, and the fact that the seams sometimes show in the effects may be off-putting to eyes more attuned to flawless digital designs. The Thief of Bagdad might be more ideal for adults who grew up on Saturday afternoon Ray Harryhausen films and want to take a look back at his primary influence, and the more patient of their offspring might become enchanted as well.