It is the woeful tale of blind Ahmad (John Justin), a beggar with a mysteriously intelligent dog. It seems that Ahmad was once prince of Bagdad. His evil vizier, Jaffar (Conrad Veidt) conspired to have him killed. With the help of the young thief Abu (Sabu), Ahmad escaped to Basra, where he fell in love with the Sultan's daughter (June Duprez). Ahmad is horrified to learn that Jaffar has arranged to be married with the princess, after having bribed her father with a number of marvelous mechanical toys. When the princess rejects him, however, Jaffar jealously casts a spell of blindness on Ahmad and turns Abu into a dog. At this point in the narration, we return to the present.
The rest of the movie involves a series of dangerous adventures and impossible situations for the two heroes to find their way out of, involving monsters, djinni, and magic. Right does prevail, and the film's conclusion is completely satisfying.
The making of this film was nothing less than a quest, with scenes being shot on three different continents, over the course of two years. Fortunately, the film was completed before World War II which would have made a venture of this magnitude nearly impossible. A total of six directors supervised the film's action at one time or another, three of them (William Cameron Menzies and Zoltan and Alexander Korda) uncredited. Normally such obvious problems over the course of a shoot would spell disaster for a movie. In this case, however, the film ended up being one of the masterpieces of the entire fantasy genre.
The best scenes are those involving Abu and the djinni (Rex Ingram), who escapes from his bottle to grow to a tremendous height, then threatens to kill the boy. Rex Ingram supplies the film's most durable impression as the djinni: far from being the cute and benevolent creations of the Robin Williams or Barbara Eden variety, this djinn is a truly mischievous spirit. Though he later promises to serve the boy, one can see how he yearns to kill or at least trick him into misusing his three wishes. Ingram is sensational in the role. Also, the djinn's scenes involve some of the film's most fantastic set designs, particularly the Temple of the All-Seeing Eye.
Justin and Duprez are passable as the young lovers, if rather bland in the tradition of Hollywood juveniles. Conrad Veidt, however, is marvelous as the evil vizier. As he is in so many other roles, Veidt here appears to have ice in his veins, a villain of supreme evil and coldness. Watch him as he condemns the lovers to the "death of a thousand cuts." Could any actor today match him for sheer icy malevolence? Veidt would never cackle or chew scenery. He knew that quiet can be far more menacing. I don't think I am out of line in calling Veidt the greatest portrayer of evil in the history of Hollywood.
Sabu, Hollywood's nature boy, is very good as the thief. It is just unfortunate that, other than 1942's Jungle Book, he could never again find a role of this caliber for himself. His career, sadly, was to be one of B-movies.
The cinematography, the production design, the special effects, all are brilliant. The script (by Miles Malleson, who also plays the senile, toy-obsessed Sultan of Basra) is excellent, never allowing the action to flag or the tension to slacken. The score by Miklos Rosza, inspired by Rimsky-Korsakov, adds to the illusion that we really are visiting a far-off mysterious land.
There are around a half-dozen movies that I cannot resist watching to the end, should I happen to catch one of them in the middle; it doesn't matter how many times I've seen them. The 1940 Thief of Bagdad is on that short list, one of the most perfect and enjoyable illusions Hollywood has ever created.
Four stars
Copyright 1998 by Dale G. Abersold
