08.16.10 | guest-blogs | FanFare GuestsPrint this Post
Guest blogger Richard Lamb writes:
When I was a kid, way back in the midst of the Seventies, movie viewing was restricted to visits to the cinema or the schedules of three TV channels. That’s right, kids, there was a dark time in our history when you couldn’t grab the remote and watch what you liked when you liked. There was a time, long since passed, when the bovine masses of Britain only had three TV channels to keep them distracted. In the days before pay-per-view, YouTube, DVD or even video tapes, we weren’t exactly spoiled for choice.
Back then, trips to the cinema were like a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. At least, they were for me. And to a lesser degree, movies on TV were events in themselves, far less commonplace than they are today. Looking back, you remember the movies you loved at the cinema, but there are also those movies that you will forever associate with magical childhood afternoons before the magic television box. For me, it was the old adventure movies like Jason and the Argonauts, the Sinbad movies, Jack the Giant Killer, One Million Years B.C. and The Valley of Gwangi. In the age of CGI, it’s easy to forget how impressive stop-motion animated dinosaurs, Cyclops and skeletons were. And boy, they were. That great fight scene between the Argonauts and the skeletons will always have a special place in my heart, no matter what swish effect James Cameron invents next. Fighting skeletons are cool.
The Silver Maid: The six-armed, blue-skinned woman.
Last night I had the chance to revisit another of those cherished childhood gems, The Thief of Bagdad. I’m talking about the 1940 version, not the silent 1924 movie of the same name. It’s been years since I last saw this movie, and I watched it with the kind of perma-grin that only a bout of surprise nostalgia can evoke. I was delighted to find that viewing The Thief of Bagdad through adult eyes did nothing to dilute my enjoyment of it. Sure, I was far more aware of its shortcomings; the white actors and an Indian playing Arabs, the Genie with the distinctly un-Middle Eastern accent ("this is the foist moment of mah freedom") and one of the worst giant spiders ever dangled from a wire and shaken around a bit. But The Thief of Bagdad is still a remarkable film for the era in which it was made, with some special effects that must have seemed astonishing at that time, particularly in those scenes involving the Genie and one very memorable ride across the rooftops of Bagdad on a flying horse. Still, the part that really had me gurgling like the child I used to be was the Silver Maid scene. Evil Grand Vizier, Jaffa, wants to dispose of the toy obsessed King and so constructs The Silver Maid, a six-armed, blue-skinned woman. The King, excited by his new plaything, falls into the Maid’s embrace and she plunges a large needle into the back of his neck. It’s a creepy moment that scared the bejesus out of me all those years ago, and still gave me a little shiver last night. Come on, she’s got six arms and she kills you while she’s giving you a hug. That’s scary, right? Ah, what do you know?
Now I want to revisit those other celluloid memories from my formative years. I want to see the giant Talos from Jason and the Argonauts, the marching suits of armour from Jack the Giant Killer and the historical lunacy of cavemen fighting dinosaurs in One Million Years B.C. I want to revisit the scenes that gave me chills before video came along and kind of spoiled it all by exposing me to really scary cinema.
Richard Lamb is a writer, designer, movie geek, and highly opinionated blogger. He has written nine screenplays, two of which were optioned, and he won the BAFTA / Rocliffe New Writers Forum in 2008. His Top 10 movie list changes almost daily, but Raiders of the Lost Ark always sits in first place. Check out his blog at http://blahmovies.wordpress.com/ .
Great post! I'm thinking that, yes, we have become a bit spoiled/oversaturated with entertainment in the modern world. On the other hand, isn't it great that we can get "The Thief of Bagdad" or "Jason and the Argonauts" from Netflix or Movies Unlimited (etc.)? If only we can somehow still cultivate the experience of pilgrimage....
Did you take note of the music in "Thief of Bagdad"? Hollywood's greatest composer, Miklos Rozsa, gave us a magnificent score, probably the finest musical score ever put into a movie. It's practically an opera!
Hey, Steve. Thanks for commenting. I tried cultivating that experience of pilgrimage by queueing outside my lounge for half an hour before watching the movie and paying a friend to sell me popcorn in the kitchen, but it really wasn't the same.
I did take note of the music, Lewis, and it's superb. It totally compliments the sense of wonder that the images create.
08-17-10
The Thief of Bagdad (1940-Technicolor) was a remake of the silent version ( Black & White)starring -- i believe -- Douglas Fairbanks SR.
In the silent version -- Douglas fights a Giant Octopus / Squid. In the color version, Sabu fights a GIGANTIC SPIDER which scared the HECK out of me when I saw it for the 1st time at the age of 7.
What fascinated me -- and still does --was the Super-Fantistic FX in addition to the Glorious color & music.
For 1940, Hollywood OUTDID itself!
Hurrah for Tinseltown !
Yes, The Thief of Bagdad (1940) is one of the greatest -- and most underrated -- fantasy films ever made.
But for the record, Tinseltown (Hollywood) had nothing to do with it. Alexander Korda produced "Thief" entirely with British film studios. It was in reaction to the sudden market for high-budget technicolor fantasy films created by MGM's The Wizard of Oz. Even during their Nazi expansionism, the German film industry attempted the same thing with "Munchhausen."
'Thief' was started by Alexander Korda at his Denham Studios in britain. It was begun in 1939 just before war was declared. The whole operation was moved to the U.S. because of location limits in Europe because of the war. That in itself was amazing. The film is an all time classic!
"The Thief of Baghdad" is a messy/muddy-looking film, and badly needs a direct transfer from the three Technicolor negatives, which would almost surely reveal it in its full glory. As for Rozsa's typically foggy/boring score -- imagine how much better the film would have been with a Bernard Herrmann score.
The 1940 version is not /really/ a remake of the silent version. Disney's "Aladdin" is more of a mash-up of these two films, borrowing heavily from both, than it is a precise version of the original Aladdin (which is actually set in China).
For years I have wished I could see the movie I saw as kid with the scene where the boy had to cross a huge room with a giant spider that could get him before he got across, but I didn't know the name of the movie. When it came to my video screen there it was, The Thief of Baghdad. Now if I could only see the movie where people were in ice. The whole place was ice or ice bergs, and the movie was scary too. What is that movie?
I think Mr. Sommerwerck has missed the gorgeous (with a goof or two) print that Criterion released.
As to Rozsa's terrific score, it plays almost continuously throughout the film (something I don't usually like) lapsing into mickeymousing for only one scene and fairly briefly at that.
Anyone remember where?
Gentlemen, I am now 75 and first saw The Thief of Bagdad in 1947 in a re-issue. I couldn't agree more, it is my Number One all-time favorite. To the one who thinks it looks muddy and washed-out, let him buy the Criterion two-disc DVD set. He will be very happy, as I am with mine. Jason, Sinbad, Jack, 1 Million BC, et al, great movies all but none hold a candle to The Thief. Long live Ray Harryhausen (he's 90) and praises galore to the late Sir Alexander Korda. See you at the movies! Bill
P.S. Larry Cole, could it be FIRST MEN IN THE MOON (1965) with people/reatures in ice or a reasonable facsimile?
I was born in the 70's and grew up in the early 80's. We spoiled kids had 5 channels back then, the big three and a couple UHF channels. If you were a kid your biggest movie thrill, short of an actual trip to the theater, was the Saturday afternoon movie. Adventure was the order of the day - Aside from stop animation monsters there were live action disney movies, or james bond movies from the 60's.
Things you were never going to see anyplace else because (at the time) theaters only showed new movies and there were no other videotapes or DVDs.
Then VCRs came out and we were all mesmerized. They didn't have timers so you planned you day around catching a movie being broadcast on TV. Later when people started getting cable, I remember us all thinking how wonderful it was that you could copy movies off TV and watch them without commercials!!
Now we have 600 channels and on demand movies and no discrimination in what gets broadcast. It's a shame. There will never be the same sense of access to a good movie being special and some product of it's merit as a film.
08-24-10
in reply to Mr Crawford ( 08-24 )
YES ! you are correct -- the entire operation was moved to Hollywood in 1940 due to the London Blitz!
(Q) what i would like to know is -- did the Hollywood Studio have anything to do with the FINISHING of the production ?
08-24
in reply to Mr Blau -- i am 3 years behind you -- 72.
i,too, saw the flick in 1947 as a re-issue. La Momma took me to see it at our local theatre.
i loved every bit of this fascinating flick -- except the part where Sabu fights the Giant Spider... this scene scared the H--- out of me and to this day i have a fear of Spiders -- except for " Daddy Long Legs " -- remember him ?
the musical score is sensational -- just love that song Sabu sings -- " I wanna be a sailor .. "
Luigi
As for the time period it was made in--The Thief Of Bagdad was and still is in my mind a spectacular adventure movie. Loved Sabu and John Justin. I guess you had to be a kid to see it, back then--but my granddaughter who is 16 and I watched it awhile ago---and she loved it too--so there--you younger people!!!!
Thanks for bringing this memory back. I saw this again fairly recently on TCM and the print was very good. How about that horse? The whole movie was a masterpiece of technical wonder.
I love the rich colors that the movie brings. I sometimes think of who directed, and get it mixed up with Michael Powell who directed 'Black Narcissus'. The two movies have some of the same qualities in presentation.
No mixup.
Powell was one of the directors of "Thief." The two others were Ludwig Berger and Tim Whelan. And there were three more who were uncredited -- Alexander Korda himself, Zoltan Korda and William Cameron Menzies!
The film does not look like one directed by many hands, does it?
I saw this film when it was first released at the Odeon Ipswich. As I was a member of the Mickey Mouse commitee I had a free pass for the weekly shows. Besides "The Thief of Baagdad" I also saw "Doctor Cyclops" , Stagecoach, Wuthering Heights. All these films left an everlasting impression and now at 84 I still cherish them.
This was the second film I saw in my life (Korda's Jungle Book being the first) when we at last could get foreign films again in Denmark after the war. I was six years old, spoke only a little English, and had very little idea of what was going on, yet the wonder of it, its beauty and excitement made an indelible impression on me. Was there ever an evil magician as believable as Conrad Veidt calling up the storm? And Sabu's song stuck in my head for ever after.
"I want to be a bandit/Can't you understand it?"
And don't forget the marvelous opening song on home is the sailor: "The sea is cruel but the sea is clean/Oh poor brown earth how kind you might have been." And the lovely song the handmaiden sings to the princess as she languishes on the swing.
Interesting about "The Jungle Book" in Denmark after the war; it, too, is one of the films I associate with "Thief." The others were "Drums" (or "The Drum") and "The Four Feathers."
Only now, thanks to Martin Scorsese and Criterion, are we becoming able to re-appreciate the great work Alexander Korda and his gang did for the art of the motion picture.
And very heartening it is to hear all these words of appreciation for one of their greatest....
The Thief of Bagdad wow that brings back great memories at the movies. I was born in the late fifties at the end actually and grew up in the sixties and went to the neighborhood theater. In the Summer we would get up early to be at the theater around 5:30 am and take in an early morning matinee before running around and playing the day away The early morning shows were the classics and cost 50 cents to get in and an afternoon matinee would run 65 cents for a recent film of at least a few years old to the current films running 75 cents. The theater would close the concession stand after the film started and open again during intermission. If you wanted a coke or candy before then you had to go to the soda machine and wait for a cup to drop down, a dash of ice and your coke to stop pouring and door to slide open. Drop a dime in the candy machine and pull on the lever to get your 3 musketeers. When I saw this film my sister took me downtown to a Colonial Theater. When I went in I was marveled by the auditorium it had marble columns. I ran around the theater and went to the balcony and move to seat to seat. My sister asked what the heck I was doing and told her no matter where you sat the columns did not obstruct your view of the screen. It was an engineering marvel built in the day when movies were an experience. There I was amazed by seeing Thief on the “Big Screen” and it was a big screen compared to some of the screens today. As for it being a remake of a Silent film, well Hollywood is making a lot of remakes, it seems, nothing but remakes of old movies today. The only difference then you made or try to make a better film then the original and today CGI makes it better but the cast proves it shouldn’t have been made at all. Unfortunately, the downtown theater was torn down for a parking garage and the neighborhood theater as a local hospital was expanding bought the property for, you guessed it, a parking garage. Now when I travel to different cities and park in a Garage, I wonder what movie theater was here that lost its’ life to make this garage. I guess I am part of a generation that remembers great theaters, great movies, and the great time going to them. Last week while waitng to buy a ticket, I heard a kid explaim "$12 for a movie in 3-D I'll wait and download a copy off the internet'. Another convenience like on-demand. Throughing in 2 cents from my generation.
As for the Gentleman who said it actually took place in China, I recall reading 1001 nights in school and it was in the Middle East or at least it was in our copy but I could be wrong. Books like movies are rewritten and stories changed.
One of my all-time favorites, TOB used to be on every Thanksgiving for many years on New York TV. But I saw it for the first time at a theatre in New Jersey when I was a kid. I saw the restored version not long ago at a revival house, still with color enough to knock your eye out, especially for a sixty-plus-year-old movie.
And though the memorable score was written by Miklos Rosza (listen to the soundtrack of 1959's "Ben-Hur" and try not to think of this film- I dare you- the songs were written, uncredited, by a friend of producer Alexander Korda who worked for the British government.
And if it weren't for the London Blitz, we might never have gotten to see villanous Conrad Veidt, or thrill to Rosza's music, ever again, since they- among others- came to LaLa Land, sniffed the lotus leaves, and stayed, even after the production ended.
TOB is still a wonderfully ornate movie today, even if it does mix Islamic cultural aspects- the onion-domed buildings that tower over the marketplace at the film's beginning- with Hindu aspects- that lethal, multi-armed musical toy modeled after the goddess Kali. No complaints, it all works, even when the genie puts Abu inside the Grand Canyon (!).
09-09-10 (TO) Paskuniag (FR) Luigi
1st = what a wonderful commentation !
2nd = a passing thought --
wouldn't it b e WONDERFUL if they could RESTORE the flick for IMAX-3D ?
3rd = better yet = a RESTORATION = for CINERAMA
PROJECTION on that GIGANTIC cinerama-screen at the Cinerama-Dome on sunset blvd in Tinseltown aka Hollywood !
any COMMENTS ?
Luigi
Criterion have just released an eye-popping restoration (on Blu-ray as well as DVD) of "The Red Shoes." Let's hope they do the same for "Thief," and soon.
As to Luigi of New York's suggestions: The problems of grain structure, color balance, light loss and askew compositions (a 4:3 film stretched to 16:9) inherent in a blowup to Cinerama or IMax (3D yet!) are so formidable as to give all of us pause. And we'd get a very different "Thief" into the bargain, wouldn't we?
Here's a recommendation: Put on the Criterion DVD. Sidle up close-- but not too close -- to your TV, mentally shrink yourself to the size of the genie (*inside* the bottle, please), and let your imagination take over.
09-11-10 (TO) Frank (FR) Luigi
1= just loved your recommendation per last paragraph !
2= about 40 years ago = the 35mm print of Gone With The Wind was remastered for 70mm. I went into Manhattan to see it. T'was a mind-blaster -- color et al.
3= with the tremendous advances made in the past 40 years re: FX Digital Technology -- it appears to me that a remastering of THIEF for IMAX and/or CINERAMA -- is POSSIBLE !
4= i must confess -- i am a -- Cinerama-Freak ! it premiered way back in 1952 -- 30th Sept. -- in Manhattan @ the Broadway Theatre up in Times Square. I saaw it ( This Is Cineama ) 2 1/2 months later during Christmas Week. I was 14 at the timne. I truly Freaked-Out as did the entire audience. During its 2 year-run -- i saw This Is Cinerama 8 times !
5= according to latest developments -- This Is Cinerama -- is now in the process of being remastered for DVD / Blu-Ray !
** perhaps i should send a letter to Santa to give me a 50 ft widescreen LCD ?