The Thief of Bagdad (1924)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Raoul Walsh

Writers:

Achmed Abdullah (screenwriter)
Douglas Fairbanks (story)
(more)

Release Date:

23 March 1924 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Family | Fantasy | Romance

Plot:

A recalcitrant thief vies with a duplicitous Mongol ruler for the hand of a beautiful princess.

Plot Keywords:

Thief | Princess | Suitor | Magic | Treasure

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Douglas Fairbanks	...	The Thief of Bagdad
Snitz Edwards	...	His Evil Associate
Charles Belcher	...	The Holy Man
Julanne Johnston	...	The Princess
Sojin	...	The Mongol Prince
Anna May Wong	...	The Mongol Slave
Brandon Hurst	...	The Caliph
Tote Du Crow	...	The Soothsayer
Noble Johnson	...	The Indian Prince
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Sam Baker	...	The Sworder (uncredited)
Winter Blossom	...	The Slave of the Lute (uncredited)
Mathilde Comont	...	The Persian Prince (uncredited)
Jesse Fuller	...	Undetermined Role (uncredited)
Sadakichi Hartmann	...	His Court Magician (uncredited)
Jesse Lasky Jr.	...	Undetermined Role (uncredited)
Etta Lee	...	The Slave of the Sand Board (uncredited)
Scotty Mattraw	...	Eunuch (uncredited)
K. Nambu	...	His Counselor (uncredited)
Jack Parker	...	Child (uncredited)
David Sharpe	...	Bit (uncredited)
Charles Stevens	...	His Awaker (uncredited)
Charles Sylvester	...	Eunuch (uncredited)
Jess Weldon	...	Eunuch (uncredited)

Directed by
Raoul Walsh

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Achmed Abdullah		screenwriter
Douglas Fairbanks		(story) (as Elton Thomas)
James T. O'Donohoe		adaptation
Lotta Woods		writer

Produced by
Douglas Fairbanks	....	producer

Original Music by
Carl Davis		(1984)

Cinematography by
Arthur Edeson

Film Editing by
William Nolan

Production Design by
William Cameron Menzies

Art Direction by
William Cameron Menzies

Costume Design by
Mitchell Leisen

Makeup Department
George Westmore	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Theodore Reed	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
James T. O'Donohoe	....	assistant director

Art Department
Park French	....	associate artist
Harold Grieve	....	associate artist
Anton Grot	....	associate artist
H.R. Hopps	....	associate artist
Edward M. Langley	....	associate artist
Irvin J. Martin	....	consulting art director
William Utwich	....	associate artist
Paul Youngblood	....	associate artist
Paul Burns	....	property master (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Hampton Del Ruth	....	mechanical effects
Hampton Del Ruth	....	special effects
Coy Watson Sr.	....	mechanical effects
Coy Watson Sr.	....	special effects

Stunts
David Sharpe	....	stunts (uncredited)
Jack Stoney	....	stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Kenneth Gordon MacLean	....	assistant camera (uncredited)
Charles Warrington	....	still photographer (uncredited)
Albert Wayne	....	master electrician (uncredited)
Phil Whitman	....	assistant camera (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Paul Burns	....	wardrobe supervisor (uncredited)

Music Department
David Cullen	....	orchestrator: Carl Davis
Carl Davis	....	music adaptor: Rimsky-Korsakov
Carl Davis	....	orchestrator: new score

Other crew
Robert Fairbanks	....	technical director
Edward Knoblock	....	technical advisor
Arthur Woods	....	researcher
Arthur Woods	....	technical advisor
Edward Knoblock	....	consultant (uncredited)
Howard MacChesney	....	technical crew (uncredited)
Clinton Newman	....	technical crew (uncredited)
Walter Pallman	....	technical crew (uncredited)
J.C. Watson	....	technical crew (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Douglas Fairbanks Pictures

Distributors

• United Artists (1924) (USA) (theatrical)
• Republic Pictures Home Video (1991) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Kino International (1996) (USA) (VHS)
• Image Entertainment (1998) (USA) (DVD)
• Madacy Entertainment (1998) (USA) (VHS)
• Alpha Video Distributors (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• I.V.C. (2003) (Japan) (DVD)
• REX Film (2006) (Germany) (DVD)
• Divisa Home Video (2007) (Spain) (DVD)
• Reel Media International (2007) (worldwide) (all media)
• Circulo Digital (????) (Spain) (DVD)
• Cult & Classic (????) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Grapevine Video (????) (Italy) (VHS)
• Kino Video (????) (USA) (DVD)
• Living Colour Entertainment (2007) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Reel Media International (2004) (worldwide) (VHS)
• Stokey Video (????) (USA) (VHS)

Also Known As:

Der Dieb von Bagdad (Austria) (Germany) [de]
Bagdadin varas (Finland) [fi]
El ladrón de Bagdad (Spain) [es]
Il ladro di Bagdad (Italy) [it]
Le voleur de Bagdad (France) [fr]
O Ladrão de Bagdá (Brazil) [pt]
O Ladrão de Bagdad (Portugal) [pt]

Runtime:

155 min | Spain:139 min (DVD version)

Country:

USA

Color:

Black and White (tinted)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

Spain:T | USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

The Lot - 1041 N. Formosa Avenue, West Hollywood, California, USA

Company:

Douglas Fairbanks Pictures

Trivia:

In some prints, Mathilde Comont is credited as M. Comont to keep her sex a secret. However, in several scenes in the film it is very obvious that the Persian Prince is being played by a woman.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Terror Night (1987)

Fun '20's swashbuckler, starring Douglas Fairbanks!

This movie is great fun to watch, like you would expect from a genre movie such as this one. It has all the typical adventurous, action and comedy elements present to make this a great swashbuckling movie. Add to that Douglas Fairbanks in good shape and you have a classic unforgettable genre movie!

Douglas Fairbanks is totally great in this one. He looks, acts, breaths, eats like a real superstar. He handles all of the athletic action in the movie really well. It's not hard to see why this man was THE swashbuckling hero of the '20's.

The movie is really great looking, with many grand looking sets. Really great looking stuff! (though obviously all fake.) Something you would normally expect to see in a D.W. Griffith movie. The movie also has some silly looking but yet great early special effects, toward the ending of the movie.

The story has all the ingredients needed for such a genre movie as this one; an heroic main character, a love interest, stereotypical villains and lots of fun and action. Especially toward the ending the movie starts to become greatly adventurous after a sort of slower middle and good first part. It's of course all rather simple and formulaic but this is also what makes the genre so great. You just always know what to expect. It's good simple fun that's professionally and well made, that's also beautiful to look at.

Also definitely fun to see how much of this movie was later used again in Disney's "Aladdin". Some, mostly action sequences, are obviously almost directly copied.

A great fun movie, from swashbuckling-specialist director Raoul Walsh.

9/10