275 - The Thief of Bagdad, 1940, United Kingdom. Prod. Alexander Korda.

Monday, October 2, 2017

275 - The Thief of Bagdad, 1940, United Kingdom.  Prod. Alexander Korda.

Dir. Michael Powell, Ludwig Berger, Tim Whelan, Zoltan Korda, Vincent Korda, William Cameron Menzies.

He used to call me - Blue Roses. -- Laura, The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams, 1944.

Blue roses?  [She inhales deeply.]  Exquisite. -- Princess, The Thief of Bagdad, Alexander Korda, 1940.

Ahmad explains.  "That's the Blue Rose of Forgetfulness.  If she inhales its fragrance, she'll forget . . . everything."

Ahmad is watching the Princess through the All-Seeing Eye.  He longs to be with her.  To rescue her.  She is in jeopardy to Jaffar, the conniving Grand Vizier who seeks to possess her.

She inhales its fragrance.

She forgets everything.

The Princess first fell in love when she saw Ahmad's reflection in the pool and thought he was a genie.

He came down from the tree and held her and kissed her, and they wanted to be together forever.

Despite his appearance, she felt his essence.  He was in fact the Sultan of Baghdad; she herself, the Princess of Basra. 

But Jaffar has thwarted him at every turn.

Jaffar first tricks Ahmad into going out among his subjects in disguise.  Ahmad does learn a lesson--that the people think of him as a cruel autocrat--and he wants to change his rule to make them happy.

Jaffar has Ahmad thrown into the dungeon.

He also has Abu the boy thief thrown into the dungeon, and there Amhad and Abu meet one another, and Abu pledges his fealty to Amhad.  Abu has stolen the key, and the two escape and make their way to Basra, where Ahmad will meet and fall in love with the Princess.

Jaffar works on her father.  The Sultan of Basra loves gadgetry, mechanical toys, so Jaffar brings him a toy horses, that when put together and wound up transforms into a living Pegasus, sans wings, and conveys the Sultan above the rooftops of Basra.  The Sultan is delighted.  He promises Jaffar anything.  Jaffar says he wants his daughter.

Jaffar blinds Ahmad and turns Abu into a dog.  The spell can be broken only when Jaffar embraces the Princess, holding her in his own arms.

The group embark on adventures, Jaffar to possess the Princess, Ahmad to rescue her, Abu to help his friend.

Along the way they encounter ships on the sea, magical storms, mechanical toys, the flying horse, a six-armed mechanical woman, a Genie in a bottle granting three wishes, a mechanical spider, the All-Seeing Eye, the Land of Legend, a crossbow, a flying carpet, a castle, and the Blue Roses of Forgetfulness.

The Thief of Bagdad came out in 1940 and was ahead of its time in its use of Technicolor and special effects.  It used matte paintings extensively and was the first major film to use the technology of blue screen.

Its predecessor, the Raoul Walsh 1924 version starred Douglas Fairbanks and was also a great hit.  Korda divided the star role into two, creating Ahmad and Abu, and Disney kept the two roles in its 1992 animated feature Aladdin, with Aladdin and Abu, changing the dog to a monkey.

The score by Miklos Rozsa is infectiously hummable.

If only Ahmad can get to the Princess in time.

If only she had not inhaled those Blue Roses.