Trailer
Plot summary
Baghdad's young king, Ahmad, wants to learn how his people live, so he goes into the city in disguise. His Grand Vizier Jaffar has him arrested and takes the throne for himself. Ahmad lands in a dungeon, where he meets Abu, a young thief, and the two break out together. They flee to Basra, and there Ahmad falls in love with the Princess. Jaffar, a sorcerer, travels to Basra, determined to have the Princess for himself. In exchange for her hand in marriage he offers her father, the Sultan of Basra, a mechanical flying horse. The Princess, who loves Ahmad in return, runs away.
Cast
- Adelaide Hallas Singer
Show all 20 cast
- Joseph Cozieras Man Selling Fish (uncredited)
- Toni Gableas Lady (uncredited)
- Henry Hallettas Citizen (uncredited)
- Miki Hoodas Citizen (uncredited)
- Alexander Laineas Urchin in Bagdad Market (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Alexander Korda hired German director Ludwig Berger in early 1939, then undermined him: Michael Powell was slipped in to shoot scenes behind Berger's back, and Miklos Rozsa was installed with a piano in the office next door to displace Berger's composer Oscar Straus. Berger was talked into walking away and Tim Whelan took over.
- The Second World War stopped the picture in September 1939: Michael Powell was pulled off The Thief of Bagdad and sent to make the morale-boosting documentary The Lion Has Wings.
- Out of money by the end of 1939, Alexander Korda shipped the whole production to Hollywood in spring 1940, where shots of his young star Sabu had to be taken again because the boy had grown more than three inches since filming started.
- The special effects man Larry Butler devised the first proper chroma key process for this film, reworking the older traveling matte technique. It became the standard way of lifting actors off their backgrounds and has been used in thousands of films since.
- Miklos Rozsa's nomination for Best Original Music Score was the first time a British film had been nominated in that category at the Academy Awards.
- The Thief of Bagdad was the first film Peter R. Hunt ever worked on, as an associate editor aged 15. Hunt went on to six James Bond pictures and directed On Her Majesty's Secret Service in 1969.
- Disney's Aladdin took a great deal from it: the villain Jafar is named for the vizier played by Conrad Veidt, Disney's Sultan shares the earlier Sultan's obsession with toys, and the monkey Abu is named for the thief Sabu played.
