Hollywood’s first big budget fantasy adventure would cast a long shadow over Hollywood. The Arabia of myth became the industry’s go to source for the fantastic
Why did it take so long for the Lord of the Rings to make it to the big screen? Was it technology that held Hollywood back? I don’t so. As we’ll see later on, Hollywood never let lousy special effects stop them from doing anything. If anything, making the Lord of the Rings back in the ‘50s or ‘60s would have been much easier as the studio system was still alive and well and capable of turning out gigantic sets, lavish costumes and fielding hundreds of extras and Ray Harryhausen was in his prime. But they never did. And part of the reason was because of this movie made in 1924, nearly three decades before Tolkien wrote the Lord of the Rings.
This wasn’t a huge hit for its star and producer Douglas Fairbanks Sr. It wasn’t something he went back to. By contrast he made two Zorro themed swashbucklers and two Musketeer movies. But it was enough of a hit that it pulled the focus of fantasy movies towards it and its subject matter.
To see this film is to be impressed by it. Sure Fairbanks is sporting the world’s first spray on tan to portray the titular thief.
But the film is full of amazing effects for its days. The thief has to fight his way past a fire breathing dragon. He summons a huge army with magic powder. And of course he and his lady love fly through the air on a magic carpet.
But why Thief of Bagdad and not say King Arthur? It’s funny how the Middle East would come to dominate fantasy movies along with Hercules movies. Very few big budget fantasy films after this one had a medieval European setting. This is more baffling because in the decades that followed, there were medieval sets waiting to be used. Hollywood was churning out plenty of swashbucklers without any fantasy elements. Sure an occasional King Arthur movie cropped up or something like Jack the Giant Killer. But for the most part fantasy in Hollywood meant a trip to a 1001 Arabian Nights territory…or ancient Greek mythology which we’ll get to later.
That’s probably part of the answer. Medieval pictures tended to be rather chaste. Arabian and Greek fantasies allowed Hollywood to show off more skin while still keeping an atmosphere of good wholesome fun.
Thief of Bagdad would be remade several times including a glorious version by the Korda brothers I’ll review later. It might not have been a smash success by Fairbanks’ high standards but just as he gave Hollywood the template for costume swashbucklers with Zorro, the Musketeers, The Black Pirate and Robin Hood, Fairbanks gave Hollywood the template for fantasy adventure for the next several decades.
Next up: Flash Gordon
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