The Thief Of Bagdad

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Theatrical Trailer(s)	None
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1940	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	101:47 minutes	Other Extras	Menu Audio Production Notes Cast & Crew Biographies
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Movie
Region	2,4	Director	Ludwig Berger Michael Powell Tim Whelan Zoltan Korda William Cameron Menzies Alexander Korda
Studio Distributor	Magna Pacific	Starring	John Justin June Duprez Sabu Conrad Veidt Rex Ingram
Case	Carlton
RRP	$29.95	Music	Miklos Rozsa

    Ahmad (John Justin) is the King of Bagdad [yay, yippee, hurrah]. Jaffar (Conrad Veidt) is his evil Vizier [booo, hissss]. Through a cunning and nasty trick, Jaffar deposes the king and becomes the King of Bagdad himself [booo, ssssss]. Ahmad ends up in jail with a common street thief, Abu (Sabu), but together they escape to Basra. Whilst there, Ahmad sets his eyes on the bumbling, elderly Sultan's daughter, played by June Duprez. That is, the Sultan is bumbling and elderly, not his daughter. Ahmad is instantly smitten with her, and must meet her again, even though the penalty for even setting eyes on the Sultan's daughter is death. They instantly fall in love, but a problem crops up. The evil Vizier Jaffar [booo] wants the Princess for himself, and bumps into Ahmad and Abu at the Sultan's palace. The result - one blind Ahmad and one canine Abu.

    The remainder of the tale chronicles the misadventures that Ahmad and Abu must endure to win back the Princess, restore themselves to full health and defeat Jaffar. Throw in a fearsome Djinni (Rex Ingram) and a magic carpet, stir the pot a little, and you have a great recipe for some delightful melodrama. Sure, the special effects look a bit dated, but this film is 60 years old for goodness sake - the special effects look pretty impressive for 60 year-old optical effects.

Video

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, which is the original theatrical aspect ratio. It is not 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is variably clear. The non-special effects shots are remarkably clear and detailed. The special effects shots are much less clear and lack definition - this is more a source issue than a transfer problem. Shadow detail is fair, though there is not a lot of shadow to be seen in this picture - it takes place in generally well-lit locations and on well-lit sound stages. Film grain is occasionally intrusive, but not severely so. Low level noise is absent.

    And now, to comment on the colour aspect of the transfer. The first thing that struck me about the colours in this movie was their sheer vibrancy. An explosion of colour assails the senses as soon as the movie opens, and continues for some time into the movie, until more muted scenarios are presented. The colours are remarkably well preserved in general. There is some slight variability in colour throughout some of the scenes, but the overall effect is very impressive.

    There were no MPEG artefacts seen. There were no film-to-video artefacts seen. There was a single video artefact seen early on in the movie which consisted of a horizontal streak through the picture for a single frame. Film artefacts were plentiful, as is to be expected for a 60-year old film, however, none of them were overly intrusive. Some frames were dropped here and there throughout the transfer, and reel change markings were visible in the top right hand corner of the screen.

Audio

    There is only a single English Dolby Digital 1.0 audio track on this DVD.

    Dialogue was muffled and a little indistinct at times, making it a little hard to make out what was being said. There were occasional minor audio dropouts throughout.

    Audio sync was generally perfect throughout the transfer, but there were small segments and scenes where the audio was severely out of sync. These segments never lasted more than about 30 seconds a piece, but there were several of them scattered throughout the movie. The worst two audio sync segments were at 46:22-47:26 and starting at 80:13. These were a pity, and led me to mark down the audio.

    The music by Miklos Rozsa was magnificent, superbly married to the on-screen action, and a great complement to the overall mood of the movie. This is one of the best musical scores that I have had the pleasure of listening to for its sheer perfection in blending with and enhancing the on-screen action.

    The surround channels and subwoofer were not used by this soundtrack.

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Cast & Crew Biographies

Production Notes

    The video quality is generally quite good, given the age of the source material.

    The audio quality is poor, but acceptable.

    There are limited extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna
7th January 2000