The Thief of Bagdad

Silent Movie Night 19

Accompanied by Stephen Horne & Martin Pyne 

1924 / USA / 140 min. / B&W 

Director: Raoul Walsh

Douglas Fairbanks, Snitz Edwards, Charles Belcher, Julanne Johnston, Anna May Wong

Swashbucklers were a staple of early cinema and no one buckled his swash more vigourously than Douglas Fairbanks. His eponymous role in The Mark of Zorro had defined the genre and he took it to its early apogee with The Thief of Bagdad. Freely adapted from One Thousand and One Nights, there is scarcely a quite moment: “An epic romantic fantasy and the greatest artistic triumph of Fairbanks’s career. The superb visual design, spectacle, imaginative splendor, and visual effects, along with his bravura performance (leading a cast of literally thousands), all contribute to making this his masterpiece.” One highlight, of course, is the flying carpets; the other will undoubtedly be the accompaniment of messers Horne and Pyne for whom this film is a particular joy – they can really let their hair down. Don’t miss it.