The Thief of Bagdad
June 2008 Reviewed by: Rad Bennett Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Most film commentaries presented on DVDs are forgettable ego trips. I wonder if people ever listen to all of them once, much less twice. For this lavish classic, Criterion provides two amazing, eye-opening commentaries that add to one’s enjoyment of the movie. That’s what commentaries should do. Criterion has gotten that right over and over, but seldom with such enthusiasm as here. Directors Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese provide one commentary. Each is enthusiastic and amiable in delivery, and each has many intelligent observations on the movie. They also reveal how this important title influenced their careers. The other commentary is by film and music historian Bruce Eder, who, for my money, is the best commentator around. His enthusiasm is undeniable, and he rattles out three or more important facts a minute about the movie. Both of these commentaries opened so many possibilities for me that I immediately wanted to watch the movie again so I could observe the ideas it contains armed with a more educated vision.

The movie they all talk about is a legend. Based on Arabian Nights stories, it tells of a young thief, Abu (Sabu), who befriends a prince, Ahmad (John Justin), and aids him in his quest to be reunited with his princess (June Derprez). The ultimate bad guy and magician, Jaffar (Conrad Veidt), provides roadblocks and pitfalls to make it more difficult for the heroes to achieve their goals. The fantastical and exotic elements include both a flying horse and flying carpet, a 200-foot-high genie (Rex Ingram), and a gigantic spider guarding a rare gem. The effects are fun, but it is Sabu’s boyish charm and enthusiasm, played against Veidt’s malevolence, that really make this movie work.

Though many of them look rudimentary today, the special effects were top notch and daring for their day. They were more difficult to achieve because this movie was shot in three-strip Technicolor, which was a relatively new process. It was the first big feature to use the blue-screen technique that allowed special effects to be matted into a scene. Though this technique has changed somewhat as it has been perfected for today’s movies, it is still based on the same idea. This is explained and demonstrated in one of the extras on the second DVD of the set.

Because the movie was early Technicolor, there was a desire to use color to the max. I don’t think there is a scene in movie history that is more colorful than the one shot in the marketplace. The various foods sold by specialty vendors look, well, good enough to eat. The men wear turbans of different hues, and the buildings in long shots, largely achieved with matte paintings, are painted in colors only slightly less vibrant than foreground costumes. The DVD released by MGM about seven years ago was very good in conveying this riot of color, but the Criterion disc is even better.

I would have expected the best video possible from Criterion, but I was quite surprised that the audio had been cleaned up so much. It is a mono track, but a very strong one that does justice to the fabled score by Miklos Rózsa. The soundtrack in other DVD versions of this movie sounds positively tinny next to this one. It is good enough that the music and effects track provided makes sense.

There are additional extras of note: a featurette called "Visual Effects," featuring very recent interviews with Ray Harryhausen, Dennis Muren, and Craig Barron; selections from Michael Powell’s audio dictations for his autobiography; an audio interview with composer Rózsa; and a gallery of stills shot in Dufaycolor. There’s also a complete presentation, in crisp black and white, of The Lion Has Wings, a World War II propaganda movie produced by Alexander Korda when Thief was forced into a lull by the war effort.

Criterion was the first company to use commentaries (King Kong, on laserdisc!) and still continues to lead the way in providing extras that contribute to one’s enjoyment of the feature. It is great news that Criterion has just announced that it will start releasing Blu-ray Discs in the fall.

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