24: The Thief of Bagdad

USA  175m  Dir: Raoul Walsh  Key Cast: Douglas Fairbanks

Based on: One Thousand and One Nights

Some people are just annoying in how talented they are. Douglas Fairbanks not only starred in this film but he also wrote the script, produced the film and did his own stunts. He is topless for the majority of the film's running time and exerts a rakish charm that fits the film perfectly.

The story revolves around princes from across the area coming to Baghdad in an attempt to woo the princess but a local thief disguises himself as a prince and is the one the princess falls for. When his lie is revealed the princess sends the suitors away to find the rarest treasure around and the thief sets off on his own quest to do the same in the hope of somehow being the one to marry the princess. 

The films looks incredible and it's clear from the start that it must have had an enormous budget. The Baghdad set was built over six and a half acres making it one of the biggest Hollywood sets of all time. It's not just big though, it's beautiful and really feels like an actual city rather than something created at a studio. The film has all sorts of fantasy elements within it- the monsters are dodgy puppets but sequences showing a flying carpet and a winged horse actually stand up surprisingly well. 

The film can be compared with the modern blockbusters quite easily. It has a large scale and is full of state of the art technology that looks absolutely incredible. It's leading man is charismatic and handsome. Yet it suffers the same problems of many modern blockbusters- the characters are really thin and one-dimensional- the thief fancies the princess, the princess fancies the thief and doesn't want to marry a minger and one prince wants to rule Baghdad and will stop at nothing to achieve his goal. It's all very simplistic and every action the characters perform comes from their very basic motivations. The plot too is fairly thin and other than inserting fun Arabic fantasy elements doesn't really do anything you don't expect.

It can be difficult to judge a film like this. The set work and the editing are absolutely stunning, arguably the best of the silent era, and there's nothing wrong with Fairbanks as a leading man. But it lacks any sort of sophistication about it and there's very little emotion. The characters rarely interact with each other either, talking to silent associates and having their own adventures and that adds to the lack of characterisation. 

Utterly stunning to look at in every way but the beauty on the surface can't make up for the limitations underneath it.