Thief of Time

We put on The Thief of Bagdad (1924) thinking it would be nice and short. It was better than nice and a lot longer than short. 

This is a silent film starring Douglas Fairbanks. He is a thief who takes whatever he wants - when he sees something he wants, his palms itch and he makes unconscious grasping gestures. He steals a magic rope and climbs it to discover the beautiful princess, Julianne Johnston. He wants her, but despairs of getting her. His partner in crime, Snits Edward, reminds him that Haroun-a-Rashid stole a princess, why couldn't he. So he sneaks into her boudoir.

But when he sees her, he is overcome by her beauty and abandons his scheme. Snits hears that her father, the Caliph, is entertaining suitors for her hand and they steal some fine clothes and join the nobles contending for her. One is Prince of the Indies, played by African American Noble Johnson. Another is the fat Prince of Persia, played by Mathilde Comont, a woman. Finally, the crafty Prince of the Mongols, Sojin Kamiyama. 

Johnston favors Fairbanks, and he secretly confesses to her that he is only a lowly thief. But her Mongol slave, Anna May Wong, is a spy, and she tells Kamiyama. Fairbanks is exposed, tortured and almost killed by the court wizard's giant ape. 

To buy time, Johnston says that she will marry the man who brings her the best and rarest wedding present in seven months. Fairbanks meets an imam, who tells him where a great treasure can be found, and advises him to be bold. Not a problem for Fairbanks!

So we have seven months of adventuring for Fairbanks and the princes. There are monster lizards, giant bats, flying carpets, crystal balls, flying horses, and so on. And it looks like the Mongol prince is going to invade Bagdad whether he gets the princess or not. Only Fairbanks can save the day and win the princess.

We loved this whole thing. It was amazingly stylized, with beautiful compositions and Fairbanks leaping and posing like Nijinsky. Wes Anderson must have loved this. There were some great character actors, like Snits, and throw in a bunch of elephants, camels and donkeys. The score in the disc we got (Criterion? I forget now) was based on Rimsky-Korsakov and very lovely. 

But it took us three days to get through this - this nice, short silent is two hours and twenty minutes long!