The Thief of Bagdad

A king (John Justin) is tricked out of his throne and locked away in jail by his right-hand man (Conrad Veidt). He goes on a journey to get back to power and marry a princess (June Duprez).

Really, really amazing production design and special effects work here. I’m a sucker for technicolor and they really go all out with it. It’s impressive and entertaining now, it must have been fucking mind blowing in 1940. You can also see the roots and early days of bluescreen techniques that are still in use today. I never tire of seeing sets where you can’t tell what’s real and what’s painted.

The story itself… I did tire of. Perhaps it was a bad day for me, and I’m really not writing here just to be a contrarian, but it veers around a lot and I didn’t really find myself backing the protagonist at all. Conrad Veidt’s villain struck me as the only performance that kind of grounded the film.

A like but not a love, but I suspect seeing it in a few years with some fresh eyes might change my opinion.