"The Thief of Bagdad", 1940 Alexander Korda

[Belle]

This sumptuous Technicolor fantasy made in 1940 has been beautifully restored. Most adults would have seen in in the ensuing years, but its present condition warrants another look.

Directed by Michael Powell and two others, with production design by Vincent Korda, and input from William Cameron Menzies, this is a glorious-looking feast of colour and movement. (The production was troubled with regard to Alex Korda over-riding decisions made by one of the directors, inter alia.)

The film has had huge influence on film-makers since its release and one of those influences I noticed was the look of "Uncle Thomas" from "The King and I" ballet by Jerome Robbins. There's Vincente Minnelli too, of course, and countless others. A remarkable feast of cinema, though the plot is childish at times and John Justin, as the romantic lead, is one-dimensional with his RADA delivery! The stand-out performance is Conrad Veidt in his only colour film (that I'm aware of) as Jaffar the Magician and Grand Vizzier, suitably menacing and dangerous. His blue eyes lit up the screen in some of the close-ups. Veidt looked older than his 46/47 years and at the time of the film's release he had less than 2.5 years to live.





A visual feast, "The Thief of Bagdad" - and with no CGI available. I felt I'd heard the music of Rozsa before somewhere!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKaaj3RpNxA

[Belle]

Finally, Conrad Veidt fashion icon: where, oh where, is that kind of style and panache today?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXehCr4JAPw

I found this extract from an online MA thesis, which discusses emigre German and Austrian actors in Hollywood:

Many of the German stars wished to stay in Hollywood, but others like Conrad Veidt looked forward to a return to Germany. He felt creatively and culturally stifled in Hollywood, was offered limited roles, and saw a lack of elegance and grace in the personal lives of the Hollywood stars. The US cast him in parts where he was a Nazi - which was insensitive, ignorant and remains a stain to this day, especially given his bravery and philanthropy.

Ivan J. Rado, the nephew of Veidt’s third wife Lily, commented:

"The fact that he (Veidt) wanted to leave Hollywood had nothing to do with anything but his disgust at the parts offered him, which was mainly Nazis. In Above Suspicion, he is at some rally, and when at the end everyone goes “Heil”, he just very casually half lifts his right hand, more in a wave than a salute, and with an ironic smile on his face, which to me, embodies his feelings. . . . The fact that he left Germany . . . was his disgust at what was happening that made him move to London with Lily".

Finally, Conrad Veidt was an early feminist. He said this in a 1941 interview:

There are two different kinds of men. There are the men men, what do you call them, the man's man, who likes men around, who prefers to talk with men, who says the female can never be impersonal, who takes the female lightly, as playthings. I do not see a man like that in my mirror. Perhaps, it is because I think the female and the male attract better than two men, that I prefer to talk with females. I do. I find it quite as stimulating and distinctly more comfortable. I have a theory about this – it all goes back to the mother complex. In every woman, the man who looks may find – his mother. The primary source of all his comfort. I think also that females have become too important just to play with. When men say the female cannot discuss impersonally, that is no longer so. When it is said that females cannot be geniuses, that is no longer so, either. The female is different from the male. Because she was born to be a mother. There is no doubt about that. But that does not mean that, in some cases, she is not also born a genius. Not all males are geniuses either. And among females today there are some very fine actresses, very fine; fine doctors, lawyers, even scientists and industrialists. I see no fault in any female when she wears slacks, smokes (unless it is on the street, one thing, the only thing, which I don't like), when she drives a car ... when men say things like "I bet it is a woman driving" if something is wrong with the car ahead – no, no. These are old, worn out prejudices, they do not belong in today".