The Thief of Baghdad is a wonderful fantasy with plenty of battles, puzzles, and obstacles that you would expect in an epic adventure. Steve Reeves stars as Karim, an Arabian "Robin Hood" who cleverly thieves his way into the royal palace charading as a prince. While he's there, he falls in love with the princess who also falls in love with him.
Even though forbidden love motivates the storyline, The Thief of Baghdad is more like Homer's Odyssey. The film focuses more on the quest Karim must complete to prove he's worthy of Princess Amina's hand in marriage. With the help of a man in white (who keeps appearing and disappearing), Karim battles tree monsters, Arabian sirens and much more.
There's a lot of humor in the film which is probably due to the director, Arther Lubin (he was primarily a comedy director). There are also battle scenes along the lines of Braveheart where clever tactics are used.
Overall, The Thief of Baghdad is a very light-hearted fantasy. It was a childhood favorite (we had an old, betamax copy that we taped off the TV when I was a kid). My older brother was a huge sci-fi, fantasy fan and introduced it to me. I hadn't seen it in over 20 years, when it got brought up in a conversation with friends who play D & D. We were talking about the skeletons in the 7th Voyage of Sinbad and I remembered this curious, little film from my childhood. There isn't as much animation in The Thief of Baghdad, but the storyline is excellent. Steve Reeve's does all his own stunts too.
I found a copy on eBay. It was totally worth the $20 I spent on it. After viewing it as an adult and showing it to someone who had never seen it before, I can truly say this is a classic and people of any age can enjoy it.
You can vote for The Thief of Baghdad to be reissued on DVD at the TCM site. Be sure you choose the 1961 version, there are several movies with the same title, but they are not the same story as the one starring Steve Reeve's. The original film was in in Italian, but I'm only familiar with the English-dubbed version. The voice acting is excellent. The Thief of Baghdad should be required viewing in dubbing school (if there is such a thing).
Even though forbidden love motivates the storyline, The Thief of Baghdad is more like Homer's Odyssey. The film focuses more on the quest Karim must complete to prove he's worthy of Princess Amina's hand in marriage. With the help of a man in white (who keeps appearing and disappearing), Karim battles tree monsters, Arabian sirens and much more.
There's a lot of humor in the film which is probably due to the director, Arther Lubin (he was primarily a comedy director). There are also battle scenes along the lines of Braveheart where clever tactics are used.
Overall, The Thief of Baghdad is a very light-hearted fantasy. It was a childhood favorite (we had an old, betamax copy that we taped off the TV when I was a kid). My older brother was a huge sci-fi, fantasy fan and introduced it to me. I hadn't seen it in over 20 years, when it got brought up in a conversation with friends who play D & D. We were talking about the skeletons in the 7th Voyage of Sinbad and I remembered this curious, little film from my childhood. There isn't as much animation in The Thief of Baghdad, but the storyline is excellent. Steve Reeve's does all his own stunts too.
I found a copy on eBay. It was totally worth the $20 I spent on it. After viewing it as an adult and showing it to someone who had never seen it before, I can truly say this is a classic and people of any age can enjoy it.
You can vote for The Thief of Baghdad to be reissued on DVD at the TCM site. Be sure you choose the 1961 version, there are several movies with the same title, but they are not the same story as the one starring Steve Reeve's. The original film was in in Italian, but I'm only familiar with the English-dubbed version. The voice acting is excellent. The Thief of Baghdad should be required viewing in dubbing school (if there is such a thing).