April 18, 2009

34. The Thief of Bagdad (1924)

I've been meaning to watch this one for a couple of weeks now, but somehow have not found the right time. But now I'm done watching it. And I'm still rather stunned about that cat they called Douglas Fairbanks. I'll say it up front that I'm not into muscular people (hence my fondness for the delicate master Veidt) and I suppose it's like some modern cliche that chicks are supposed to like bodybuilders. I think Fairbanks looked interesting, but not desirable. He reminds me of one of my brothers, there was a dose of that certain naive enthusiasm about his character that struck a chord with me.
It still blows my mind to think that he was once married to Jack Pickford's sister, that girl Mary who played little girl-characters despite being past 20. This beefcake swashbuckler dude and her... it's pretty far out.
Oh and this was the first Raoul Walsh-directed film that I've seen. I want to see so much more. There's something about people with eyepatches that always makes my knees go weak.



Douglas was 41 when the film was released.
Along with Buster Keaton, he's the smoothest, most agile performer of the silent screen that I've seen so far.




dude lived inside a well with this older guy


the sets were BRILLIANT



a 19-year old Anna May Wong... hot as hell



Snitz Edwards, 62

Sojin (40) as the Mongol prince

Julanne Johnston (24) played the princess.
Her aide there on the left looked like the brilliant drummer from Amazing Baby.








This reminded me of Arnold Böcklin's The Isle of The Dead

the thief fought a monster

and met a great living tree








underwater world

the star key


the winged horse



how to poison a princess


that's Noble Johnson (43) in the middle















***
Directed by Raoul Walsh

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous18/4/09

    Advance warning: the "temple" scene in Das Indische Grabmal will make you PLOTZ.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ....my my, sounds promising. I think I'm going to have to watch it tomorrow night, then.

    There are so few Veidt films available that I sort of want to save them for special days.

    ReplyDelete

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