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The Thief of Bagdad

The Thief of Bagdad

Romance · Adventure · Fantasy · 1924

A recalcitrant thief vies with a duplicitous Mongol ruler for the hand of a beautiful princess.

Movie details

The Thief of Bagdad

“"Happiness Must Be Earned"”

1924 Romance · Adventure · Fantasy 2h 29m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.7 / 10

7.6K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

97 %

Tomatometer

TMDB

7.3 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

A recalcitrant thief vies with a duplicitous Mongol ruler for the hand of a beautiful princess.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Thief of Bagdad?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

The Thief of Bagdad

The Thief of Bagdad

Adventure · 1940

When Prince Ahmad is blinded and cast out of Bagdad by the nefarious Jaffar, he joins forces with the scrappy thief Abu to win back his royal place, as well as the heart of a beautiful princess.

The Last Unicorn

The Last Unicorn

Fantasy · 1982

A unicorn learns from a riddle-speaking butterfly that she is supposedly the last of her kind, all the others having been herded away by the monstrous Red Bull. The unicorn sets out to discover the truth behind the butterfly's words. She is eventually joined on her quest by Schmendrick, a second-rate magician, and Molly Grue, a middle-aged woman who dreamed all her life of seeing a unicorn. Their journey leads them far from home, all the way to the castle of King Haggard.

Descendants 2

Descendants 2

Family · 2017

When the pressure to be royal becomes too much for Mal, she returns to the Isle of the Lost where her archenemy Uma, Ursula's daughter, has taken her spot as self-proclaimed queen.

The Thief and the Cobbler

The Thief and the Cobbler

Animation · 1993

Princess Yum Yum falls in love with Tack and saves him from being executed. Later, when the protective orbs of the palace get stolen, Tack and Yum Yum set out to find them and save the kingdom.

Aladdin

Aladdin

Animation · 1992

In the boorish city of Agrabah, kind-hearted street urchin Aladdin and Princess Jasmine fall in love, although she can only marry a prince. He and power-hungry Grand Vizier Jafar vie for a magic lamp that can fulfill their wishes.

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas

Action · 2003

The sailor of legend is framed by the goddess Eris for the theft of the Book of Peace, and must travel to her realm at the end of the world to retrieve it and save the life of his childhood friend Prince Proteus.

Aladdin

Aladdin

Adventure · 2019

A kindhearted street urchin named Aladdin embarks on a magical adventure after finding a lamp that releases a wisecracking genie while a power-hungry Grand Vizier vies for the same lamp that has the power to make their deepest wishes come true.

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad

Action · 1958

When a princess is shrunken by an evil wizard, Sinbad must undertake a quest to an island of monsters to cure her and prevent a war.

Pete's Dragon

Pete's Dragon

Adventure · 2016

For years, old wood carver Mr. Meacham has delighted local children with his tales of the fierce dragon that resides deep in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. To his daughter, Grace, who works as a forest ranger, these stories are little more than tall tales... until she meets Pete, a mysterious 10-year-old with no family and no home who claims to live in the woods with a giant, green dragon named Elliott. And from Pete's descriptions, Elliott seems remarkably similar to the dragon from Mr. Meacham's stories. With the help of Natalie, an 11-year-old girl whose father Jack owns the local lumber mill, Grace sets out to determine where Pete came from, where he belongs, and the truth about this dragon.

The Return of Jafar

The Return of Jafar

Family · 1994

The evil Jafar escapes from the magic lamp as an all-powerful genie, ready to plot his revenge against Aladdin. From battling elusive villains atop winged horses, to dodging flames inside an exploding lava pit, it's up to Aladdin - with Princess Jasmine and the outrageously funny Genie by his side - to save the kingdom once and for all.

Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Raoul Walsh

Written by

Achmed Abdullah · Douglas Fairbanks

Douglas Fairbanks

Douglas Fairbanks

The Thief of Bagdad

Snitz Edwards

Snitz Edwards

His Evil Associate

Charles Belcher

Charles Belcher

The Holy Man

Julanne Johnston

Julanne Johnston

The Princess

Sôjin Kamiyama

Sôjin Kamiyama

The Mongol Prince

Anna May Wong

Anna May Wong

The Mongol Slave

Brandon Hurst

Brandon Hurst

The Caliph

Court is in session

Put The Thief of Bagdad on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.