Bagdad (1949)

A Masterpiece!

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

After the success of "Sinbad the Sailor" Maureen O'Hara was ready to play another princess of Arabia in 49 and along came this story of Bagdad that suited her perfectly. She plays Princess Marjan of the Beduins but there is nothing tribal about her. The first time we see her she is dressed like an English Victorian lady riding in the desert with an overdressed Vincent Price as Pacha Ali Nadim, who is of course the EVIL character that slaps all his subordinates on a regular basis and protects the Black raiders, a bandit club that is as endemic to these movies as the absurd amounts of early polyester silks and gilt-costume jewelry on the women, always covered by perfectly transparent veils.Princess Marjan has been studying in London, though we are never told what. When she arrives at the caravansary, the man in charge assumes she is English, but she tells him she is an Arabian Princess, you can't blame the man, her flowing mane of red hair is not particularly an Arabian trait and neither is her ivory skin. She proceeds to go on a shopping spree for native garb, which is Hollywood interpretations of what they thought Arabian women should wear, and translates as a Maureen, because there is no other way to describe the costume: weird shoulder treatments, occasionally with flounces, sometimes attached to an impossibly small vest, heavily embroidered, sometimes to a camisole that at the waist flairs into a half- train or baggy pants, sometimes both. The total effect is sometimes late Renaissance as interpreted by cookie boxes that have a medallion with a 'lady' from 'Verona' or 'Florence' but are more readily found in real life at wedding receptions in Newark. Princess Marjan is trying to put her tribe back on its feet after her father's assassination, she is trying to talk to the Emir, persuade the Pasha, and seduce a handsome Prince who one minute is a camel driver and the next a rich merchant from Cairo spewing precious stones at her dinner table on a horrid night that the Pasha imposes himself on her to have dinner at the one and only Western cuisine restaurant in Bagdad, "I Franghi" (or something like that). The restaurant has entertainment also, which consists of dancing girls. This gives Princess Marjan the brilliant idea of adding extra income to her enterprise by singing in this place which is a concoction of all the 'elegant French restaurants" outside of Paris by way of Wyoming. No sooner was this flash of genius stricken than she glides from the table like a panther in love and sashays around the place singing ballads. This is the best moment of the film, and it could go on Broadway anytime as a revival with a few extra tunes. She has an amazingly good Broadway voice and when she stops you want to hear another one. You will, but it will take a while. The plot thickens with so many useless details I can not record them accurately, except that at one point Princess Marjan appears dressed in gypsy garb with her friends at the enemy camp and the movie hits another high point. This Princess can look like a sassy gypsy, tell a fortune with grace flashing that ultra-Colgate smile that probably introduced toothpaste to the Bedouins right there, poison a soup, flirt at a battalion of women-hungry Arabs and she still goes away unscathed and virginal, ready for her close-up with her hero-prince and a happy ending. Now that's ENTERTAINMENT. This movie can also team up with either "Sinbad the Sailor" (1947) or "Flame of Araby" (1951) for an excellent double feature that will leave you floating in your own magic carpet of Arabian Technicolor dreams.

7 years after striking box-office gold with ARABIAN NIGHTS (1942), Universal were still milking the same exotic formula with moderate success; in fact, after the star of that film's female attraction (Maria Montez) started to wane, they called on fiery, red-headed Irish beauty Maureen O'Hara – who had already appeared in RKO's SINBAD THE SAILOR (1947; co-starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) – to fill in her shoes in BAGDAD and, later on, FLAME OF ARABY (1951; co-starring Jeff Chandler) which I have yet to catch up with. The threadbare plot line of English-educated Arab princess O'Hara seeking revenge on the leader of the "Black Robes" – for causing her father's death after letting him down in battle against a confusing number of rival Arab tribes! – is nothing to write home about but, thankfully, this is made up for by an agreeably camp attitude that permeates the whole film and makes the viewing more enjoyable than it ought to be. O'Hara makes for a fetching heroine in her Technicolored exotic attire (including one in which she seems to have a drape attached to her head gear!) and, despite her royal heritage, she even gets to belt out 3 operatic songs in a tavern and impersonate a gypsy dancer out in the desert!; villainous Turkish Pasha Vincent Price keeps slapping everybody around and, bafflingly, has his right eyelid almost completely closed the whole time!; Paul Christian (aka Paul Hubschmid of Fritz Lang's famed "Indian Epic" diptych), sporting a distracting Austrian accent, is another Arab 'misfit' prince with a chameleon-like personality that sees him being, alternately, a guest and a fugitive in Price's palace; John Sutton – whom I will soon get the chance to see in similar surroundings in the notoriously cheap Sam Katzman production of THIEF OF DAMASCUS (1952) – plays yet another Arab chieftain whom greed and ambition has not only turned into Price's partner-in-crime but also the leader of the Black Robes; renowned character actor Jeff Corey is O'Hara's ill-tempered associate, etc. Unfortunately, the video quality of the copy I landed is far from optimal (hazy and slightly washed-out) but still serviceable under the circumstances given that, due to the current international political and financial climate, the emergence of such films on legitimate DVD editions is growing remoter with each passing day! Having said that, I look forward to getting my hands on more lightweight, nostalgic stuff in the same vein in the future.

A memorable film from several points. The color was terrific; the songs that Maureen O'Hara trilled had style; the costumes were overdone; the acting and dialogue, with all those "thee's" and "thou's" were unbelievable. Maureen must have been in Elizabethan England before returning to Bagdad. I really think the whole crew, including writers, must have had a hilarious time making this screwy movie. It is so bad, it is good.

Maureen O'Hara is not Iraqi and Vincent Price is not Turkish. Unfortunately, this film is based on the assumption that the viewer will believe that they are. The considerable talents of these two actors were wasted on a half-baked period piece with virtually no plot. Those small remnants of a story that existed were rather hard to follow. The only saving graces of this film are its luscious costumes and scenery, and they aren't nearly good enough to make the film worth sitting through.