Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944)

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Absolutely the worst movie.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

I saw a high quality, restored color DVD the other day, and now I know how my career as an artist began. I saw this when I was almost 8 years old when it first came out in original technicolor. The scenes where young Ali Baba finds the thieves' ecave, opens it (Open oh sesame,), and then steps into thatwonderously colored cave of great treasures hooked me for life intodepicting explosions of whirling colors I might have seen a black and white version of this on TV in the inmterum, but this new DVD almost captures the gaudy vividness of the original. As for the rest of the film, well, just okay.You can sit back and enjoy it despite a juvenile plot, risible miscasting, and very obvious sets. But who cares! It is an advantage that Maria Montez has such a thick Dominican accent. Her struggle to get her lines out in a comprehensible manner gives her face some actual expression. John Hall looked silly with his thin mustache; he looked not only more authentic but much better when in disguise with a full beard. Andy Devine was okay for the kids.. Fortunio Bonavura did not have a decent line. But who cares.Once the forty thieves got to galloping and kicking, up sand riding in the desert, it becomes pure fun-even if they were wearing baby blue robes and shocking pink headdresses.

In Baghdad, in the days of the Mongol invasion leaded by the cruel Hugalu Khan (Kurt Katch), the caliph Hassan (Moroni Olsen) is betrayed by Prince Cassim (Frank Puglia) and killed by the Mongols. His son Ali, who had just pledged love to Prince Cassim's daughter Amara, escapes and accidentally finds the magic cave Sesame, the hiding place of forty thieves leaded by Baba (Fortunio Bonanova). Ali is adopted by Baba, who assigns the strong Abdullah (Andy Devine) to protect him. For ten years, the Mongols held Baghdad, and Ali Baba (Jon Hall) becomes the leader of the forty thieves, now beloved by the population for challenging the invaders. When the thieves acknowledge that a caravan is bringing Lady Amara (Maria Montez) to marry the tyrant Hugalu Khan, Ali Baba meets her bathing and does not recognize her. The Mongols capture him and he believes she betrayed him. Amara's servant Jamiel (Turhan Bey) helps Ali Baba, and the thieves rescue him in Baghdad and abduct Amara. In the garden of Prince Cassim's garden, they have recollections of their childhood, but they do not recognize each other. When Ali finds the truth, he fights for his love and for the freedom of Baghdad."Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" is a delightful naive adventure that brings me back to my childhood, when I loved to see the movie because of the magic cave that opened and closed with the commands: "- Open, Oh Sesame!", or "- Close, Oh Sesame!". The story is simple, with the evil Hugalu Khan in the always invaded Baghdad; the traitor Prince Cassim; the forty bandits that become good guys; the hero Ali Baba and the heroine Amara, and lots of action for children and adults. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Ali Baba e os Quarenta Ladrões" ("Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves")

I'm mostly commenting just to double the number of comments on this film. The film has a nice brisk pace and attractive leads. It's mostly a fun light-hearted piece of escapist entertainment, with the only problems being that the sets, costumes, and Andy Devine all keep reminding us that it is a Hollywood film being staged for the cameras. The sets often look horribly fake, the costumes look brand new and freshly dry-cleaned, in order to look good in Technicolor one supposes. The back projections are just awful, and absurdly fake.There's one scene when the 40 thieves are riding off furiously in a cloud of dust, as seen from a distance. Then we get a close up of the three leaders, each in turn, wearing bright clean clothes, and apparently sitting on coin-operated horses in front of some grainy back projection. It's unintentionally funny. And Andy Devine is the least convincing Arab thief ever. He's supposed to be comic relief, akin to Friar Tuck in many versions of Robin Hood. However, his line readings are awful, with his voice cracking most of the time, apparently in an attempt at humor. It's as if he strolled on to the wrong set, grabbed a freshly laundered costume and misguidedly decided to join in.If you watch Ali Baba today, it can be viewed as a commentary on the US presence in Iraq. An outside invader (here the Mongols) has sacked and overtaken Baghdad. A popular insurrection boils in the countryside, but is dismissed by the invaders as merely the work of thieves and troublemakers. The occupier goes in for torture and bullying of the opposition, etc. The film does date from the middle of WWII, so it is unsurprising if some references to war and then-current events seeps through.If you want to see a better film on this theme, I'd recommend Douglass Fairbanks in The Thief of Baghdad. (I haven't seen the 1940 Sabu re-make yet). Or for those more adventurous in their cinematic tastes, Lotte Reiniger's The Adventures of Prince Achmed is an amazing silhouette animation film from 1926, which is stunningly beautiful.

I saw this a few days ago after a gap of many years and it's still fun to watch. There was a whole spate of these highly colored Arabian Nights adventures in the 1940's and audiences lapped them up. The fun now is in the apparent seriousness with which they were made and the earnestness of not very good actors and actresses spouting there quasi poetic dialog.These films were bonanzas for the exotic looking performers of the period, Turhan Bey, Jon Hall and Maria Montez (one of the lust objects of my adolescence). She would often wear quite revealing see-through dresses and there was always at least one scene where she emerged from a bath or swimming pool, quickly being discretely covered by large towels borne by hand-maidens.Extras were cheap in those days and so there is a cast of thousands but most of the time the director does no more than fill the screen with bodies. Look at the battle scenes and you will see most of the participants are just waving their scimitars in the air aimlessly.Ali Baba has wicked caliphs and valiant freedom fighters battling it out in the Hollywood desert. The ridiculousness of the All American Andy Devine as an Arab. Fairy tale cardboard castles. All makes for colorful entertainment.I give it 8 out 10.