morrison-dylan-fan With a poll coming up on IMDbs Classic Film board coming up for the best titles of 1949,I started searching round for movies to view for the poll.Since having heard him get mention a number of times after the recent death of Christopher Lee,I was pleased to spot that a DVD seller had recently tracked down an Adventure film starring Vincent Price,which led to me getting ready to take a trip to Bagdad.The plot:Returning to Bagdad after getting educated in England, Princess Marjan discovers that her dad has been brutally killed,after a rebel tribe called The Black Robes left him in battle. Comforted by Pasha Ali Nadim,Marjan is told by Nadim that she can stay as a guest at his palace,as she tries to track down the leader of The Black Robes.As she starts looking round for the Robes leader,Marjan is shocked to find out that Nadim is the head of Bagdad's corrupt government,with Nadim having recently met the leader of The Black Robes for secret deals.Suspecting that Nadim is keeping things hidden from her,Marjan beings to take a look at the lines in the sand.View on the film:For the screenplay of the film,writers Tamara Hovey & Robert Hardy Andrews place Bagdad into separate tribes,who despite wearing different costumes are never clearly defined,which leads to all of the tribes being rather jumbled up.Whilst they fail to draw clear lines in the sand for the tribes,the writers make sure the movie speeds by with delightfully bonkers elements,which go from Marjan offering an Arabian take on "girl power",to The Black Robes darting across the screen like mystic ninjas.Filmed on the studio back lot,director Charles Lamont & cinematographer Russell Metty use sweeping crane shots to fully display the vibrancy of the various tribes.Along with the smoothly- handled sweeps,Lamont cooks up a charming mythical atmosphere,thanks to Lamont splashing dazzling red,green and blues across the characters palaces and costumes,which act as the perfect contrast to the dry,sandy desert.Twirling his beard in the opening scene (talk about subtle!) Vincent Price gives a wickedly sharp performance as boo-hiss baddie,as Price sends the movie in a completely off-road direction,by having Nadim slap anyone who offers the slightest disagreement with him,and for some unexplained reason,keeping his right eye shut for the entire movie.Delivering 3 sweet,if rather forgettable songs on the soundtrack,the very pretty Maureen O'Hara gives a terrific performance as Marjan,with O'Hara giving Marjan a feisty edge,which superbly bounces off the cartoon baddie action from Price,which makes this a magical visit to Bagdad.

MARIO GAUCI 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.

L. Denis Brown Bagdad is a Hollywood B movie from the 1940's that was given an unusually generous budget which covered its production in Technicolor as well as the services of three actors already recognised as stars, Vincent Price, Maureen O'Hara and John Sutton. This presumably indicates the Studio bosses who approved production felt they had a better than average script, capable of generating a very successful movie. More realistically, the script was the turkey that prevented real success and with less generous budgetary decisions it would have sunk without trace within a few months of its release.Four extant IMDb User Comments on this film point out that Maureen O'Hara did not look like a Turkish Princess, an Arabian, an Iraqi, or a Bedouin Arab. These commentators were right in all four cases, she looked like the pale skin, redheaded Caucasian beauty she actually was. But two interesting observations follow - firstly the story in this film was so confused that, even among the relatively few comments already on this database, her character has been assigned four different nationalities; and secondly it seems strange the production budget could not even cover the cost of darkening her hair and skin (or that of co-stars Vincent Price , Paul Christian and John Sutton) - surely a minimal demand for the make-up department. Such discrepancies abound throughout this film and rob it of any validity as a serious work. Its setting is the pre-World War I Ottoman empire, but the language is (erratically) similar to the high society English of the early Georgian period and does not match the story any better than the makeup. The stars all appear to have been well aware of these deficiencies and, recognising that the film would almost certainly finish up being classified as a turkey, they decided not to attempt to compensate for them, but instead to overact outrageously -chewing up the scenery in grand style so that a fun time could be had by all. This type of film usually disappears quickly and totally soon after its release; instead Bagdad is still with us (both as a VHS tape and periodically on cable television) because they did this so effectively that, once we have accepted exactly what is being presented, we can still settle down and have a lot of fun watching it once in a while.It has been said this was Maureen O'Hara first real starring role. Most of her fans would not accept this, but it was one that provided her with an exceptional opportunity which she seized with both hands and feet. Not only beautiful but active and athletically graceful, she is a pleasure to watch. Her fiery temperament only adds to the fun, and watching her outwit all her very threatening adversaries probably appeals to most children of all ages. Vincent Price, as the deadliest of these, plays up to her as only he can. Overall this may not be the most convincing recipe for creating a collectible film, but after accepting its limitations (and with appropriate acknowledgments to some excellent work behind the camera) I must recognise that in this instance it appears to have largely succeeded. For me, a VCD of 'Bagdad' remains a minor but still enjoyable part of my home video collection, even though NOT to be found among my historical films.

Nazi_Fighter_David Charles Lamont's 'Bagdad' set the tone for Maureen's 1950s film career...In past adventure movies, she had been merely the irritable and decorative female lead... Now she moved into the full limelight, demanding the screen title once held by Maria Montez, and more recently by Yvonne DeCarlo, as Queen of the period adventure tales...More than Montez and DeCarlo, Maureen is a spirited and robust actress who can stand up to any hero. She combines her surprising screen beauty with an athletic finesse that allow her to move smoothly from a star with dramatic ambition to a Queen of the B-adventure movies...'Bagdad' encloses all the fundamental escapist entertainments that flourishes Maureen's appeal: Technicolor lensing, a handsome, co-star not so dynamic, and a weak script which permits Maureen complete freedom to win her noble screen causes with her own feminine persuasion and many vigorous swashbuckling... With dishonest dealings among the sheiks of Bagdad, princess Maureen, who assumes the disguise of a café entertainer and who sings three songs, learns to her relief that Paul Christian is not the leader of the cowardly Black Riders, a desert gang in partnership with the corrupt Pasha Vincent Price...