YMMV / The Thief of Bagdad (1940)

• Broken Base: Both this and the 1924 version are beloved by many classic movie buffs, so there is some competition as to which is better.
• Fair for Its Day: It's an "Arabian Nights" Days fantasy by the Golden Age of Hollywood with European actors playing Arabs so it's a fairly typical Orientalist fantasy, right? Well the main protagonist and title character, the Thief of Bagdad is Abu the Thief, who is played by an Indian, and the main antagonist is played by Conrad Veidt, a German and given the context and the profile of the man playing him, a Nazi stand-in. In the context of the time, having a non-white character defeat and kill the white bad guy was pretty radical for a major studio to do so, given that racism was still a pervasive force in society at the time.
• Funny Moments: The Princess's hand maidens see Ahmad's reflection in the garden pool and run screaming, thinking he's a genie. The Princess however checks him out despite being terrified, and this cheeky exchange follows.
  Princess: Why have you come?
  Ahmad: To see you.
  Princess: I was about to bathe.
  Ahmad: I'm waiting.
  Princess: Bathe with you there?
• Heartwarming Moments: The Love at First Sight between Ahmad and the Princess, coupled with the beautiful score selling the magic of the moment.
  Princess: Where have you come from?
  Ahmad: From the other side of time. To find you.
  Princess: How long have you been searching?
  Ahmad: Since time began.
  Princess: Now that you've found me, how long will you stay?
  Ahmad: Until the end of time. For me, there can be no greater beauty in the world but yours.
  Princess: For me, there can be no greater pleasure than to please you.
  Cue the Big Damn Kiss.
• Ho Yay: Check out the long, lingering look Jaffar gives to the half-naked Ahmad when he finds him in the marketplace. And the line he says immediately after.
• Nightmare Fuel: The spider was horrifying. Many of the other scenes in the movie have a downright creepy feel to them too, including Jaffar's death while riding the mechanical horse. In some cuts of the film it ended up looking like a REAL horse falling out of the sky in pieces!
• Special Effect Failure: It's more than justified considering this is the first movie ever to use Chroma Key, but nevertheless, the blue-screened elements have some really obvious blue fringing and don't cast any shadows on the background.
• Values Resonance: It's amazing that a fantasy film made in 1940 has a POC as the protagonist who gets the major share of screentime, does all the cool heroic stuff usually done by Mighty Whitey types in other movies (such as invading tombs and finding artifacts) defeats the bad guy and gets to ride out for more adventures. This film was considerably popular among African-Americans and other POC for just that reason, with African-American critic David Ehrenstein remarking that he identified with Sabu in this film because it was the first time he saw someone that wasn't white shown as a hero.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: A lot of the special effects are astonishingly good for a film made in 1940. Extensive use is made of back-projection in particular.

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