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Thief of Baghdad

Director: Michael Powell and others
Year: 1940
Run-time: 1 hr 46 min

- This was a pretty fun one, a Technicolor special effects spectacular similar in tone to Robin Hood.  Staying close to an Arabian Nights theme, it mostly sidesteps outright racism, although it's just as orientalist as its source material.  It's pretty fun to explore how they did most of the effects - Ebert claims there's almost no effect in Star Wars that wasn't seen (in less advanced form) here.

- The other striking thing that almost all of the plot ingredients in Disney's Aladdin would originate here, to such a degree that I'm surprised no lawsuit was involved.


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