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.

Arabian princess (redhead Maureen O'Hara indeed!) wants to avenge her father's death. He was killed by the Black Robes whose leader is unknown. She asks the Pasha (Vincent Price) for help and offers in turn to sing for him. I didn't like the singing as much as he did, apparently, but my favorite moment of the movie is when she fails to lure the main suspect Hassan (Swiss born Paul Hubschmid of "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms" fame) into a trap. Vincent Price looks at her and says: "You're angry and annoyed. This gives rise to a very interesting question. Is it due to your unsatisfied desire for revenge on a blood-enemy, or only injured vanity because a man's instinct for danger blinded him to your undeniable charms?" Price could deliver mocking lines like that deliciously, it is always a pleasure to watch him. Anyhow, Paul Hubschmid stands tall (one head taller than everyone else except Price, that is) and claims his innocence. A trial in front of the tribes' leaders shall decide about that...An Oriental fantasy film in glorious Technicolor that celebrates every blue, red and green the camera can get hold of. "Bagdad" doesn't look real for a second with those carnival costumes and false beards, but it was fun all the way to me - 80 minutes is just the right length for a not-so-serious adventure.

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.

As other posters note, the plot of Bagdad is incoherent, though its momentum and the good-bad IDs are always clear. It's one of those odd paste-jewelry gems of the mid-century Hollywood studios. Overall the prevailing aesthetic is camp, especially given the outrageousness of Maureen O'Hara as a red-haired, green-eyed, candle-cheeked Bedouin princess and the languid Swede Paul Hibschmud / Christian in the Valentino slot.But if Bagdad is campy junk, it's not exactly cheap junk. The color is touching, as are the efficiently managed sets. If you look closely at the California desert shots, you'll see many a rock outcropping used in Western chases with cowboys.Bagdad is not a Western, though, but an "Eastern." As another poster noted, Maria Montez was the icon of this minor movement in Hollywood genre films. As with other such potboilers, one of the pleasures is the precise performance of the character actors, e. g. John Sutton as the villain and whoever plays the sentimental role of the old retainer to the princess's father.Plenty of credit to O'Hara and Price for carrying the film. The scenario has so many lurches and fillers that you see something in these actors beyond mere talent, though both have plenty. Beyond talent, they're both troopers who never flinch when the script double-clutches--they brave every scene through, holding up the pretense, and O'Hara's song-and-dance performances give some scenes a surprising robustness.Given the plot's weaknesses, I doubt if this movie is worth sitting down for 90 minutes at one stretch. But I taped it off a cable channel and watched about 10 minutes at a time. Virtually every 10-minute episode featured a song or dance, a scene of intrigue, and luminous backdrops with well-staged action. Obviously a viewer must have a predisposition to pure escapism. What else is Hollywood for? Recommended on those terms.