This 1978 television movie remake of a Hollywood classic is in the same bottom-of-the-barrel territory as ARABIAN ADVENTURE, i.e. a silly costume adventure made out of place and out of time as a throwback to the glorious colour epics of yesteryear. On a television budget, there are barely any special effects, just small enclosed sets, garish costumes and awful flying carpet sequences which look like they come from the 1930s. The encounter with the genie is the only bit that has any kind of atmosphere, and rest is all nonsense. Cast-wise, we get walking plank Kabir Bedi as the emotionless hero, Peter Ustinov shamelessly hamming it up, Roddy McDowall typically cheeky, and Terence Stamp as the baddie, a dry-run for SUPERMAN. THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD is a film best forgotten.
Review of The Thief of Baghdad
