Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

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.

whitec-3 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.

ragosaal "Bagdadª is a terrible adventure film. Actually it doesn't catch your attention at all. The point is that not even kids who usually enjoy this sort of colorful desert action pieces, could be satisfied with this one. In fact you don't even care about how things will come out (tough you can guess easily).You also wonder how a respected actress like Maureen O'Hara could ever enter this thing; in fact if she wasn't in this film there would be definitely nothing to see (my 3 points rank are just for her undeniable beauty). Vincent Price enjoys himself as the villain but he doesn't add much to his brilliant gallery here.Just if you want to see gorgeous Maureen singing and dancing the arab way.

oguer22656 The costumes, locations, and action make up for the thin plot in this story of a princess in search of her father's murderer. True, there are holes in the story, Maureen O'Hara as a red-haired Turkish princess takes a stretch of imagination, but the look of the film is wonderful. Vincent Price, as always, makes a menacing villian. One wishes there was more romance, however. A good time, nonetheless.