"The Thief of Bagdad" was thirty years old the first time I saw it on television as a little kid. Both color and blue screen technology were relatively new technologies for the moving picture industry. The studios were bound and determined to get their money’s worth from the cost of the color film, so they painted everything in bright brilliant colors. Where else would you see a sultan’s palace that is bright pink? Sails on boats, the colors of the rainbow? Glorious grand vistas, extravagant fabrics, everywhere it is color, color, color! And the hats! I’d never seen such an array of turbans and fezzes in my entire life. I didn’t realize how much an impact those fezzes had on me until I watched it again a few days ago. A couple of years ago, I started a group in Tacoma called
The CLAW. We decided that we would wear fezzes. I hunted the Internet until I found just the right shape and color for our fezzes. I was astonished to see that all of the fezzes in the film were the same shape and color as those that
The CLAW uses. And this film did more than have a profound effect on just me. When you watch Disney’s “Aladdin,” you will find a lot of influences, starting with the character of Jaffar. If the actor who plays Jaffar looks familiar, it is because he was also in “Casablanca.” Unfortunately, his amazingly brilliant eyes were captured in color only in this film. Thankfully, they get several close-ups. This whimsical colorful fantasy with all of its strange creatures and characters captured my pre-pubescent heart. I guess it never let go. And it remains one of my all-time top-ten favorites.
