The Thief of Bagdad was a large 1940 musical by Michael Powell (The Red Shoes) and Ludwig Berger. While the effects hardly hold up to today’s standards this film played an enormous role in what we see today. Special effects artist Larry Butler decided that the previous technology, travelling matte, was not feasible for the directors visions so he created a new technology know as chroma key, today known as green screen.

It would be foolish to consider that this would not have happened without Larry Butler or The Thief of Bagdad this is where it started, a British musical from 1940.

The film is good and quite interesting, not the best Powell picture and would lead into his forming The Archers with Emeric Pressburger to produce some of the greatest British cinema in my opinion.

I rate The Thief of Bagdad 5.9 mostly because the acting is not too strong and the white-washing is pretty brutal.