The first film in our Maximalist Mythologies series:

The Thief of Bagdad

Essay by Jeffrey Vance

An epic fantasy-spectacle inspired by The Arabian Nights, The Thief of Bagdad is Douglas Fairbanks’s masterpiece. The superb visual design, spectacle, and special effects, along with his magnetic performance, all contribute to making it his greatest work. The film was not only his most ambitious effort but also one of the largest and most expensive made until that time. The Thief of Bagdad required 65 weeks to make, the sets covered six and a half acres at the Pickford-Fairbanks Studios in West Hollywood, and the prodigal production cost the enormous sum of $1,135,654.65.

Fairbanks’s selection of the film’s creative team was inspired, his most important choice being Raoul Walsh as director. He was confident of Walsh’s capabilities in the coordination of the production and enjoyed his sense of humor; Walsh was an inveterate practical joker and Fairbanks loved practical…