The success of that film, co-directed by Zoltan Korda and the great documentarian Robert J. Sabu was a stable boy for the Maharaja of Mysore when he was discovered by Korda and cast in The Elephant Boy at the age of 13.
Ahmad and Abu, as well as the viewer, take in many more wonders on the way to vanquishing the Vizier and rescuing the Princess Korda's team conjures such visual treats as a magic flying carpet, a deadly six-armed dervish, a full-size mechanical horse, a stolen all-seeing ruby eye, and most spectacularly, the bombastic Genie of the Lamp (Rex Ingram), who grants three wishes of Abu. The two are returned to human form only when Jaffar embraces the Princess, now under his control. Jaffar eliminates his competition by blinding Ahmed and transforming Abu into a dog. Unfortunately, Jaffar has his own designs on the Princess and bargains with the toy-obsessed Sultan (Malleson) for her hand. Abu and Ahmad escape their prison and flee to Basra, where the Prince falls in love with the Sultan's beautiful daughter (June Duprez). The city's ruler, the good-hearted Prince Ahmad (John Justin), is undermined and overthrown by the evil Grand Vizier, Jaffar (Conrad Veidt). We are introduced to Abu (Sabu), a thief amongst the many merchants in the marketplace of Bagdad. The elegant final screenplay for The Thief of Bagdad was by actor/ writer Miles Malleson, (who also took a major role in the film, playing the befuddled Sultan of Basra). A new story, also drawing from the Thousand-and-One-Nights tales, would be fashioned around it. The title, which Fairbanks owned, was irresistible, so when Korda found himself seated near Fairbanks at a banquet at the Savoy Hotel in London in 1938, he asked if he could buy the rights to the title. In 1924, Douglas Fairbanks had scored one of his biggest hits as The Thief of Bagdad. Inspired by the success of his personal discovery - Indian actor Sabu - in his films Elephant Boy (1937) and The Drum (1938), Korda hit upon the idea of casting the energetic youth in an Arabian Nights fantasy.
Selznick had with his production of Gone With the Wind (1939), Korda sought out a property to showcase the talent under his wing.
By the late 1930s Korda had amassed an impressive crew of artists and craftsmen around him at London Films' Denham Studios, and much like his American counterpart David O. In this case, that vision belonged to London-based Hungarian producer/ director Alexander Korda. One of the great fantasy films, The Thief of Bagdad (1940) is also included on that short list of movies which had long, complicated production histories of false starts, script rewrites, and multiple directors (Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell, Tim Whelan), yet managed to emerge as a special entity, effortlessly carrying off a unique single vision. Commandeering a magic carpet, Abu flies to Bagdad just in time to rescue Ahmad and slay Jaffar with an arrow of justice. As the two await execution, Abu is rescued by "the legendary ones" and is presented with a bow of justice. The genie complies, and in Bagdad, Jaffar arrests Ahmad and the Princess and sentences them to death. The genie leads Abu to Ahmad, but the boy squanders his last wish by cursing Ahmad to return to Bagdad. Shipwrecked, Abu finds a bottle and releases a genie who grants him three wishes. Ahmad and Abu follow, but their small craft is destroyed by the winds that Jaffar commands. Awakened by her lover Ahmad, the Princess is then kidnapped by Jaffar, who sails away with her after restoring Ahmad's sight and Abu's body.
His story finished, Ahmad is led to the sleeping Princess by Jaffar's aide. When the Princess runs away rather than marry the dreaded Jaffar, the magician eliminates his rival by blinding Ahmad and turning Abu into a dog. The pair escape and flee to the city of Basra, where Ahmad falls in love with the beautiful Princess, but their romance is shattered by the shrewd Jaffar, who offers the Sultan a winged horse in exchange for his daughter. At the palace, the man reveals that he is Ahmad, the King of Bagdad, and relates his life story and that of his dog, the prince of thieves: After being betrayed by his vizier, who is the same treacherous Jaffar, Ahmad is imprisoned and meets Abu, the boy thief. As the Princess slumbers while awaiting the blind man whom she loves, Jaffar, the evil magician who desires her, sends his aide to lead the blind man to his palace.
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