008: The Thief of Bagdad (1924) - released 3/18/1924, viewed 7/28/05.<br /><br />George Gerswin's "Rhapsody in Blue" is performed for the first time in NYC. The IBM corporation is founded. Calvin Coolidge gives the first presidential radio broadcast.<br /><br />BIRTHS: Margaret Truman, Lee Marvin.<br /><br />KEVIN: Now this movie was really something. We have here our first Douglas Fairbanks movie, our first all-out adventure movie, and one of the earliest all-out special effects movies. A lot of people trace effects films back to King Kong, but they often forget this film, which uses all kinds of tricks like flying carpets, under-water duels, giant spiders, just about everything. It was a lot of fun to see how filmmakers pulled off things like flying carpets and giant monsters back in the day, long before the days of Ray Harryhausen. Early on in the film, I was reminded of the numerous fantasy-style kung-fu movies I've seen. I'd love to see a modern remake of this film done in that eastern style. After all that, I wonder how the 1940 version will hold up compared to this one.<br /><br />DOUG: 1924 sees the release of of this rip-roaring screen classic directed by Raoul Walsh and starring silent film adventurer Douglas Fairbanks. I thought this movie was awesome. Fairbanks (who I think looks a lot like Clark Gable) brings what I'm sure is his usual bravado to the role of the Thief. Although this guy is a criminal and a swindler, Fairbanks manages to make him so cool that we root for him anyway. I remember there is a moment after he meets the princess, we can see him kind of become reflective as he starts to consider living life without thieving. The third act of the film is nearly all action, as the Thief braves many perils including monsters and fiery caverns to win the ultimate prize for the princess. These scenes contain lots of special effects (the first we've seen so far) that must have been quite impressive for the day. The finale has our hero facing off against 20,000 Mongols by summoning "a magical army from the earth, 100,000 strong!" Woah! To me this film felt like it could be a martial arts movie. A lot of moments would be right at home in a big-budget kung-fu movie, like when he takes the royal ring and cuts it in half with his sword (in a modern movie, we would see the ring float in mid-air as his sword slices through it in slow motion).<br /><br />Last film: Marriage Circle (1924). Next film viewed: Sherlock, Jr. (1924). Next film chronologically: Girl Shy (1924). <br /><br />The Movie Odyssey is an exhaustive, chronological project where we watch as many milestone films as possible, starting with D.W. Griffith's Intolerance in 1916 and working our way through, year by year, one film at a time. We also write a short review for each and every film. In this project, we hope to gain a deeper understanding of the time period, the films of the era, and each film in context, while at the same time just watching a lot of great movies, most of which we never would have watched otherwise.