Until you remember how spoiled we are by digital effects. Given when the film was made—in World War II Britain—they are great. I might even say that they were trying to push technical limits, but I really don’t know enough about that sort of thing to say for sure.

Thief of Bagdad was helmed by six different directors over the course of its filming, but you wouldn’t know it to watch it: it appears absolutely seamless. It’s a little melodramatic and over the top, but the copious amounts of fun and adventure keep it from falling flat. It soars mostly because of its special effects, which are primitive by today’s standards but are still beautiful: the scene where Sabu is trapped in the spiderweb was a particular highlight. What surprised me the most was how much Disney’s Aladdin ‘homaged’ from this movie: some of the characters, some of the plot points, even the set design. Parts of the “One Jump Ahead” song were lifted almost frame for frame. I know it’s an adaptation of an old story, but the fact that the innovations and alterations made for this movie made it over to the animated one shows how influential this movie was. Not just a good movie, but a fascinating piece of film history.