The Thief of Bagdad (1924)

Directed by Raoul Walsh
Written by Achmed Abdullah & Douglas Fairbanks
Starring Douglas Fairbanks, Anna May Wong, Julanne Johnston
16mm | 140 min.

Silent Sundays, our long-running celebration of silent cinema, returns to the Revue Cinema with Douglas Fairbanks in The Thief of Bagdad on Sunday, January 16 at 4:00 p.m. 

Douglas Fairbanks produced and starred in the 1924 silent fantasy based on an Arabian Nights tale. The movie is rich in special effects: flying carpets, monsters, a cloak of invisibility, the lithe and athletic Fairbanks as well as a brief appearance by Anna May Wong, the first Chinese-American movie star.

A major epic, the film was a genuine smash with Toronto audiences when it premiered  at the Princess Theatre in November of 1924. A twenty-piece orchestra accompanied Fairbanks’ daring feats in the King St. theatre which rarely screened films. Like the neighbouring Royal Alexandra Theatre, the Princess was renown for its live stage shows.

Musical accompaniment was an integral part of the silent era. The Revue once again welcomes pianist William O’Meara, who has gained worldwide recognition for his film work. He has performed at the TIFF Cinematheque, Nuit Blanche, the Toronto Silent Film Festival, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in Italy and as far east as Perm, Russia, where he played the organ to Man with a Movie Camera.

Silent Sundays launched in 2009 with the intention of screening silent films in an authentic silent movie house like The Revue. By selecting family-friendly comedies and adventure films, the series caters to the Revue’s neighbourhood crowd, and the results have consistently filled the Revue’s seats with cinephiles, families and the uninitiated alike. The National Post‘s Lia Grainger says the atmosphere “is so convincing it makes you want to check that your bonnet isn’t blocking anyone’s view” and that it showcases “a simple charm rarely duplicated in cinema today.”

The Revue Cinema is located at 400 Roncesvalles Ave. Show starts at 4pm. Admission is $12 non-members/$10 members/$6 seniors & children.

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