The Thief of Bagdad

Raoul Walsh, United Artists, 1924. Douglas Fairbanks as Ahmed, a thief who scales walls to reach a princess (Julanne Johnston) and then must bring the rarest treasure; Anna May Wong is a palace spy. William Cameron Menzies designed the vast plaster city: stairs, minarets, a flying carpet on wires and double exposure. Fairbanks did his own vaults. The AFI Catalog notes the production's scale at the Pickford-Fairbanks studio. A féerie built in Hollywood sunlight, with the thief's first rooftop run already the argument of the picture.