'The Thief of Bagdad'

Quite the spectacle. I would guess if I were a 10-year-old kid in 1924, I would've been agog at this film because it was unlike anything that had come before it.

It brings to life the mystical world of the Middle Eastern -- flying carpets, baggy pants, damsels, distress, big sets, camels and the like. At that point --1924 -- unless you'd been to the mideast, the only way you realized the culture was through Sinbad and literature.

But "The Thief of Bagdad" brought all this to life in a medium that was still very new and very raw.

This film was also one of the first in filmdom to introduce the swashbuckling leading man. Name an earlier movie in which you know the names of the stars? Douglas Fairbanks automatically creates a twinge of recognition. Other than Lillian Gish, I can't think of one and no one nearly on the same level of good looks, personality and Hollywood hunkiness than Fairbanks. Then he created his son, who's equally as hunky.