Tyverier fra Bagdad represents a special case in our selection of fiction film commercials. This animation film uses a traditional form common to commercials of its time, but its clearly recognizable depiction of Douglas Fairbanks, in character from the Raoul Walsh’s The Thief of Bagdad, specifically alludes to a well-known fiction film, thus making it a definite candidate for our category of “genre-bending” commercials.
Unlike Ahmed in Fairbanks’ feature film, our drawn thief does not fall in love with the caliph’s daughter; he seems more interested in earthly wealth and his own appearance. Even within this short commercial, the western stereotypes which accentuate the disparity between us and what is unknown and different are present: our drawn thief has a large harem of women dressed only in bras and sarongs; Fairbanks sports the same bandana and the same devilish smile as he carelessly rides his flying carpet and climbs his magic rope. Another traditional Arab fairy-tale ingredient is the granting of three wishes: again, true to the original Ahmed, our animated hero has a magic ball, which he uses to acquire three attributes that transform him into the logo of Tiedemanns Sultan Turkish Cigarettes: a horse, the robe of a caliph, and a beard like a prophet. However, the wishes in the commercial are referred to as “thefts” in the title: Tyverier fra Bagdad (Thefts from Bagdad).
Apart from the production company, little is known about this film. As with so much of this kind of material, the available information is to be found on the footage itself. Animated commercials, even though they are clearly in the minority, are not very rare in the film collections at the National Library of Norway, and Tyverier fra Bagdad is a good example: they are normally shorter than other commercials, and often rendered with a single-line drawing, with simple or no background.
The source for this DCP is an original nitrate print. It was digitized in 2018.

Tina Anckarman & Magnus Rosborn