The Thief of Baghdad (1978 film)
1978 film by Clive Donner
The Thief of Baghdad is a 1978 fantasy film directed by Clive Donner and starring Roddy MacDowall and Kabir Bedi. A British and French co-production, the film was released theatrically, except for the United States where it debuted on television.
Plot
Soon after the death of his father, Prince Taj of Sakkar is persuaded to compete for the hand of Princess Yasmine of Baghdad. He is ambushed by agents of his own Wazir, Jaudur. His royal seal is stolen and an innocent man is murdered in his place. Arriving in Baghdad, dressed in rags and hungry, he befriends Hassan, magician and thief.
Stealing suitable robes, Taj and Hassan present themselves to the Caliph, where Taj makes an immediate impression on Yasmine. Wazir Jaudur arrives on a flying carpet to join the suitors. Jaudur, bearing Taj's royal seal, claims to be king following the alleged murder of Prince Taj; he accuses Taj of being an impostor. Taj challenges Jaudur to a duel, but he loses because Jaudur, an evil sorcerer, is protected from injury due to his soul being hidden at a secret location, making him immortal.
“The Thief of Baghdad (1978 film)” enters the record as 1978 film by Clive Donner. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Thief, Baghdad and film can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q19881364. 9 of 9 selected statements include explicit references; 9 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1978.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Thief of Baghdad (1978 film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.