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The Thief of Bagdad, American silent swashbuckling film, released in 1924, that cemented Douglas Fairbanks’s reputation as a matinee idol. (Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film preservation.) To win the hand of the caliph of Bagdad’s daughter (played by Julanne Johnston), a thief (Fairbanks) embarks on a dangerous and mystical journey to secure the most desirable treasure imaginable. The film was a popular success, and Fairbanks made women swoon as one of the screen’s...