Bagdad (1949)

A Bedouin princess (Maureen O'Hara) returning from England, where she had been sent to be educated, finds that her father has been murdered by a group of bandits knows as The Black Robes. She seeks the protection of the corrupt Pasha of Bagdad (Vincent Price) while she investigates the killing of her father. Directed by Charles Lamont (ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET THE MUMMY), this is the kind of Arabian Nights potboiler that five years earlier would have starred Maria Montez rather than the red haired O'Hara (looking gorgeous in Technicolor but no explanation for an Arab desert princess having flame colored tresses). It's mindless entertainment running at a brief 80 minutes so it doesn't have time to wear out its welcome. O'Hara sings three songs and has a dance number to pad out the running time. The German actor Paul Hubschmid (billed as Paul Christian here), best known for Fritz Lang's 1959 Indian epic TIGER OF ESCHNAPUR plays the desert chieftain attempting to prove his innocence in O'Hara's father's murder. With John Sutton and Jeff Corey.