The Good
A classic film looks pretty darn amazing on DVD.
The Bad
No extras.Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves tells viewers the tale of Ali Baba (John Hall) as he sets out to find and bring to justice the person who killed his father. In addition to this he also longs to get back the royal throne for his family and save the life of the woman he loves (Maria Montez). Filled with a lot of action, intrigue and amazing film technique, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves he kind of movie that defines what a Hollywood classic really is. At 87 minutes this movie packs more spectacle than many of today's far bigger budgeted productions.
Features
No extras came on this release.
Video
1.33:1 - Technicolor. This is truly a film that has to be seen to be believed. There is an amazing richness to every frame of this film. In fact, as I was watching this standard DVD I couldn't help wonder why it wasn't put out on Blu-ray disc as well? The colors in this movie are quite vibrant and they almost leap off the screen. All of this plays to very nice effect here as viewers get to see this movie in the best possible way.
Audio
Language: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono - Subtitled in English, Spanish and French. The audio on this film was good. I did have to turn things up a little more than half way, which actually surprised me, but I find that Universal does a pretty good job with their audio design. Things stayed pretty leveled all the way through. While I am not saying that this film has the audio capabilities of say Blu-ray disc, I will say that everything sounded about as good as I had hoped it would.
Package
The good guys and bad guys that populate the world of this film are presented on this front cover that seems to have something old and something new. The back shows us 5 different images (all from the film), a description of what this movie is about, a cast list and technical specs.
Final Word
When I was picking up the DVDs that MovieWeb had given me to review I noticed that this movie (as well some others that are a part of the Universal Backlot Collection), was just sitting in a pile with nobody claiming them. Well, I quickly scooped up all the titles and I am sure glad that I did because Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves really adds a great deal to my DVD collection. This movie is so rich in story, character and cinema history that it truly is a gem from another age.