Teresa Reviews They Came to Baghdad (1952)

Teresa reviews They Came to Baghdad (1952), a Studio One TV version of the novel, and feels like she wandered into a time capsule.

Fidelity to text: 2½ spies

The main plot points of this very complicated spy story made it on screen.

(c)2024 by Teresa Peschel

Read more of Teresa’s Agatha Christie movie reviews at Peschel Press.

Also, follow Teresa’s discussion of these movie on her podcast.

Quality of movie: 2½ spies

Terrible filmstock and murky dialog make this not as fun as it should be. But that’s not the film’s fault.

Up until Kemper Donovan mentioned it on his All About Agatha podcast and Instagram account in June 2023, everyone thought this sole rendition of Agatha’s spy thriller, They Came to Baghdad was lost. It was one of 467 episodes in the drama show Studio One, which ran for ten seasons. Back when TV was supposed to be highbrow and educational, they adapted all kinds of properties along with original scripts.

It emerged on YouTube from someone’s basement catacombs and Bill snagged a copy as soon as we heard the news. Baghdad is the only Agatha adaptation Studio One (or anyone else) did.

The verdict? As with other ancient TV kinescopes like the 1959 Ten Little Indians, you’ll have to make allowances for terrible film stock and mumbled dialog. No subtitles either to help you along. No one at Studio One expected that their one-hour films would be aired a second or third time. It’s not quite a one-room set, acted in one act. The stage settings get rearranged for the different scenes but like a stage play, you don’t go outside or to very many places. The cast is larger than you’d expect and there are extras filling out crowd scenes.

Which brings me to two important points. We watched this rarity from beginning to end, including the closing credits which listed each speaking role in the cast, along with director, producers, and writer.

Bea Arthur (1922-2009) of Maude and Golden Girls fame is not, despite what IMDB claims, in this film. We looked carefully. We did not see her lurking in the background with the other extras who didn’t get a line of dialog. Every character who did speak got a credit at the end. Her name is not on that list.

Similarly, despite what IMDB claims, Fletcher Markle (1921-1991) although he was the mastermind behind Studio One, was not the writer. The end credits say Theodore Sturgeon (1918-1985) wrote the script.

If you’ve forgotten, Theodore Sturgeon was a noted science-fiction writer with hundreds of short stories, reviews, and eleven novels to his credit. And, now, this TV episode. Sturgeon is remembered today for Sturgeon’s Law which states: “Ninety percent of [science fiction] is crud, but then, ninety percent of everything is crud.”

I wouldn’t agree, at least not in connection with the Agatha Project because overall, the majority of the films have been better than crud. And this script from his own pen? It’s … adequate. It was work for hire, the check cashed, and what more do you want?

At the same time, he did a decent job boiling down the novel to its bare bones while retaining some of the flavor. The flavor of Baghdad and Iraq is gone, but Studio One wasn’t going to spring for location shooting for a single episode of a TV show. They didn’t spend the bucks to film outside scenes on a backlot with California palm trees filling in for Iraqi palm trees. I don’t believe TV cameras back in 1952 could even go outside. That’s how limited TV was.

To make Sturgeon’s task more difficult, the novel isn’t a straightforward thriller. In some ways, it resembles The Man in the Brown Suit (1924). In that novel (be sure to read our annotated edition!), Anne Beddingfeld, eager for adventure, spots a murder on the Tube and she’s off to Africa to solve the crime and uncover a mysterious criminal mastermind. There is no question that Anne is the heroine. Similarly, the mysterious sexy dangerous stranger who visits her stateroom late at night eventually, after much travail, becomes her true love.

In Baghdad, Victoria Jones is a similar, eager-for-adventure, alone in the world young woman. But she’s not the true heroine of the novel, the one who risks her life to uncover the mysterious criminal masterminds intent on disrupting the world to impose their own, new-world order. No, that would be Anna Scheele who disappears early on while everyone, good and evil, searches for her. By pure chance, Victoria closely resembles Anna Scheele which is why handsome, mysterious, sexy Edward Goring stops to chat her up.

He dangles the lure of excitement in front of Victoria. If she leaps for it and makes it to Baghdad largely on her own, then he’s got an outstanding and resourceful new acolyte.

And, showing Agatha can reconfigure tropes with the best of them, Edward doesn’t become Victoria’s true love after much travail the way Harry Lucas does to Anne. No, he turns out to be the devious criminal mastermind and the true hero? He’s the boring and sensible archeologist, Richard Baker, who still manages to be brave and daring when called upon.

What’s more, unlike Anne’s, Victoria’s entire story is a sideshow to the main event which takes place largely offstage! Victoria’s adventures take place during a much larger drama but you only get hints of what’s going on around her. TV shows don’t have the luxury of playing with time and structure. Thus, Studio One makes it apparent early on that Edward is not going to be the hero, although Victoria thinks he is. The carefully written novel doesn’t make this mistake. Victoria, who is much less of a manic pixie dream girl in the book, believes what Edward tells her but gradually, as she learns more, her eyes are opened. Edward is slowly, slowly revealed to be the villain. Here, when you see him being threatening towards his own assistant, the bootblack, you, dear viewer, get his number early on.

I could see this film being remade, using Sturgeon’s original script. He’s got some bright, bouncy dialog that would benefit from being made clear. There’s extra time built in too, so the story could be expanded, the characters fleshed out, and the camera crew could film outside among the California palm trees.

That’s because Studio One was sponsored by Westinghouse. If you download the same YouTube film we got, you’ll be treated to regular, built-in commercials for Westinghouse appliances as discussed by Betty Furness (1916-1994). Her adverts show up several times in Baghdad. She shows off Westinghouse gas stoves and the miracle of instant coffee in one minute, Westinghouse washers that drain your clothes properly without mangling them, and Westinghouse irons that keep your hands from getting tired.

It’s odd seeing Betty suddenly take over. What’s odder is her scenes are sharp and clear, compared to the pixilated film where you can’t always clearly see what’s going on. Her dialog is equally crisp and sharp, a tribute to her professionalism and training.

And then, it’s back to Baghdad and Victoria who really did need more time onstage. And Carmichael who had a major plot arc in the novel that could have been an entire novel all by itself, up until it ended tragically as he died trying to save the world.

Give Baghdad a try. The film quality is maddening at times but until someone finally makes it into a film, this Studio One version is all you’re going to get.