The Mad Magician
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''The Mad Magician'' is a 1954 American
horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...
in 3D, directed by
John Brahm John Brahm (August 17, 1893 – October 12, 1982) was a German film and television director. His films include ''The Undying Monster'' (1942), ''The Lodger (1944 film), The Lodger'' (1944), ''Hangover Square (film), Hangover Square'' (1945), ''Th ...
starring
Vincent Price Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor. He was known for his work in the horror film genre, mostly portraying villains. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price ...
, Mary Murphy and
Eva Gabor Eva Gabor ( ; February 11, 1919 – July 4, 1995) was a Hungarian-American actress and socialite. Gabor voiced Duchess and Miss Bianca in the Disney animations ''The Aristocats'' (1970), ''The Rescuers'' (1977), and ''The Rescuers Down Under'' ...
. It was produced and distributed by
Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...
, with a release in 3-D to build on the craze started by films such as '' House of Wax'' (1953), which also starred Price. In the film, a master illusionist murders his employer after learning he tricked him into signing away ownership of every trick he invents, and finds that to avoid being caught for the murder he must kill again and again.


Plot

Don Gallico is a master of disguise and inventor of stage-magic effects aspiring to become a star magician under the stage name Gallico the Great in the late 19th century. Disguised as The Great Rinaldi, a headlining rival magician, Gallico performs his first magic show, headlined by his latest illusion, the buzz-saw. Businessman Ross Ormond and his lawyer stop the show and serve Gallico a cease and desist order against the performance of the buzz-saw trick. Gallico signed a contract with Ormond's Illusions, Inc., a magician's trick provider, to invent new tricks, granting Ormond ownership of all work created by Gallico, not just the tricks produced for Illusions, Inc., Gallico's understanding. At Gallico's work area in the Illusions, Inc. warehouse, Ormond and Gallico argue over how Ormond could have stopped Gallico from using the buzz-saw before he launched his show, thus sparing him massive expense and public humiliation, and interrupted the show just to assert his power over Gallico. Gallico also accuses Ormond of corrupting his wife Claire, who is now married to Ormond, to which Ormond says that Claire was always a gold digger. Incensed, Gallico forces Ormond into the buzz-saw and decapitates him. He puts Ormond's severed head in a bag for disposal. The bag is mistakenly taken by Gallico's assistant Karen Lee when she drops by to meet up with her boyfriend, police detective Lt. Alan Bruce. Lee forgets the bag in a
hansom cab The hansom cab is a kind of horse-drawn carriage designed and patented in 1834 by Joseph Hansom, an architect from York. The vehicle was developed and tested by Hansom in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England. Originally called the Hansom safet ...
, and the cabbie turns it over to police; Gallico allows the police to think the bag is Lee's while telling her that the bag contained a dummy head of her. Gallico impersonates Ormond to rent an apartment from Alice Prentiss, an author of mystery novels. Prentiss mentions a
bonfire A bonfire is a large and controlled outdoor fire, used for waste disposal or as part of a religious feast, such as Saint John's Eve. Etymology The earliest attestations date to the late 15th century, with the Catholicon Anglicum spelling i ...
celebration of a local sports team's victory. Gallico disguises Ormond's body as a dummy and adds it to the bonfire, but Ormond's skeletal remains are found in the ashes. Searching for her missing husband, Claire learns of the rented apartment. When she confronts Gallico she recognizes him through his disguise and deduces that he murdered Ormond. Gallico strangles her to keep her from exposing him, then flees before Prentiss can arrive in response to Claire's screams. Since Prentiss confirms Ormond's presence in the room where Claire was killed, and the fingerprints on her throat match other prints Gallico left while impersonating Ormond, police conclude Ormond is the killer. However, Rinaldi hints to them that they cannot be sure the prints they used for the match are really Ormond's. Gallico invites the Prentisses to a preview performance of his new illusion, The Crematorium, in which he appears to be incinerated in a fiery furnace. Afterwards, the Great Rinaldi tells Gallico he has deduced that he murdered Claire while using a mask to impersonate Ormond, and blackmails him in exchange for the use of all Gallico's future illusions in his act. Gallico murders Rinaldi and incinerates his remains in The Crematorium. To disguise the time of Rinaldi's disappearance, he impersonates Rinaldi and takes over his tour. Troubled by Rinaldi's remark about the fingerprints, Bruce tries to get his fingerprints of other persons of interest, but Gallico in the guise of Rinaldi refuses. Mulling over the scene of the crime and subconsciously recognized similarities between Gallico and "Ormond", Prentiss realizes that Gallico was impersonating Ormand and communicates her theory to Bruce. Bruce and Prentiss break into Gallico's work space to obtain his fingerprints. Gallico returns before they can leave, knocks Bruce out, and loads him onto The Crematorium. Prentiss calls out to Lee on the street below for help. Lee pounds on the door, distracting Gallico long enough for Prentiss to free Bruce from his bonds. Gallico attacks Bruce, and Bruce inadvertently knocks him into The Crematorium, where he is incinerated.


Cast


Reception

Dennis Schwartz from ''Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews'' awarded the film a grade B, writing "It was cheesy fun with a delightfully villainous Vincent, but the whole act was too tawdry and incredible to be swallowed whole and the melodramatic plot points were too contrived and the demented scenario too hokey." On his website ''Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings'', Dave Sindelar gave the film a negative review. Sindelar stated that the film felt cobbled together, and lacked the mood and ambiance of its predecessor, House of Wax.
TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...
gave the film 2/5 stars, calling it "vastly inferior 3-D rip-off of Price's surprisingly successful 3-D shocker HOUSE OF WAX". Jay Seaver from ''eFilmCritic'' awarded the film an average rating of 3/5 stars, calling its scenario "straight-facedly silly", but stated that it was still entertaining even though it was inferior to its predecessor.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mad Magician, The 1954 films 1954 horror films American 3D films American historical horror films Columbia Pictures films Films directed by John Brahm Films scored by Emil Newman Films about magic and magicians 1954 3D films Films scored by Arthur Lange 1950s English-language films 1950s American films American black-and-white films English-language horror films