Hot Picks

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- Bittertooth 2023

- 4 Minutes of Terror: Night Slasher 2024

- Apart 2024

- The Abandoned 2006

- Becky 2024

- The Evil Fairy Queen 2024

- The Black Guelph 2022

- Followers 2024

- Silence of the Prey 2024

- Battle for the Western Front 2024

- Beware the Boogeyman 2024

- Subject 101 2022

- Driftwood 2023

- The Legend of Lake Hollow 2024

- Black Mass 2023

- Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2 2023

- The Manifestation 2024

- Spirit Riser 2024

- Garden of Souls 2019

- It's a Wonderful Slice 2024

- Caleb & Sarah 2024

- The Thousand Steps 2020

- The Desiring 2021

- When a Stranger Knocks 2024

- Quint-essentially Irish 2024

- Son of Gacy 2024

- Saltville 2024

- The True Story of the Christ's Return 2024

- Whenever I'm Alone with You 2023

- Jurassic Triangle 2024

- Midnight Peepshow 2022

- Offworld: Alien Planet 2024

- The Swiss Conspiracy 1976

- Sex-Positive 2024

- Here for Blood 2022

- All Over Again 2024

- The Color Yellow 2023

- Des Töchterleins Leid 2024

- I Am a Channel 2024

- The Hermits 2023

- Murdaritaville 2024

- Inheritance 2024

- The Devil's Partner 1960

- A Stranger in the Woods 2024

- Underground 2023

- A Nashville Wish 2024

- molkipolki 2023

- The Ghost is a Lie - Take Two 2024

- Return to the Theatre of Terror 2023

- The Ghost is a Lie - Take One 2023

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

The Mad Magician

USA 1954
produced by
Bryan Foy for Columbia
directed by John Brahm
starring Vincent Price, Mary Murphy, Eva Gabor, John Emery, Donald Randolph, Lenita Lane, Patrick O'Neal, Jay Novello, Lyle Talbot, Corey Allen, George Eldredge
written by Crane Wilbur, music by Arthur Lange, Emil Newman, magic tricks by Bob Haskell

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

Gallico (Vincent Price) is an inventor who has dedicated his life to inventing elaborate devices of one kind or another for stage magicians - and he's darn good at it, too, so good in fact that he at one point decides to take the stage himself instead of letting others steal his limelight.

Gallico's show starts out great, but just before the finale (involving a buzzsaw guillotine) it is shut down by Gallico's business partner Ormond (Donald Randolph), who reminds him that all of Gallico's inventions are actually his, and who is very quick to sell the buzzsaw guillotine to one of the magicians who is especially good at stealing Gallico's limelight, the Great Rinaldi (John Emery). This makes Gallico snap, and he is quick to plan his revenge, which starts with him decapitating Ormond using his buzzsaw guillotine, then impersonating Ormond and renting a room from Mrs Prentiss (Lenita Lane), who's a mystery writer in her spare time. Somehow, Gallico manages to lure Ormond's wife (Eva Gabor), who's also his own ex, to Mrs Prentiss's place to kill her as well - which is great inasmuch as now he has had his revenge on his ex but also has Ormond as his scapegoat and created the illusion that Ormond is still alive. Just too bad that Mrs Prentiss is a mystery writer who's quick to become suspicious and eventually she hooks up with the police ...

Gallico catches the Great Rinaldi in his lab where he is developing his latest invention, the Crematory, something that Rinaldi claims as his - but Gallico simply burns Rinaldi in said Crematory, then even goes so far as to impersonate him on stage, without anybody noticing - after all, he is a great impersonator and has developed a new brand of facial mask that goes far beyond anything ever developed.

Mrs Prentiss though is convinced that Gallico, the Ormond who killed his wife, and the Rinaldi who is presently on stage are one and the same person, so she persuades Lt Bruce (Patrick O'Neal) of the police to break into Gallico's lab with her to find evidence against him - and finding evidence they do, in form of his facial masks. But as fate (and genre formula) has it, Gallico returns to interrupt them, a fight ensues, and in the finale, Gallico is burnt in his own Crematory.

 

This little 3D movie was shot hot on the heels of the success of the Vincent Price-3D-vehicle House of Wax, and judging from pure technical terms, this is the inferior film: It was show in black and white compared to the earlier film's lush colours, its 3D effects are much more in-your-face than the subtle effects of House of Wax, and its budget also was much tighter, which shows painfully in sets, costumes and effects. Of course, its script was also a rehash of House of Wax, but considering that movie was already a remake of 1933's Mystery of the Wax Museum, the point is somewhat moot.

However, this point-for-point comparison does not take into account one question: Which film is more fun? And here, I have to admit, The Mad Magician is the winner, basically because it scores higher on the camp scale, doesn't take itself as seriously as House of Wax, and does pay more attention to macabre detail.

All of this doesn't make The Mad Magician a genre classic of any sort of course, and besides everything I have stated here I'm sure you will find plenty wrong with this movie - but it's still good genre fun, and Vincent Price gives his usual best on top of that.

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find The Mad Magician
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find The Mad Magician here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai

Something naughty?
(Must be over 18 to go there!)

x-rated  find The Mad Magician at adultvideouniverse.com


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!