Thu 19 Aug 2010
A Movie Review by Walter Albert: THE MAGICIAN (1926).
Posted by Steve under Horror movies , Reviews , Silent films[7] Comments
THE MAGICIAN. MGM, 1926. Alice Terry, Paul Wegener, Iván Petrovich, Firmin Gémier, Gladys Hamer, Henry Wilson, Hubert I. Stowitts. Based on the novel by W. Somerset Maugham, adapted by Rex Ingram. Director: Rex Ingram. Shown at Cinecon 27, Hollywood CA, September 1993.
When I told a close friend how excited I was that Cinecon had scheduled one of my long outstanding “must see” films, Ingram’s The Magician, he replied that Ingram was not one of his favorite directors and this film was “one of his weakest.”
Talk about a wet blanket!
He added that the print he had seen was not “a very good one.” Well, I can now report that Cinecon came up with a beautiful print that displayed to marvelous advantage Ingram’s notable pictorial qualities.
The narrative concerns an Aleister Crowleyish black magician (Paul Wegener, the unforgettable creature of The Golem) who elopes with a beautiful sculptress (played by Alice Terry) whom he needs in a hellish experiment to create life according to a formula he has discovered in an ancient book of sorcery.
The climactic sequences take place in his stone castle, sitting on a hill overlooking an ancient city with cobbled streets and Tenggren-like houses (see the opening sequence of Pinocchio for an artistic equivalent).
He is aided by a malicious, misshapen dwarf, and at the end, the top of the castle blows up. This is the quintessential setting and some of the narrative and character staples of the 1930s Universal Frankenstein cycle, and, if it is hokum (as indeed it is), it is hokum in a style that I can’t resist.
The opening scene is a sculptor’s studio that looks like a plate out of a 19th-century art history book. Wegener’s flamboyant style is perfect for the mesmerizing role of the magician and I am only sorry that there wasn’t a Bride of the Magician, and a Son of the Magician to constitute a cycle.
Now, if somebody will just schedule screenings of Ingram’s Scaramouche and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. But I won’t ask my friend for a recommendation.
Editorial Comment: Dan Stumpf reviewed the book by Maugham this movie is based earlier this year. Check it out on this blog here.
August 19th, 2010 at 4:50 pm
I’ve never seen it, although I’d love to. I’ve heard that James Whale watched it in preparation for the 1931 FRANKENSTEIN.
August 19th, 2010 at 4:58 pm
There’s been no commercial release of this film since Walter reviewed it 17 years ago, but I found a copy for sale at ioffer.com. You have to screen out all of the copies of the (much later) TV series with Bill Bixby, but it’s there.
August 19th, 2010 at 5:20 pm
This is on my must see list too ever since I stumbled onto an old paperback of the novel.
Wegener also did an early version of THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE (1912), though it is not as good as the later Conrad Veidt version both available on DVD). Wegener also directed THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE. His last great role was as Professor Ten Brinken in ALARUNE based on the Hans Heinz Ewer’s novel. Sadly he ended up in mostly Nazi propaganda films though his career continued until 1951.
Ingram’s SCARAMOUCHE has been on TCM as has HORSEMAN, and the latter at least is available on DVD, but I would love to see them on a big screen.
You have to wonder if Crowley didn’t love being the model for the evil Oliver Haddo, not to mention Dennis Wheatley’s Mocata in THE DEVIL RIDES OUT. He probably would have been delighted to be the model for Ian Fleming’s Ernst Stavro Blofield — syphilitic nose and all. Never did a bigger phony engender more publicity for doing less than the Great Beast, whose actual accomplishments seem to be nothing more sinister than some Sadian orgies, a bit of drug taking, and writing pornography, a few dull books on his theories of magic and having a few famous colleagues, enemies, and disciples.
August 19th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
This film was on TCM not long ago as part of their silent Sunday Midnight series. Frankly, I was very surprised at the high quality of the movie. Any fan of the Universal horror movies will love this.
August 19th, 2010 at 5:44 pm
I would enjoy seeing this film and appreciate you bringing it to our attention.
August 20th, 2010 at 6:11 am
I reviewed the book long ago back in DAPA-EM, and I’m saving the movie for my Octoberr monster-movie watching-fest.
August 22nd, 2010 at 10:54 am
A lot of people must have missed the recent TCM showing of the film.
Dan, I admire your control.
I’ve also heard that Whale screened the film as he was preparing “Frankenstein,” and the laboratory could pass for an early model for the Whale set.