Cult Film Faves Not On DVD: The Mad Magician (1954) review

THE MAD MAGICIAN 1954

Vincent Price (Don Gallico), Mary Murphy (Karen Lee), Eva Gabor (Claire Ormond), John Emery (The Great Rinaldi), Donald Randolph (Ross Ormond), Patrick O'Neal (Lt. Alan Bruce)

Directed by John Brahm

"...It was your head, Karen...the dummy head I made for the buzzsaw trick. Do you remember how its eyes rolled and the mouth opened and it screamed when the teeth of the saw ripped into its flesh? That was the most life-like thing I ever made. Do you think I'm going to let Rinaldi take that away from me, too? Oh, no, my dear, they'll never find that lovely head of yours."--Gallico morbidly discussing one of his elaborate "head pieces".

The Short Version: Rare Vincent Price vehicle was a quick cash in hot off the success of HOUSE OF WAX (1953) and even though it was put together in fast fashion, the set pieces are accomplished and offer several choice moments of ghastly mayhem during its scant 70 minutes. Considered a lesser Price, the man still delivers an energetically evil performance as he always did. Elements of this film (and of course his previous 3D effort) were incorporated into the PHIBES series and THEATER OF BLOOD (1973). Any Price is good Price and this obscure and rarely discussed production is essential for the cinematic Godfather of the ghoulish and the Grand Guinol.


Gallico the Great is an illusionist and master of disguise who also invents the dangerous devices used in the performances of other magicians. On his way to hitting the big time with his new and lavish invention, his unscrupulous and duplicitous boss--whom also stole his wife from him--pulls the rug out from under Gallico giving his idea and invention to a rival magician, The Great Rinaldi. Gallico is sent over the edge and plots gruesome revenge on those who've wronged him using his elaborate death devices as his murderous methods. Meanwhile, a resolute police Lieutenant and other interested parties get closer to discovering Gallico as the Mad Magician.


Absolutely ghoulish and sadistically entertaining horror revenge thriller starring one of the genres greatest and most celebrated actors, Vincent Price. Having solidified himself as an icon of horror with the previous years 3D spectacular, HOUSE OF WAX (1953), THE MAD MAGICIAN is essentially the same movie also in 3D (the first to be televised in the format), but in B/W. Price is put through pure hell here and this scenario would be repeated multiple times throughout his career most famously in the gory black comedy THEATER OF BLOOD (1973).


There's a great scene where Karen--Gallico's assistant at Illusions Inc.--accidentally leaves her bag and picks up Gallico's identical bag by mistake. The kicker is that the now murderous magician's bag contains a man's severed head! Upon finding her, he learns she left it aboard a horse drawn cab. Gallico tracks down the coach, but learns to his horror that the driver gave it to a policeman! Strangely enough, the cop never opens the bag. Even still, this is one of the best sequences in the movie containing a macabre level of humor about it.


Speaking of the authorities, there's also a determined Lieutenant who will stop at nothing to find the murderer which causes our title madman no end of grief. With each succeeding murder, Lt. Bruce gets closer to the truth as Gallico's means of covering up his deeds soon becomes known. The usage of fingerprinting is utilized here and according to some dialog, this practice was in its infancy and was viewed as hardly reliable. If there's one minor weakness of the script, it's in Gallico's modus operandi. It has the potential to give him away a lot sooner than it actually does in the movie. It's known from the beginning that his career up to that point has been impersonating others and designing exquisitely crafted masks. So when various individuals disappear or become prime suspects in a murder case, it isn't long before the trail leads straight to Gallico.

Eva Gabor played a likable lady with money on GREEN ACRES. In MAD MAGICIAN she plays a similar wealthy woman but is anything but likable here playing a blood sucking leech, sponging off the men in her life.

Most all of Gallico's victims are scuzzy, less than honorable people and it's these kinds of individuals that set Gallico off. Like HOUSE OF WAX before it and his other vengeance seeking tragic heroes that came after, Price's character is essentially a Frankenstein's Monster in that his enemies made him what he is. Eventually, though, Gallico turns his hatred towards innocent people whose only crime was learning of his homicidal tendencies. The climax is a suitable example of poetic justice, but isn't as good as the finale of the widely recognized HOUSE OF WAX (1953). The budgets and shooting schedules were on opposite ends of the spectrum but you would scarcely notice anything lacking here aside from the relative cheaper price of shooting on B/W film stock.


Vincent Price is his usual boisterous self essaying a tragic figure in one of his earliest horror movies. He was often referred to as a champion of hammy performances, the king of these no doubt being his intentionally OTT role in THEATER OF BLOOD in 1973. With him having previously been a stage actor, orating beyond the audience perfectly suited the often stagy nature of his horror pictures. It was a natural fit and Price made it sing his entire career. As in many of his other movies, Price's masterful delivery of dialog is in evidence here, too. It's almost as if he's occasionally reading us a passage from a book with the rich descriptiveness of the words that roll off his tongue. While it's a lesser affair on his resume considering it came so swiftly on the heels of the much more well known and prestigious HOUSE OF WAX (1953), THE MAD MAGICIAN (1954) seems to get a bad rap. It actually makes a nice 'B' side to its more famous progenitor.

Notice Price's legs in view within the mirrors hidden between the table

The film also carries a grand showbiz style atmosphere with its handful of magic trickery and the behind the scenes goings on in preparation for the shows as well as revealing a secret or two. Camera placement unintentionally reveals one piece of business where Gallico, impersonating his rival Rinaldi, raises his female assistant from a flower pot. You can see Gallico's legs reflected in the mirrors placed between the legs of the table holding the flower pot. This Columbia production also closely mimics its source material from rival Warner Brothers by copying not only the WAX remakes plot, but also some of its scenes. One of the 3D shots from the Warner picture had an entertainer flicking a paddle ball at the audience. For MAGICIAN, it's a guy and his two yo yo's flying at the screen. Old TV show lovers look out for Eva Gabor (Lisa Douglas from GREEN ACRES) as Gallico's gold-digging ex-wife.


Director Brahm also directed the 1944 Jack the Ripper horror thriller THE LODGER. He later dabbled in a dozen TWILIGHT ZONE episodes as well as several other sci fi and horror themed shows like ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, THRILLER, THE OUTER LIMITS and VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA. His direction here for THE MAD MAGICIAN is efficient keeping this very early Vincent Price horror thriller moving at a fair clip. The score is lively and is one of the pictures best assets. Barring its modestly brutal climax (we even get to see Price do a Karate chop!), THE MAD MAGICIAN is recommended solely on the fact that Vincent Price is its star as well as taking into consideration that this movie has pulled a disappearing act for far too long.

TV Movie Terror: Terror On the Beach (1973) review

TERROR ON THE BEACH 1973

Dennis Weaver (Neil Glynn), Estelle Parsons (Arlene Glynn), Kristoffer Tabori (Steve Glynn), Susan Dey (DeeDee Glynn), Scott Hylands (Jerry), Michael Christian (David), Henry Olek (Frank), Roberta Collins (Gail)

Directed by Paul Wendkos

The Short Version: Modest suspenser from the director of GUNS OF THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1969) and CANNON FOR CORDOBA (1970) is a milder version of STRAW DOGS (1971) with a dash of LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972). In keeping well within its TV Movie of the Week parameters, the violence level remains safe, but alludes to a lot worse. In typical TV Movie style of the time, the film ends on a moralistically upbeat note. At a meager 74 minutes, the film does find time for a societal class warfare subtext, a subject that has reared its ugly head to a violent degree over the last few years.


A suburban nuclear family heads for an isolated stretch of beach on a weekend camping trip only to be terrorized by a gang of homicidal hippies. The family is faced with the decision of becoming violent themselves in order to survive against the escalating transgression of the hooligan gang.


TV Movies used to be an enticing venture for young folk attracted to the seedier side of cinema. For those who couldn't get in to see big screen barbarism, the Networks of the day would often commission small screen equivalents of movies that were causing a stir, or were making lots of noise via you local bijou's singing cash registers. TERROR ON THE BEACH is one such movie. It's not a great film, but works for those looking for a quick fix with affection for its more visceral sources. Director Wendkos (who directed the exciting and lively GUNS OF THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN in 1969) builds the suspense nicely, taking advantage of the isolated location during the first half of the film. The cast is also good with one actor you wouldn't expect to find in a picture such as this.


Dennis Weaver was a regular face to fans of Prairie programs having garnered success during the early years of the 20 season run of GUNSMOKE. He later found a great deal of success and popularity with his portrayal of Sam McCloud on the crime show, McCLOUD wherein he played a Texas lawman in New York City. The image of McCloud riding his horse amidst the busy streets of New York is unforgettable. Weaver also starred in Steven Spielberg's taut and tightly woven TV psuedo horror thriller DUEL from 1971 and also in the ghostly vengeance TV terror of DON'T GO TO SLEEP in 1982. Weaver's role of the pacified patron of the Glynn family echoes that of Hoffman's character from STRAW DOGS. He is constantly at war with his son who is adamant about undertaking a more aggressive stance. By the end, Weaver's character finally resorts to violence, but refuses to succumb to murderous tendencies.


In hind sight, it's difficult to fathom that a much younger, stronger looking individual could be so easily overtaken by the more fragile, aged character played by Dennis Weaver during the climactic free for all. Even though the sight of Weaver beating the tar out of his much younger adversary might look silly, the underlying message is essentially how far one will go to survive and protect their loved ones; good will triumph over evil. Also the proposed notion that by doing good to bad, this will somehow make the oppressors embrace the prospects of love and disbar the proclivity to hate. This thought process may actually work, albeit in relatively few circumstances, but it's moderately amusing to see the tropes of far too many 'After School Specials' transfixed to a movie about sadists assaulting a family.


This being from the early 1970s, a lot of social turmoil spilled over into that decade left over from the radically explosive era of the 1960s. For TERROR ON THE BEACH (1973), there's a hint of class warfare going on in Bill Svanoe's script. This is between the "white bread" family unit who has obviously worked hard for what they have and appreciate it, and this nomadic gang of thugs who prefer to steal everything they "own". The working family clearly have morals, are generally passive and even attempt to help those who have insulted and threatened them with harm. Meanwhile, the dune buggy driving wicked wanderers clearly despise the Glynn's. No reason is given for their harassment, but it's safe to say that this hatred is due to these punks harboring resentment for what other people possess as well as the attainment of success and any who have it.


A parallel can be drawn to today's societal differences which have been heightened during our current political administration. Currently what had at one time been a private little war between the rich and poor has reached an alarming degree of public awareness and societal anarchy which hasn't been seen since the 1960s. One persons success is not keeping another person poor. An individual makes their own future. Taxpayers ie the working class, keep the poor afloat; and so many of these so-called poor are that way by choice and wouldn't have it any other way. There are always going to be those who are jealous of what somebody has and there are always going to be a lot of lazy people who prefer things given to them (whether arbitrarily or by force) as opposed to actually working for it.


Digressing aside, TERROR ON THE BEACH (1973) is little more than a mild diversion and mainly recommended for those with a good case of nostalgia fever. In addition to the lovely and grown up Susan Dey (remember THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY?) in a skimpy bikini, there's also exploitation favorite Roberta Collins (BIG DOLL HOUSE, CAGED HEAT, DEATH RACE 2000) in a thankless role and also Michael Christian, the title nut job from the vastly underrated POOR PRETTY EDDIE (1975) playing one of the villains here. If you can find it, this TV alternative to STRAW DOGS is worth a look for the curious.