The Mad Magician
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Mad Magician | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | John Brahm |
| Produced by | Bryan Foy |
| Written by | Crane Wilbur |
| Starring | Vincent Price Mary Murphy Eva Gabor |
| Music by | Arthur Lange Emil Newman |
| Cinematography | Bert Glennon |
| Editing by | Grant Whytock |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | May 1954 |
| Running time | 72 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Mad Magician was a 1954 horror film starring Vincent Price and Eva Gabor. In 1987, it became the first movie shown in 3D on television.
[edit] Plot
Vincent Price plays Gallico the great, an inventor of stage-magic effects who aspires to become a star in his own right. Just before his first performance, his act is shut down by capricious manager Ormond (Donald Randolph), who wants Gallico's brilliant buzzsaw effect for the act of the Great Rinaldi (John Emery), an established star. With this defeat, and the humiliation of having already lost his wife Claire (Eva Gabor) to his rival, Gallico goes insane and uses the buzzsaw to decapitate his manager. His crime is almost revealed when Ormond's severed head is mistakenly taken for a trip with Gallico's assistant Karen (Mary Murphy) and her boyfriend Alan Bruce (Patrick O'Neal), a police officer.
Gallico then impersonates Ormond to rent an apartment from Alice Prentiss (Lenita Lane), an author of mystery novels. Gallico disposes of Ormond's body, but is again forced to murder when his ex-wife Claire discovers the impersonation. Prentiss comes forth as a witness to the crime, but identifies Ormond as Claire's murderer. The Great Rinaldi again schemes to steal a trick of Gallico's, an illusion involving a crematorium, and ultimately winds up burned to death in the process. Gallico begins impersonating Rinaldi to take over that magician's show.
Meanwhile, the detective Alan Bruce matches the fingerprints of Ormond with those of Rinaldi--since both sets of prints are actually Gallico's, and the novelist Prentiss realizes her boarder, and the murderer, was Gallico and not Ormond. The two, along with the assistant Karen, band together for an ultimate confrontation with Gallico.
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Vincent Price | Don Gallico / Gallico the Great |
| Mary Murphy | Karen Lee |
| Eva Gabor | Claire Ormond |
| John Emery | The Great Rinaldi |
| Donald Randolph | Ross Ormond |
| Lenita Lane | Alice Prentiss |
| Patrick O'Neal | Lt. Alan Bruce |
| Jay Novello | Frank Prentiss |
| Corey Allen | Gus the Stagehand (uncredited) |
