Richard Attenborough's Magic (1978)
Revered English thespian and director Sir Richard Attenborough's 1978 psychological thriller Magic was wrongly ignored by the public of the day and got a mixed bag of reviews, but has become one of the most fervent cult followers ever and is rightfully considered a classic that is respectful homage to films like the 1945 horror anthology Dead of the night, Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho and 1964's Devil Doll. Theatrical magic popularity was hurt by the fact that the very effective theatrical trailer - which features a camera zooming in on the dummy when he fat movie tagline "Abracadabra, I sit on his knee. Presto, change-o, and now he recites me! Hocus Pocus, we take her to bed. Magic is fun ... if you're dead "- was pulled from the television ads after some parents complained that they had their eligible children Director Attenborough supposedly traumatized alone. agreed to the film directly to funds for his 1982 masterpiece Gandhi, and Mike Nichols (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate, Silkwood) and Norman Jewison (Moonstruck) levels were originally approached to helm the screen adaptation of William Goldman's original novel Magic.
Magic is about Corky Withers, a neurotic stage magician and ventriloquist who suddenly becomes a night club success with his risque vaudeville act when he was trash-talking dummy fat contributes to the show. Corky is an opportunity for his own TV show (with fat as co-host) host by prestigious Ben Greene (Burgess Meredith), but he is not ready to fame and retreats (with Fats) go to a remote lakeside cabin that he rents from former childhood flame Peggy Ann Snow (Ann-Margret). Corky is a conversation with more and more fat, and soon the wooden doll gets Corky's personality in his own eyes. Fats are jealous and even criticizes Corky for rekindling his old romance with Peggy, while her husband Duke commercial fishing (Cujo's Ed Lauter) is away on a fishing trip. Ultimately fats in the control of the mind Corky's, forcing him to Ben to murder after the agent runs on Corky having a Fats and violent quarrel with the will to delusion ventriloquist controlled by a psychiatrist. Corky and fats also have Duke after he returns home and discovers that Corky has its own agent killed, making an ignorant widow Peggy free to walk away with Corky. But when Corky Fats realizes that it plans to completely shut and spend his life alone with Peggy and Peggy, Fats goes over the edge and threatens to tell the world about the two bodies at the bottom of the icy lake.
Despite some negative reactions from critics on release, Magic deserved lead star Anthony Hopkins (in his second horror film after Audrey Rose and 13 years for his Oscar-winning turn in Silence of the Lambs), British Academy and Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actor, it's no surprise considering his intense, emotionally draining performance as a schizophrenic Corky. As an interesting side note was Fats puppet with his Cheshire Cat grin made to look like Hopkins, who took the doll home during the filming of the rehearsal, but was so creeped by that Attenborough had to intervene and calm thespian of the region down. Ann-Margret (Carnal Knowledge, Tommy) was nominated as Best Actress by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films for her deep image of love-hungry Peggy Ann Snow, while the diminutive character actor Burgess Meredith (Torture Garden, Day of the locust, Burnt Offerings) actually won Best Male supporting role in the same ceremony for his brilliant performance as the elegant cigar-toking Ben Greene.
Magic also won the Best Picture prize from the Edgar Allen Poe Awards in 1979 amid competition from foreign comedy Foul Play, The Big Fix, someone killed her husband, and the Agatha Christie mystery Death on the Nile. The haunting string / harmonica score by Academy Award-winner Jerry Goldsmith (The Omen, Poltergeist) is one of my all-time fave movie soundtracks - eerie, unnerving and exciting. The cinematography by Victor J. Kemper (Coma, Eyes of Laura Mars) is ice cold sober and creates a dark, wintry atmosphere that fits the grim story.
Magic is not dependent on blood and gore to scare the public, the grinning face and voice of Fats is high enough to disprove everyone! Sir Richard Attenborough has never returned to the horror genre since making Magic, which is unfortunate because he has a knack for creating edge-of-your-seat tension subtle, but effective. Magic I rate a 9.5 out of 10 and recommend it to intelligent horror fans in the mood for a great psychological tension with minimal gore.