The Mad Magician (1954)

Please don't spend money on this.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Way some times back .I got a very poor Anaglyph .DVD. version of mad magician,It did not pop pout ,It turned out to be a flat version recorded from American movie channel in fake3d.It was terrible.I recently got the Blu-ray 3D restored version.It was clear and sharp and the 3D was great.It was produced by the same man who produced house of wax,Bryan Foy,of the famous ,real, 7 little Foys.Vincent Price plays as mad as just like the other character in house of wax,but, he is a magician want to be and is about to try his new magic machine in his first show aided by assistant played by Mary Murphy.His greedy boss finds out and stops him forcing him to continent to work for his bosses company by creating magic machine for magicians.The boss also took his wife away ,played by Zsa Zsa Gabor ,and turned her into a gold digger.This causes Price to go on a murder rampage.Patrick O Neal plays a young detective and Mary Murphy's boy friend ,with the aid of mystery writer and very nosy,Lenita Lane, to find the murderer. Her character and her husband portrayed played by Jay Novello are the comedy relief in this film,which kind of slowed down the film from being serious.It was one of these 3D films directed by German John Brahm that he put more strongly the story rather than over dominating it with the 3D.Although just a few throw out at camera scenes where in it.I had discovered that the water coming out of the magic wand and the hand extension scenes was suppose to of been a sexual innuendo.I never thought about it .I know Columbia put out sexy posters of the film showing Mary Murphy in modern glamour shorts showing her Gams .It was technically a lot better than that bad DVD version.Seeing so many time flat on t.v. proved that it was a good horror film ,that it made it a excellent 3D feature.It also has 3D 3Stooges shorts ,but, I will blog that on their titles on IMDb.Once again twilight video puts out a limitation and don't offer it to retail .How many people who are 3d fan who don't use the computer but have 3D t.v. and 3d Blu ray player are not aware of this? Pretty sad or may be retail does not want to pay extra tax to sell this film? Very entertaining.01/15/16

This excellent little follow-up to the previous year's classic HOUSE OF WAX is a film that looks and feels very similar. Once again, Vincent Price plays a grand showman, driven to commit murder by the ruthless rivals surrounding him; as in the other film, there's a strong taste of the theatrical. Price is a magician here, forever developing new magic tricks like 'the buzz saw' and 'the crematorium', which inevitably are used for nefarious purposes by our crazed anti-hero. A lot of the fun comes from waiting to see just who's going to fall foul of the next contraption.As in HOUSE OF WAX, our hero becomes a serial killer before finally being offed by his own invention, and as in HOUSE, events are portrayed in 3D so the usual fires are present, blazing out at the camera, as well as yo-yo tricks and water squirting at the screen. The main difference is that THE MAD MAGICIAN has a lower budget, most noticeable in the lack of large set-pieces and the standard black-and-white filming, but these factors don't stop it from becoming a minor classic.Price is in his element playing much the same character as he did in HOUSE, and the truth is that nobody does it better. The fact that he keeps you on side throughout, sympathising with his actions and his murderous deeds, is what makes this so much fun. The cast that supports him is average for a '50s thriller, with Lenita Lane and Jay Novello standing out as the comedy relief, playing an eccentric couple who run a boarding house. The film is decidedly non-grisly despite the potentially violent scenes, always careful to cut away from the threat of showing any bloodshed, but the combination of smart storytelling, fast pacing and a short running time make it a delightful watch. One for Price fans and lovers of the genre in general.

A magician (Vincent Price) is screwed out of money by a business partner (Donald Randolph) who owns the rights to his stunts. This does not sit well, and soon a murderous streak begins...I had never heard of this film before, and none of my horror references books mention it. Not the general reference ones or the ones covering the period. How it got overlooked, especially starring Vincent Price, is beyond me.This is a great story, with good magic tricks and a phenomenally amazing performance from Price. Eva Gabor also appears, and there is hardly a dull moment. The makeup and costumes department, as well as those who built the contraptions, really deserve to be honored for this one.To my knowledge, this has not been properly released on DVD... except in Germany. Sony now offers the film as part of its "choice" collection, but there are no special features and the disc is a DVD-R, so it is not intended for serious collectors.

The film begins with Vincent Price about to begin his performance as a magician. However, mid-way through the very successful show, the police come and shut him down. It seems that his old boss had cheated him out of the tricks Price had created--even those he made on his own time at home. As a result, Price justifiably kills the evil man. The problem is that while the viewer understood why Price killed and most probably thought this was a GOOD thing, because Price was a bit mad, he just couldn't stop at one (sort of like eating Lay's Potato Chips).The film was full of very creative and spectacular magic tricks (including a huge circular saw and a crematorium for the shows), great plot twists as well as exciting action. One thing you can't say about this film is that it is dull. While it's also far from subtle, it is fun throughout, though and well worth a look.Had I never seen Vincent Price's version of HOUSE OF WAX, I probably would have liked THE MAD MAGICIAN a lot more and scored it an 8 or 9. That's because while THE MAD MAGICIAN is a wonderful film, it's highly reminiscent of the film that preceded it (HOUSE OF WAX). The bottom line is that since HOUSE OF WAX was so successful, the formula was re-hashed in the follow-up film. Both were made in 3-D, both have a plot where Price has every justification to kill but he can't stop once he's committed the first and both are great fun to watch. The biggest differences, and there are few, are that HOUSE OF WAX was in color and was more of a horror film and THE MAD MAGICIAN was definitely more of a mystery.My advice is to see this film AND HOUSE OF WAX (the Price version only). They are both terrific 1950s horror films.