Dark Magic

Joseph A. Doakes (Robert Benchley) goes into a toy shop looking for a gift for his son. After some demonstration by the clerks, he buys two sets, one kiddie set and one expert. At home, he tries to demonstrate it for his son with mixed results.

It's interesting to see some classic close up hand magic. It looks real and mostly uncut. Benchley is a humorist more known for his writing at The Harvard Lampoon and The New Yorker as well as many others. He's probably a much better writer than performer. He's playing a clueless dad here and he's fine at it. It's not big laughs or even light chuckles. It's more like it's a writer who writes better than he performs.

Robert Benchley's character goes into a toy/gift shop. He implies that his son is rather cowardly and wouldn't like anything for his birthday that involves any danger. The guy at the store does run of the mill magic tricks but when Mr. Doakes gets home, nothing works, until he tries some really difficult things. His wife is a naysayer and she faints when Benchley disappears. Cute little precursor to a movie of the day.

Robert Benchley goes into a magic shop. He buys a set of magic tricks for his son. Of course he botches them.

It's a well-executed movie in the series that Benchley did for MGM. For me the highlight is the sequence in the shop, in which the 'demonstrator' performs several of the tricks perfectly, with the camera in continuous set-up to show precisely what is going on. It's an early example of what is called "close-up magic" these days. They're performed by John Scarne.

Scarne originally mastered some tricks with the goal of becoming a card sharp. Eventually, we went into magic, and became an expert on card manipulation. He wrote a couple of books, and if you ever look at THE STING and see Paul Newman playing tricks with cards..... that's Scarne's hands. He died in 1985 at the age of 82.

Dark Magic (1939)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

MGM short has Joe McDoakes (Robert Benchley) walking into a gift shop where he wants to look at some magic tricks. A pro shows him the tricks so Joe takes this home to perform in front of his son but of course things don't go as planned. This is a pretty good short that manages to get a few laughs even though the screenplay is rather lazy and goes for all the obvious jokes. Of course McDoakes isn't going to be able to do the tricks and when he does do one it just gets him into more trouble. The ending is pretty nice but the real highlights are in the shop when the tricks are actually being done. Whenever watching magic tricks I always try to catch how they're being done and the ones here are without question the easiest I've ever spotted. The easiest one is the ball under the cup trick, which is done repeatedly here but it's very obvious to see how they're doing it because of being able to see the balls.

In the 1930s-40s, the raconteur, Robert Benchley, made a string of short films for Paramount and then, later, MGM. I've seen quite a few of them....mostly because I am trying to see what others see in the films. Now I am not saying they're bad...they're just generally not all that funny. I would have to say, however, that "Dark Magic" is better than most and is worth seeing.

Often the Benchley shorts involve him talking to the audience and giving everyone poor advice. Or, in some, he demonstrates how to do something. In this one, however, it's a slice of life story where he plays a father who is interested in buying his son a magic kit. The first potion is set at the store, where a salesman demonstrates many of the tricks. The final portion is set at home where Benchley does succeed with some tricks...but mostly makes a mess of things.

This is not a hilarious short comedy...but it has a few cute moments and is overall agreeable to watch. Nothing earth-shaking or exciting...but a genial little film.